We departed from Lusaka to South Luangwa National Park when the necessary repairs were completed on the brakes of Milady. A long journey, two days, but with good roads with even a toll gate.
As always, we make an early start and after having done some shopping we go. The first piece we’re in the middle of the morning rush Lusaka, a chaotic swarm of cars and bicycles. Before we really are out of town, we are two hours further. Then we drive on the Great North Road with mostly freight traffic traveling to and from the Copperbelt and Tanzania.
In Serenje we replenish Milady’s fuel, it is getting dark. We drive to the pre-set and marked pitch Kalwa Farm Rest Camp where we arrive in near darkness.
It appears to be a more or less abandoned retreat camp of the Baptist church. There is a small farm with a local family and a large abandoned house where we can use the bathroom with a bucket of water. The car can be parked in front on the lawn to pitch our tent. We “cook” an instant meal we bought at Bever and go to sleep tired but satisfied.
We get up early and continue the Great North Road. As we drive further west, there are more potholes, but it is still fine to drive when you are careful with the oncoming trucks, they require a lot of space and the road is sometimes very narrow.
At Muchinga we hit a signpost to the dirt road to South Luangwa NP. The road is often rough, but up to Ntunta Game Scout Camp well drivable. We must wait at a makeshift gate and we meet two cars with two Dutch and four Englishmen who inform us about the rest of the trip to the park gate.
The last part appears to be a very steep path that we drive in low-range, 4×4, 1st gear to descend bumpy big stones, rocks and boulders. We descend approximately 400-500 meters in 6 km, the rest of the tour is pretty well passable dirt road. By dawn we arrive at the gate where we can pitch our tent under a nice big tree. There is even a toilet.
We cook on the wood fire that the ranger has created for us, to keep away the wild animals, pasta with tomato sauce.
At night by the campfire with the ranger and in our bed, we can hear the buffalo and elephant sound in the bushes and bellow and trumpet. At night I wake up by the roar of a lion. The animals are luckily so far away that we do not see them.
South Luangwa National Park is a diverse park with varied vegetation. The northern part, where we come from, should contain much wildlife according to the ranger.
We see a lot of elephant dung and other signs, broken branches and all, but we do not see many animals there. As we get closer to Mfuwe Gate Bridge, all lodges are located there, we see more and more wild life. There’s also more water, so that attracts animals too.
At night we sleep in the Croc Valley Camp. We are welcomed by monkeys in the trees. An elephant crossing the river
and when we get up at night to go to the toiler three hippos graze close to the tent. (We used the bush toilet…)