Zambia Africa Safari Travelogue
| Safari Location: |
South Lungwa National Park in
Zambia |
| Safari Company Used: |
Robin Pope Safaris |
| Duration: |
Three weeks in July/August
2004 |
| Safari Traveller: |
Charles Beach,
Canada |
| Safari Interview
Questions
|
| Where did you stay? At one camp, or travel
around to different camps? |
We started and ended in Johannesburg (tour of
Joburg, tour of Soweto and day in Pretoria), then to Victoria
Falls (Thorntree Lodge), then in Zambia Africa, Lusaka, Mfuwe, then onto Robin
Pope's Nkwali Camp, Tena Tena Camp, Kawaza Village, Nsefu Camp, Fly Camping, back to Tena Tena Camp, back to Thorntree
Lodge, then on to Chobe National Park in Botswana for a day
before returning to Joburg. It was over tooo quickly.
They have three or four different set ups. Where they are,
in all three of their camps, they get flooded during the rainy
season so they have to evacuate all their camps. At two of
their camps, the 1st and the 3rd ones had permanent
structures. One was called a rondawel. They were kind of
permanent with outdoor showers.
The other semi-permanent one is kind of a tent structure
for the dry season, on a solid foundation. So they take the
tent down but the firm foundation is there. Of course the
walking safaris were tents. They would walk ahead of us on the
walking safaris and set up these beautiful little tents with
these… well actually, I should tell you this one story! It was
the most exciting… it was scary for the ladies.
On the Zambia Africa walking safari, we did a fairly long walk the first
day and they set us up in a wide open place with a huge tree.
They got there ahead of us so they set up the shower, I’ve
never actually seen anybody set up a shower before, an outdoor
shower with hot water and everything. And they had our tents
set up. We thought, well that’s fairly nice, but there’s
really not much happening… you could use some lions in the
distance, but there’s really not much happening.
About 11 o’clock at night, all of a sudden, we hear lions
that we swear are right outside our tents. You would think
they’re no further than 30 feet away, they were right there!
So of course, we were awake the whole night because these
lions were howling and you could hear other lions maybe 2 or 3
km away echoing, so they’re coming in. So of course, we stayed
in our tents all night, we didn’t move, we didn’t get much
sleep.
We found out the next day that they’d actually built the
set-up in a semi-circle – maybe 150 yards across for the staff
on the one side, the tents in the middle and our two tents and
the dining tents were on the other side. The lions apparently
were just on the outside of that, a gathering of lions that
had come in. So that was the scariest part of our trip.
So it’s true, if there’s one tip when you go
camping in the wild, that you should keep zipped
up?
Yes! Well, also keep a fire going. The big thing
is having the fire, because the animals will come close,
whatever it is, but they won’t come right up to a fire. I
guess it’s stay inside your tent. I guess as well is to keep
fairly quiet. If you make a lot of noise … I mean if it’s a
wounded animal… if it’s a wounded hippo he would run through
anything, right?
The other people would like to tell you this … I
didn’t think of it at first. I’d actually skinned my knees and
got quite a few scrapes because the first night, when we were
at Victoria Falls (Thorn Tree River Lodge), there was a noise
outside. We were all outside having drinks. So I walked out
with my camera to see what the noise was, and of course I came
to a sudden stop. I could see just faintly there was a hippo
maybe 10 feet from me, I mean 10 feet! And I’ve got my camera
with all its fancy gear and wide angle lens and the flash and
everything.
So I very slowly lifted my camera and I took a
picture. You do not see hippos in a picture! I must have
taken 10 flash pictures. The animal didn’t move and there was
absolutely nothing on my screen. I guess because they’re black
they actually blend right in? I literally could not see a
thing.
All of a sudden the animal snorted and that’s all
it took! I took off like a shot! I ran as fast as I could and
I fell over a couple of these stumps that they put next to the
gravel pathway and of course everybody had a delightful time,
because I’m the one who’s supposed to be all knowledgeable
about animals and here I am, running away from a
hippo.
It was pitch black, I’m slipping, falling and my
camera’s going everywhere and they’re just howling, laughing
at me! They didn’t see the hippo.
| I did want to ask you about the food. You
say they cooked for you – was it 3 meals a day, did they
provide everything? |
Back to the
Questions |
Oh, you couldn’t believe how much they provided.
And we had snake meat one night, and the snake was just beautiful.
I think I’m the only one that ate it between the four of us,
but I just loved it. I don’t know what it was… very dry
meat, no fat at all.
They had unlimited wine, beer and all that stuff
– which we don’t drink a lot of but – the food was delightful.
A lot of it was native to the area, so you’ll get special
greens and like nothing we’d be used to at home. It was
just beautiful. And they would cook everything on their
campfires! So we’re standing and talking with the staff,
watching the food being cooked on the fire.
Two things surprised me.
One was: in the daytime it would get up to
probably 30 degrees C. But during the night it would go down
to, in some cases, 6 or 7 or 8. You have a dramatic change in
temperature we weren’t expecting at the end of July/beginning
of August. We don’t get that in Canada. If it’s 30
degrees during the daytime, it’s say 20 degrees at night, but
never a drop like that. We found that really quite
surprising.
So of course in the morning you get up and you
have all kinds of clothes on. But it must be portable clothes
because you have to unzip them, take them off by probably 10
o’clock in the morning.
The other thing I noticed – everything was
natural. They actually made sure that everything was natural.
