Once you start you just can't stop !!!
Having Damo join me was as good as excuse as any to head back to South Luangwa National Park up in northern Zambia to do some more animal spotting. Getting out to the Park from Chipata turned out to be even more difficult as last time. We spent all morning waiting around for the minivan to fill up and finally left town at around 1.30. Somehow between that time and around 4.30 we managed to motor a total of about 80 kilometres. After dropping off a passenger in a small town the driver made the mistake of switching off the engine - and from that point it never started again. We tried push starting it for about 2 kilometres, which whilst bringing us in to town did very little in the way of getting the minivan started. After watching the driver and his mate faff about for more than an hour, Damo did a wander around town to see if he could rustle up a lift. Meanwhile the driver and mate, and a few other locals who had joined in kept tinkering, but clearly without any idea of what was wrong or what they were doing. Eventually after an hour and a half they conceded defeat - we pushed the van off to the side of the road, and they told us that their was a problem with the gearbox which they would now have to take apart. We waited around for a while longer, with darkness draining almost all of the light out of the day. Eventually a big flat bed truck drove by, and we signalled it down and all scrambled on the back for what was to become quite an adventure. From the point where we started the road began to seriously deteriorate, pot holes became large puddles, and in several places the water across the road was at least 4 foot deep creating little rivers. The sacks of corn we sat on acted as shock absorbers as we bumped our way over, in and through pot holes that were big enough to bury a body in. The truck was no exception to the rule that all vehicles in Zambia must be on their last legs - a few times the engine and the lights shut down halfway through crossing one of the streams across the road, and the driver had to plough on in complete darkness. This however made the spectacle we were seeing from the back of the truck even more impressive - under a sky filled with stars, at ground level the glow worms were creating the same effect. The fields were filled with glow-worms, thousands upon thousands hovering above the corn fields, radiating their dull, yellow phosphorescent light, and as we sped past it created an effect like a sci-fi warp drive - thousand of points of light creating lines as they disappeared in to the distance. The sound track to this was the mesmerising barking of the frogs, making a sound like a mobile made of large pieces of heavy, hollow glass hitting each other in the breeze - our very own Tubular Bells. Our luck turned for the better when we finally made it to the town near the camp-site - one of the workers just happened to be driving back to the camp. So after a dinner of peanut butter on bread we managed to get to bed at around 10 pm after a full day on the road.
Hungry Hungry Hippos
In the five days we stayed at camp I didn't need enter the National Park over the river as I saw some incredible wildlife on show from the river bank just below our tent. This time around the river had risen about 30 or 40 metres and was now lapping at the bank - meaning the hippos were within a stones throw. One morning, when Damo and I were relaxing on the bank enjoying the freshness of the morning two hippos decided to put on a show. From about 20 or 30 metres away one hippo approached another hippo lazing about, around 5 metres from the bank.
Suddenly the approaching hippo launched itself - all 2 or 3 tonnes, out of the water, jaws agape - just like in Hungry Hungry Hippo, and lunged at the other hippo - seemingly trying to catch its whole mouth between its jaws and take a bite. The stationary hippo responded by opening its jaws equally widely and lunging back at attacker. All of this was accompanied by the loud, repetitive and reverberating barking noise that hippos make, and the waves of water which accompanied the thrashing of the massive animal moving around. The intensive thrashing went on for another minute or so - each lunging at the other, attack and counter attack.
Over the next half hour the hippos went at it about five or six times - we were so entranced we forgot that we should be snapping photos - only when a gaggle of tourists bringing their wizz bang cameras arrived that we were distracted enough to rush off and get our cameras. As luck would have it we managed to snap a few pics of the last encounter - the confrontations had worn out both the hippos, and they headed off in opposite directions to wallow in the water and do not much at all.
Can elephants swim ?
Elephants are so big that even when you see them fro far away they still look big. One evening when I was sitting on the river bank watching the sun go down, I spotted an elephant wandering along across the other side of the river - about 100 metres away. After a while it came down the steep bank of the river in a most ungraceful manner, half stepping, half sliding - all the time looking as though it was about to fall head first in to the water.
After munching on some of the leaves of a tree that had fallen over on the bank, it jumped in and swam up the bank - looking for what I thought was a better place to get out of the river. Not being able to see much I returned my focus to the hippos swanning about right in front of me. A couple of minutes later when I returned my gaze, I was amazed to see, with its trunk above the water, the elephant had turned around and started swimming across the river.
I was so taken by the spectacle that I failed to notice until it was too late that the elephant was coming out of the water only a couple of metres away from me. Deciding it was too late to do anything I remained in the chair, and listened to its heavy breathing as it walked past me and off in the sunset.
