Amazing Robin Pope South Luangwa Zambia Safari Trip

Robin Pope Safari Journal

Robin Pope Camp Used:

Nkwali

Duration: One week, May 2004

Journal Author: Margot McCutcheon, New Zealand

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Picture by Bruce Whittaker, www.african-safari-journals.com

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Margot is a late bloomer in the travel game and is making up for lost time. She doesn't own a camera because her skills as a photographer are limited so she journals her travels in detail. This is the amazing story of her Robin Pope safari to the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.

Accommodation:

Nkwali is one of three camps owned by the Robin Pope Safaris company.

It is situated right on the river bank opposite the national park and consists of chalets that are cool and spacious with en-suite bathrooms.

Access to the park is by boat or by the nearby pontoon.

Elephants regularly cross the Luangwa river, seen from the bar, or come to the waterhole near the thatched dining room.

Trip Highlights:

Visited a hyena den with three younger hyenas lying outside while the mother hyena slept inside the den after a strenuous nights scavenging.

Spotted a pack of wild dog hunting which is a very rare animal to see anywhere in Africa as they are on the endangered list. Very lucky sighting that.

Spent two nights awake listening to the sounds of elephants having their dinner outside and when Margot poked her nose around the curtain to see if they were as close as they sounded, they were.

A night drive delivered three rarities. A honey badger, serval and a porcupine. They are always hard to find because they are nocturnal but the night drives in the South Luangwa reserve provide some of the best opportunities to see them as anywhere else in Africa.

Then, the sighting they had all been waiting for and which makes this National Park such a special place, a young female leopard which allowed them to watch for about 10 minutes and then slipped away. Also spotted three bush babies just outside the park.

Robin Pope Safaris Tips & Recommendations:

The main roads in the park are red gravel and are graded regularly but the smaller side roads that are often followed to find the animals have ruts and potholes and can only be graded and reopened as they dry out from the wet season.

Their is a daily laundry service available at the camp where your clothes are picked up from the laundry basket in your room early in the morning and returned washed and "ironed" that evening.

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A Robin Pope safari takes you to one of the Top 5 African Destinations