I didn’t see a piece of tinfoil, I didn’t see a Coke can, I
didn’t see any garbage anywhere – it was just absolutely
pristine. I don’t know how they do that.
So they’re seriously an eco operator
where they look after the environment as much as the
community?
They’re absolutely adamant about keeping it as
natural as they can. And I mean the school… everywhere we
went, other than Kafue, everything was just exactly as I’d
want it to be. I couldn’t believe how pristine and natural it
was.
And everywhere we went, and everything they did,
they kept trying to make it obvious to us that they want to
impact the environment and the ecosystem as minimal as
possible when we go in there. It’s almost hard to believe that
they’re that good, that they could actually do that, that they
actually think that way but now that I’ve talked to them ever
since our safari, I’ve realised that’s really the way they
are.
They’re absolutely genteel and I guess that’s why
they get good staff from the local people and that’s why they
get along so well with everybody.
| How was the weather in Zambia Africa and did your safari
company live up to expectations? |
Back to the
Questions |
It was the end of July, the start of August so it
was well into the dry season – no sign of malaria, no flies,
no mosquitoes, nothing. I mean it was just absolute perfect
weather.
Safari company
performance?
We had 7 staff: a guide, a scout and just these
beautiful people from all the camps and they took us out every
day, twice a day, with the sundowners and all that good stuff
and we saw one other vehicle the whole time. When we get into
one of the camps for supper there may be two or four other
people having supper with us.
We also went to the school that Robin Pope supports and
just a beautiful school. There must have been about 70 or 80
children there from lower grades to higher grades. It was just
delightful to see how they were doing, and how they were
growing the school and how, of course females were now staying
in school longer than they used to. They don’t stay in school
very long apparently. Now all that seems to be changing.
It’s great when you come across a company who
don’t just say they’re supporting the community but they’re
actually actively supports the community.
Yes, and I’m kind of critical about that. I watched for all
of the little signs and they, from what I could see… they’ve
been there a few years and doing absolutely an excellent job;
everybody seems to appreciate what they’re doing and of
course, all the staff of Robin Pope Safaris – and I’m not
trying to advertise them or anything – all of their staff are
local. They don’t bring people in from England or anywhere
else. All the people are developed in Zambia Africa, and they were so
knowledgeable. I mean, I’ve been studying animals for 30
years, I tried to trip a few of the guides up, but they knew
everything … amazing. They were very friendly and warm and
just delightful. If it wasn’t for the money, I’d go back there
every year. And I keep in touch with them. They have a
newsletter called “It’s Monday”.
Make an enquiry with Robin Pope Safaris »
I
guess about the only disappointment I had was probably
Johannesburg. I didn’t expect it to be as rough as it is.
Johannesburg is a lot like Detroit in the US – bars on the
windows, and as they said to us, you don’t walk around at
night by yourselves or anything like that. But it was
the bars on the windows and the way the streets looked and the
attitude of a lot of the African people … I can see there’s a
long way to go there.
We
were there a day and a half before the safari and a day and a
half afterwards. So we did the tour, we went up to Pretoria,
so we saw all of that, and I found all of that history
delightful. It was really interesting. Oh and we also did a
tour, we went right into Soweto, into the very poor parts you
know where they have drinking water for 12,000 people in one
place… we saw all of that. We took food in with us, the whole
thing is when you go in, you got to contribute.
The amazing part of that was … we saw some
families in real shacks ... but they keep it clean, and they
have respect for each other.
| Do you have any tips or advice to give
people who are planning to go to Zambia Africa as
well? |
Back to the
Questions |
The packing is easy, they really tell you.
We went with very little.
Oh, the other part I didn’t tell you - whatever
you’re wearing during the day, if you put it in a pile, the
next morning it’s all ironed and pressed, ready for you to
wear again!
-
-
If you’re going on a walking safari, make sure
you take rugged enough walking apparel.
-
The other thing is Peaceful Sleep [insect repellent], the
strangest term I’ve ever heard, always make sure you have it
on. We didn’t get any mosquitoes but I guess the key is the
screening [mosquito nets] that they’re trying to get all the
young people to use when they go to bed and make sure you
have DEET or Peaceful Sleep on all the time.
There really isn’t any advice I can give people
other than be prepared for a delightful time and really take a
lot of pictures. Just make the most of it, it’s pretty
expensive to get to Zambia Africa from Canada.
Just enjoy every moment, and explore… ask all
kinds of questions because the people there are delighted to
give you any kind of information. The more interested you are,
the more it seems to please them.
11 out of
10.
I couldn’t imagine it
being any better than it was. Other than seeing a kill every
day. Absolutely no complaints for any part of the
trip. We had these 7 or 9 flights, transfers
everywhere.
I guess the big thing was, that really let me know how good
it was: on the last day in Zambia Africa we decided to go into a game park in
Botswana and you have to go over the border from Zambia to
Botswana. They asked us if another couple could go with us
in the vehicle because they didn’t have any way to get there
and the hassles they had getting through into Botswana! At
some point they were going to have to pay them £200 or
something, there was some problem.
I don’t
know what it was. We went through as slick, back and forth
with absolutely no problems because Robin Pope Safaris had set
it all up for us. That really let me know – because up until
then I thought well, that’s great, everything’s working fine,
because I’d never experienced any problems – they were so
professional, they were so clean about everything. It was
just… beautiful! Just perfect.
More Robin Pope Safaris reviews...
|
