Day 56 Buffalo Camp

5 am alarm call ready for early morning walking safari.  Again we were really lucky to have Mark leading the walk – he was full of stories and fascinating facts about the area. The highlight of the walk for us and for Mark was watching a zebra chasing a hyena – even Mark had never seen this happen before. We also spotted some type of raptor that Mark wasn’t able to identify but luckily I managed to get a photo which hopefully can be enlarged so that a bird specialist that Mark knows can identify it for us.  We also glimpsed a leopard and saw lots of zebra, buffalo, impala and puku at close quarters.  The experience of walking in the bush is so different to driving – you hear, see and smell so much more!

Zambia is currently in drought and the river outside Buffalo has pretty much dried up for the first time in Mark’s knowledge – he is getting channels dug to help ensure the wildlife survives til the rains start.  We of course are hoping that the rains come after we have left the park otherwise we might not get out but the clouds are definitely starting to build so it could be any day now.

Having got up early we were glad of the siesta plus the heat was quite overwhelming (another sign the rains are coming).   “Peanuts”, a large male elephant was spotted down river, so we headed out to photograph him – he was digging holes to get down to some water.  It was fascinating watching him dig the hole then clear the sand away with his trunk before getting to the drinkable water.

After tea, we headed back out for another game drive, this time to view a massive herd of buffalo. 

After watching the sunset and on the way back to camp, Derek a trainee guide and Ian had the chance to try out their spotting skills with the spotlight.  Derek was a bit shaky to start with but soon got the hang of it but Ian was a natural spotting a hyena and a scrub hare! Dinner spent chatting to Mark and then we were off out again to see if we could spot the lions that we could hear roaring.  We managed to see one large male but not the rest of the pride.

Woken at 2 am by Peanuts.  He was literally a foot away from my head on the other side of the straw wall of the chalet.  When he decided to eat the roof we decided we had better get him to move by shining a light.