South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
Track & Trail River Camp
Safari & photography specialized
Track & Trail River Camp and its staff is committed to provide the best possible wildlife experiences for travellers from all over the world. Our safari guides are one of the best educated in the Africa and will provide you with an informative and inspiring interpretation of our Luangwa ecosystem. They want to share unique opportunities with you, to witness the ever-changing panorama's of the Luangwa Valley.
The next few weeks we are preparing for the coming season….right now we are in the middle of the wet season, it usually rains every 24-48 hours, rains from further down are filling up the Luangwa river so fast it is scaring, will we get floods again? If so will our riverbank hold or will we loose bank like the 7 meters we lost 2 years ago and which almost took our pool and restaurant -that are at riverfront- with. Or did all works at our bank pay off and will we be safe this year? When I check the water level it has dropped….good news….we take it day by day as nature is unpredictable….
Everyone always asks me if I have something to do during this time of the year. To have a better picture I think of what happened today this 19th of February an ordinary day though maybe a little special as it is Peter’s birthday (my business partner). At 7.00 am I am supposed to be at our workshop were I am doing stock with Ruston to make sure all materials are in. At the moment we only get delivered once every 3 weeks and no materials means we can’t continue works. I go to the office quickly to check if there are any important emails, to discover that one of our computers that crashed cannot be fixed. I try to phone our contact in Lusaka, I have to send our computer by plane and he has to collect it for me and drop it at repairs. Excuse me madam, do you remember me? A familiar face walks into my office…. looking for employment. After a brief chat I finally end up at the workshop were Ruston( Mechanic) and Chisala are waiting for me. Chisala, my carpenter is busy with our new accommodation -a luxury tent with bathroom on elevated platform- though I suddenly remember that before he can continue we have to make some changes. Once at the platform I radio Ruston and soon after he is assisting me together with Malama and Emanuelle (two casual workers)
Then Georgy (a recently lay off staff member) shows up , I promised him that he could make a phone call in my office to Lusaka. So back to the office and while Georgy is making the call, Kums appears also looking for a job. Another quick chat and while I am at the office I reply to some emails. When I finally get back to the platform we have to change plan again meaning we need to bring the back frame down. We are busy till lunch time. Then while the guys go for lunch I briefly take my sewing machine and clime up. Once they are back from lunch there is no other option than to continue in the morning as heavy rains coming. So back to the office were I am finishing a few itineraries and make final preparations for tomorrow when George Malenga (our accountant) comes for the weekend to help me prepare my accounts. And and and…..
And then Mosi, my dog, scratches my leg with his paw and I know it is already 17.30 hrs as this is daily routine…. Enough for today he seems to say, it is time to pay attention to me now…. I cuddle him and shut down my laptop to take it to the house….the house I still have to clean…. Once finished I start my laptop again….at the end of the day I like to put together the recipes for the new menu. O well today no store, no sewing of cushion and chair covers and testing the new ice machine and and and….it all has to wait till tomorrow….
One night my girlfriend and I walked from the Lime tree bar & restaurant area to our chalet when we saw a small spotted genet (family of the mongoose) about eight metres from us eating flying termites which were attracted by the light on the walking path. Our spot light was facing the animal and as we came from behind we could get very close. We observed the genet eating for almost five minutes when the genet jumped up more than a metre of the ground and quickly run off in the opposite direction. Closer investigation revealed that a mongoose (slightly bigger than the genet) had been the cause of the intimidation. The mongoose started the feast where the genet had ended.
I was deep asleep when some different alarm calls woke me up at 03.00 in the night. It was elephant, baboon and antelope, a species, which I could not recall at that time. I went outside with a torch to have a closer look. Just outside the door I saw a hyena, his head completely covered with blood, coming from the bushes and running behind one of the staff houses. Hyenas are usually quite skittish if it comes to a human encounter.
I pointed the torch at the bush where the hyena was coming from. I saw a male puku (medium sized antelope) staggering vaguely. I decided to go in the house again for nature to take its course. By the way the puku moved it was already badly injured. At 06.00 in the morning when I woke up the first thing I did was checking on the puku’s left over. I did not expect to see what I did that morning. The puku was lifted up from the ground with its hind legs. It was stuck between two braches of a tree and the hyena was eating almost his whole hindquarter. The most bizarre moment was still to come when I investigated the place and tried to figure out what must have happened. Suddenly I saw the puku lifting his head and looking me right in the eyes. The animal was in panic again and at the same time I realized what the animal has gone through the past few hours. The puku was probably chased by the hyena, then cornered between a wall and some bushes. The puku then decided to jump through the branches of a tree and the hyena probably pulled the animal done from the back at the same time. That is why the animal got stuck in such an unlucky position that the hyena could eat the puku alive.
It was in a way my fault to have frightened the hyena so it could not have finished the job. But at closer examination of the puku the hyena must have had enough to eat and decided to go.
There I was with a puku in agony, screaming and trying to release himself. I decided to help nature in this stage. It is not pleasant to kill an animal like that but there was no other option.
On a normal evening we were having some beers at the bar (this is a half open area) when somebody said: look there is a small snake in the corner. Everybody looked to find the snake and at the same a shadow of a bird landed and flew up again with the snake. The owl, probably a scops owl which can be heared calling over the camp almost every night, was that quick that nobody saw the snake properly to identify it.
Next from our house we have a big dead tree which is home to a couple of broadbilled rollers for the last few years. A beautiful bird with a bright purple breast, yellow bill and light blue belly. I lifted my head following the shrill sounds of the roller. There was a good reason for the roller to be in stress as a little banded sparrowhawk was chasing the roller at full speed. It was beautiful to see that the sparrow hawk tried to get above the roller for him to strike. But the roller stood his ground and after some time I lost them in the top of the tree not knowing what happened. The next day there was no sign of the roller and the following day as well. Because the sparrowhawk was that close to the roller all the time, I thought the roller was gone, but after the third day I saw the couple again together on the dead tree next to my house.
During a game drive we were watching some lions at the Luangwa river bank. Some vehicles with tourists were taking pictures of two resting females. One of the tourists lost a plastic bottle of mineral water close to a young female. The female was unable to resist the temptation of checking out that shiny object next from the vehicle. She grabbed the bottle and showed it to her mam or big sister, but she was not impressed at all. After playing with the bottle for a while she left it for a more interesting event…two males were heading towards the lionesses.
I received a message from one of my workers that somebody wanted to offer me a pangolin for sale. Not thinking of how rare that animal is I asked the guy: how much? He answers 3000$ USD. Than I realised that we are talking about an endangered species which is very rarely seen in the area. I immediately pretended to be interested and asked the worker to introduce me to that man. The worker said: Well he is coming at lunch time to me with his wife because she was the one who found the animal while she was collecting wood. I already called somebody from the local Anti-poaching unit and explained what was going to happen.
And just past lunch time I saw three people walking to my door with a bag in their hand. I immediately told my girlfriend to get the Anti-poaching team here by phone, while I walked outside at the same time showing I was relaxed and had no wrong intention. Unfortunately the phone number was engaged all the time so I had to delay the buying process by examining the pangolin and asking silly questions to the poachers. Finally she had contact with the Anti-poaching unit and it took another 10 minutes before they arrived. On the arrival of the vehicle one person run off. The other two were too old to run away and were arrested. The Pangolin was still in good shape and released shortly after into a protected area of the park.