Having Damo join me was as good as excuse as any to head back to South Luangwa National Park up in northern Zambia to do some more animal spotting. Getting out to the Park from Chipata turned out to be even more difficult as last time. We spent all morning waiting around for the minivan to fill up and finally left town at around 1.30. Somehow between that time and around 4.30 we managed to motor a total of about 80 kilometres. After dropping off a passenger in a small town the driver made the mistake of switching off the engine - and from that point it never started again. We tried push starting it for about 2 kilometres, which whilst bringing us in to town did very little in the way of getting the minivan started. After watching the driver and his mate faff about for more than an hour, Damo did a wander around town to see if he could rustle up a lift. Meanwhile the driver and mate, and a few other locals who had joined in kept tinkering, but clearly without any idea of what was wrong or what they were doing. Eventually after an hour and a half they conceded defeat - we pushed the van off to the side of the road, and they told us that their was a problem with the gearbox which they would now have to take apart. We waited around for a while longer, with darkness draining almost all of the light out of the day. Eventually a big flat bed truck drove by, and we signalled it down and all scrambled on the back for what was to become quite an adventure. From the point where we started the road began to seriously deteriorate, pot holes became large puddles, and in several places the water across the road was at least 4 foot deep creating little rivers. The sacks of corn we sat on acted as shock absorbers as we bumped our way over, in and through pot holes that were big enough to bury a body in. The truck was no exception to the rule that all vehicles in Zambia must be on their last legs - a few times the engine and the lights shut down halfway through crossing one of the streams across the road, and the driver had to plough on in complete darkness. This however made the spectacle we were seeing from the back of the truck even more impressive - under a sky filled with stars, at ground level the glow worms were creating the same effect. The fields were filled with glow-worms, thousands upon thousands hovering above the corn fields, radiating their dull, yellow phosphorescent light, and as we sped past it created an effect like a sci-fi warp drive - thousand of points of light creating lines as they disappeared in to the distance. The sound track to this was the mesmerising barking of the frogs, making a sound like a mobile made of large pieces of heavy, hollow glass hitting each other in the breeze - our very own Tubular Bells. Our luck turned for the better when we finally made it to the town near the camp-site - one of the workers just happened to be driving back to the camp. So after a dinner of peanut butter on bread we managed to get to bed at around 10 pm after a full day on the road.
Hungry Hungry Hippos
In the five days we stayed at camp I didn't need enter the National Park over the river as I saw some incredible wildlife on show from the river bank just below our tent. This time around the river had risen about 30 or 40 metres and was now lapping at the bank - meaning the hippos were within a stones throw. One morning, when Damo and I were relaxing on the bank enjoying the freshness of the morning two hippos decided to put on a show. From about 20 or 30 metres away one hippo approached another hippo lazing about, around 5 metres from the bank.
Suddenly the approaching hippo launched itself - all 2 or 3 tonnes, out of the water, jaws agape - just like in Hungry Hungry Hippo, and lunged at the other hippo - seemingly trying to catch its whole mouth between its jaws and take a bite. The stationary hippo responded by opening its jaws equally widely and lunging back at attacker. All of this was accompanied by the loud, repetitive and reverberating barking noise that hippos make, and the waves of water which accompanied the thrashing of the massive animal moving around. The intensive thrashing went on for another minute or so - each lunging at the other, attack and counter attack.
Over the next half hour the hippos went at it about five or six times - we were so entranced we forgot that we should be snapping photos - only when a gaggle of tourists bringing their wizz bang cameras arrived that we were distracted enough to rush off and get our cameras. As luck would have it we managed to snap a few pics of the last encounter - the confrontations had worn out both the hippos, and they headed off in opposite directions to wallow in the water and do not much at all.
Can elephants swim ?
Elephants are so big that even when you see them fro far away they still look big. One evening when I was sitting on the river bank watching the sun go down, I spotted an elephant wandering along across the other side of the river - about 100 metres away. After a while it came down the steep bank of the river in a most ungraceful manner, half stepping, half sliding - all the time looking as though it was about to fall head first in to the water.
After munching on some of the leaves of a tree that had fallen over on the bank, it jumped in and swam up the bank - looking for what I thought was a better place to get out of the river. Not being able to see much I returned my focus to the hippos swanning about right in front of me. A couple of minutes later when I returned my gaze, I was amazed to see, with its trunk above the water, the elephant had turned around and started swimming across the river.
I was so taken by the spectacle that I failed to notice until it was too late that the elephant was coming out of the water only a couple of metres away from me. Deciding it was too late to do anything I remained in the chair, and listened to its heavy breathing as it walked past me and off in the sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment