Zambia--what an amazing journey!
 

We have just returned from the most amazing trip of our lives. Watching lions sleeping, lions hunting, lions feeding on a minutes-old kill, a mom leopard defending her cubs and imppala kill from marauding hyenas, 500-strong herds of cape buffalo, trapped on a walk by elephants and buffalo, Ruth being dumped into the water by a startled hippo, bee-eaters lining up on a deadfall, all holding juicy insects in their beaks, fishing for, and catching tigerfish, eating wonderful food, logistics that went smoothly (well, mostly), and the people. What wonderful people! From staff, managers, owners, and guides, to local residents, teachers in schools with no roofs dedicated to students anxious to learn--English!

And more, so much more. Zambia is a place, and our trip an experience that no words, no pictures can adequately convey. We've had many wonderful times at many wonderful places, but we have invariably been ready to come home. This was truly the first time, after being away from home for over two weeks that we did not want to leave, that leaving was an emotional experience. So sad were we that our wonderful guide at Luangwa River Lodge, Victor, graciously took us a short, farewell early game drive before driving us to the airport.

Pictures will have to wait as I was still shooting film (42 rolls) with my telephoto and it will take a bit to get the slides developed, culled, scanned, integrated with the digitals from the P&S's , and posted.

I hope you will enjoy reading as much I will enjoy reliving our experience of a lifetime.

Jim

Welcome back Jim! So glad you enjoyed Zambia, it is an amazing place! Can't wait to read your report!

Hi Jim!!! Welcome back to the rat race. ;-)

So glad to hear you had a life-altering trip in Zambia. I knew you would! Can't wait to hear more, but, no pressure. I can't beleive Ruth got dumped into the river! Which river?! :-)

Didn't you just love Chiawa and LRL?

Cheers,
Sharon

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't give a huge thanks to Rocco Morelli who put our trip together. I've never met him in person and did not know him until I discovered this forum in my many hours of googling different places and tour companies. Not only did he tune in immediately to what we were looking for (we wanted it all!), and didn't want, he was very patient with me, addressing all the anxieties of a newbie safari-goer.

He has taken his considerable first hand experience and passion for Africa and created Destiny Africa. If you are planning to go to Africa, it would really be worthwhile to check it out for price and service along with other agencies you are considering.

Jim

OK, that was cruel to tempt my mind with with these incredible images, but then to tell me I will have to wait to see them :(

I really hope yoou got some shots of that leopard!

Oh okay, I'll jump ahead a bit. Actually writing and reliving our trip beats by a mile the stuff I should be doing. Ruth's close encounter of could-have-been-the-worst kind was in the Chifungulu Channel, a beautiful channel full of wildlife paralleling the main Zambezi between Sausage Tree Camp and Old Mondoro Bush Camp (an incredible place where we stayed for three nights--not nearly long enough).

Ruth is thinking about starting a rather, thankfully, exclusive club of people who have been dumped into the water by hippos and survived. It would be called, naturally, HIPPO, but we're still working on the words to fit the acronym. Ideas would be most welcome.

We have lots of recommendations re. our first hand experiences. The obvious like don't take too much stuff and take a good first aid kit. But a few not so obvious, like investing in waterproof binoculars, and getting a water resistant point and shoot digital camera. Ruth had both, and, although the P&S was only rated "weather resistant," it came through a throuough dunking with flying colors, needing only a good rinsing to get the mud off. Her binoculars, likewise, even surviving, without a scratch, the well-meaning but misguided wiping of the lenses with a muddy cloth (before I could stop him) by Ruth's embarrassed and shaken guide.

Pictures of the leopard encounter--Well, if ever there was impetus to switch totally to digital this was it. Because, as anxious as you are to see the photos, there's no comparison to my anxiety, not only of the leopard pictures, but of so many more that looked good--no great--through the view finder.

Some of our best encounters and potential photo ops were in low light or at night (including the leopard incident). I was shooting very good res, but low speed Velvia 100 slide film. I used the most powerful flash Canon makes, rhe 580, and the imagage-stabilized 300mm f/4.0 L lens with a 1.4 converter. This was the first time I had used IS, except for experimenting with a couple of rolls before the trip, and it appears to work fine, but I would have felt more confident had I had the ability to up the ISO in low light, as can be easily done with digital SLR's, even with the accompanying loss of image quality.

One of our guides, Joe, at Chiawa, had a Rebel with the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lens , and when we had a sighting of an owl just at dark, I had him put on my telephoto. He upped the ISO to 800 and made a couple of shots with the camera's small built in flash. They looked quite good on his camera's LCD.

So, here's crossing my fingers (and toes) re. the photos.

Jim

Welcome back Jim. The suspense is killing me! Are you guys coming to our LA GTG this weekend? There was someone else here last year that had a hippo encounter but I forget who.

Sadly, no. Ruth is hopping a plane to Denver this evening, has another trip next week, then we leave for Alaska the week following.

I do hope that Rocco is able/willing to do it again in early Dec. as he mentioned on the get-together thread. Would definitely try for it then.

Jim

Well, still a bit jet-lagged and up since 4 a.m. Downloaded to the computer and burned a CD of the sounds I recorded early morning from our tent at Old Mondoro Bush Camp. The stereo external microphone I had ordered didn't get here in time, but it still sounds pretty good. There's something about the tuba-like "ho-ho-ho's" of hippos that we found very soothing--and connect us to that wonderful place even though we are now a half a world away.

Never did get back to sleep so thought I'd get underway with preliminaries to the trip.

Our itinerary was as follows:

Sept. 21--San Francisco, SFO, to Heathrow LHR via BA.
Sept. 22--LHR to Lusaka LUN
Sept. 23--LUN to Chiawa in Lower Zambezi National Park via Zambian Air
Sept. 23, 24, 25--Chiawa
Sept. 26--Chiawa to Sausage Tree
Sept. 27--Sausage Tree to Old Mondoro Bush Camp via canoe
Sept. 27, 28--Old Mondoro
Sept. 29--Old MOndoro to Sausage Tree
Sept. 30--Sausage Tree to LUN
Sept. 30--LUN to Mfue to Luangwa River Lodge
Sept. 30, Oct. 1,2,3,4,5--Luangwa River Lodge, LRL, South Luangwa National Park
Oct. 6--LRL to Taj Pamozdi, Lusaka
Oct. 7--Lusaka to LHR
Oct. 7,8--Claverly Hotel, London
Oct. 9--LHR to SFO

When we started planning our first African safari ever, we literally looked at the whole range of possibilities, from South Africa, to Botswana, to Kenya, to Namibia to Tanzania. Zambia never entered into our considerations. Hell, I had no idea where it was and had only vaguely heard of it.

We did have some requirements, though.
While we, of course wanted to see lots of game and as many of Africa's wild criters as possible, we didn't have a requisite Big 5, Big 1, or Big 10 list that we just had to see. More important to us was the overall experience.

We didn't want to be in fenced in camps or fenced parks. We didn't want to have to compete with other vehicles to view game. We didn't want to be in big camps or lodges with multiple rooms. We wanted to be able to do walks, be around water and have opportunities to canoe and fish. Given that photography is very important to me, I was also concerned about being jammed into vehicle with lots of other people, many of whom would likely resent the extra time and space needed for taking quality photos.

Oh, and we thought it would be fun to "rough it" for part of the trip but end with a bit of luxury.

We also didn't want to rush from camp to camp, but wanted to settle in for at least a few day at a time. Speaking of which, we were also constrained by the amount of time we could be away from home. Two weeks in camps plus travel time and an extra night layover in London were about as long as we could justify. And, we started our planning quite late, based on everything I've read, only getting serious in April about going before the rains began in November.

Ruth was originally attracted to South Africa, but, even though rich in game-viewing opportunities plus having lots of other attractions, it looked like we would have lots other company. (However, Garlyloos fabulous trip report about his three weeks there has changed my thinking for a future trip).

Ngorongoro Crater looked amazing for its density of game, but, again, as I researched it, it looked like take-a-number game viewing. Other parts of Tanzania, and Kenya--just couldn't get my arms around all the possibilities, and it looked to me that, knowing so little, we could end up being unhappy, given our desires.

Botswana appeared to offer just about everything we were looking for, but the places that looked most appealing to us (yes, Mombo), struck us as more expensive than I could justify. Again, though, it looks like there are some wonderful alternatives.

Whatever itinerary we chose, it was going to be far more expensive than any other trip that we have ever on.

While my past life engineering background should have helped with sorting the pluses and minuses of each option, I kept harking back to the only less than good experience we had in our mostly wonderful trip to India last year. It resulted from what I thought was the most careful of planning but over-reliance on website long on nice artwork but short on telling the truth. Conversely, some of our best experiences were happy happenstance.

So days and weeks passed while I dithered. Then, while googling heaven knows what, I found this forum. I no longer had to rely on glitzy websites that might not be all they were claiming to be. I was now getting info straight from the horses' mouths so to speak from some of the most civil, articulate people I have never met.

And then came Rocco. Unlike most of the large tour operators I had contacted, he quickly tuned into what we were looking for and what we didn't want. When we first started communicating, he (and Julian) hadn't yet started their Destiny Africa. Maybe it was already in planning. Whatever. He never seemed to be "pushing" any option other than his pure enthusiasm for a place based on his own personal experiences.

So, after many iterations we settled on the itinerary above, driven to some extent by the late date. Hence the rather strange looking split one night stays at Sausage Tree, that turned out to be quite serendipitous, for reasons that will be explained later.

I have to tell you that sending a rather big deposit check to someone sight unseen and met through an online forum, and then a much bigger check for the balance of payment is something I thought I would never ever do. But, I've found that going with my feelings--and my feelings were good about Rocco--has worked well for me, often better than the careful, risk averse engineering process part of me.

Now it was time to get ready.
Never did so much time and effort go into packing so little. On our departure date, LHR was still under the one briefcase-sized carry-on rule (which was relaxed the very day when we reached London. No matter.

John, the BA carry-on bag cop passed my Lowepro camera bag which I had ordered specifically to comply with the carry-on size limits. Ruth had a day pack which was not full. When she put in into the box, she had to push on it a bit to get it to fit within the box. "No good," said John. "No squeezing allowed." So there were
Ruth redistripbuting items such as my 42 rolls of film (out of their cannisters) and a portable, battery powered printer (more about that later). It was really pretty comical, and I will post the wuick pic I took of John looking on with Ruth's little day pack sticking its top out of the box.

The flight was uneventful, the food was okay, movies lousy, but the 747's legroom in coach is barely acceptable even for me and I'm only 5'-10". We had to go through another in'depth security screening when we got off the plane at LHR, and it was pretty disorganized chaos. Then there was the 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 4. The first time I was happy (well, not exactly) to have a long layover between flights, because two hours wouldn't been enough time.

There was more leg room on the 767 to Lusaka, and we grabbed a little nap time. Not much, though, because I kept looking at the screen showing our progress over the vast African continent.

I had some anxiety over the visa waiver, and who would meet us at our arrival. But not to worry! As we got off the plane, there was the smiling Dave Cummings, owner of Chiawa along with his wife, Jenny, and son Grant. It seemed as if everyone in the A/P was on a first name basis with Dave, and he has an all-access badge that allows him to go to just about any place within the a/p, which proved to be very handy in trying to track down for lost luggage.

He had our visa waivers in hand, and shepherd us through customs and to baggage claim. Here I encountered my only travel glitch. I had packed my fly reel and flies into my baggage, but the rod I brought had to be checked because it was too long to be carried on. It never showed up (still hasn't as I write this). No big deal as I was able to borrow equipment.

Anyway, we had arrived in Africa, and here was this most wonderful, interesting, and dedicated-to-service man to greet us and make sure that we would be safely on our way via Cessna Caravan to Chiawa.

Next: Chiawa

P.S. sorry about the sometimes sloppy editing. Not up to the standards of almost everything I read here (nor mine, usually).

I'm waiting to read more about this exciting destination. Thanks!

Wonderful report and can't wait to hear the rest, especially since Zambia is on my list to see also!

Another fan here! I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment. I have my 2007 destination picked out already (mobile safari in Bots) but you Zambia people sure have lots of good things to say and great trip reports about Zam.

((#))Cindy

I read everything that you wrote but all I can focus on is poor Ruth taking a dunk. How terribly frightening and how wise she was to have waterproof essentials. I did not have a waterproof or resistant camera on that canoe. Please give all the details on that little episode.

Sorry about the fishing rod, but you had your quota of luck with Ruth. How awful that could have been.

Welcome home!

Been messing with hundreds of digital photos and have over a thousand more on film coming back from the processor, plus really have to get back to the "real" world.

But my brain--and heart--are still in Africa.

So, a bit more about the hippo incident (will get back to the trip report in a day or two--honest). Ruth says, "I'm not a water person." But, she's an adventurous spirit, likes canoeing and even took up scuba diving last year (loves it).

She's also a long time flight attendant, and takes safety briefings very seriously. More so than me.

So, Ruth listened very carefully as our lead guide, Moses, gave us our safety talk before we headed out from Sausage Tree Camp to Old Mondoro Bush Camp. It centered on how to deal with hippos. Moses spent quite a bit of time on the strategy to be used going down the channel, and when hippos were encountered.

Take a path that would keep us in the shallows as much as possible. Follow him single file. If dumped, swim immediately to the nearest shore. And DO NOT take off your life jacket.

Ruth was just ahead of me in her canoe (with her guide in the stern) and was second behind the lead canoe.

We were about two-thirds of the way down the channel, and had passed many hippos, including "hippo city" with dozens of hippos, without incident.

I guess Moses might have gotten a little lax about his own rule re. staying to the shallows. I was thinking that we were on the deep (wrong) side of the channel. I could see shallow water on the other side.

Anyway, he suddenly let out a warning, but it wasn't very urgent sounding and was unclear what it was about or what he wanted us to do. Apparently Moses had seen a hippo under the water as his canoe went over it.

There wouldn't have been time to react anyway, because almost immediately after he sounded out, Ruth's canoe passed over the same spot, and the hippo rose up under it lifting it out of the water and overturning it.

I was dumbfounded, but took one grab shot with my camera with the long tele-photo. I expect that if it shows anything, it will only be a blur of gray.

I initially could only see the overturned canoe, the hippo splashing off to the right to the opposite shore and Ruth's guide scrambling up the steep bank on the left. I couldn't see Ruth, and thought she was under the canoe or still submerged. I was about ready to dive in, but then I saw her sitting on the bank.

She had somehow scrambled out after being dunked, camera and binoculars in hand. To this day, she can't remember exactly how she managed to hang onto both while swimming to shore and climbing up the bank.

She was in much better shape, emotionally, than the rest of us, esp. me. I was something of a wreck for awhile. Taking the weather resistant p&s that Ruth was using was a conscious decision on my part, but not because I had contemplated it being subjected to a dunking by a hippopotamus. It was mostly to be able to take photos in the rainy or snowy conditions, or on boats with salt spray coming over the side. I've been a fan of the Olympus Stylus for many years, having a series of film P&S's and now the digital. I guarantee no other camera would have made it through what happened to Ruth.

I suppose it could have been me, with 10 pounds of non-water resistant SLR's around my neck, or Anne in the lead canoe who had been very reluctant to go on the trip.

Anyway, yes, Ruth was lucky, although she did exactly as told when all heck broke loose. All is well, and we, esp. Ruth, have a most incredible experience that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Jim,

Good to read that Ruth was not hurt in anyway and glad she's ok.....

Hari

Jim: wow! I'm so glad Ruth was able to keep her wits and do exactly the right thing. That is truly a perilous situation and good fortune as well as good decisions are key to survive it.

Great report thus far, I'm looking forward to the rest.

a true photographer! taking a shot of his wife getting dumped in the river by a hippo, too good to pass up! :) glad she and the guide were o.k. who was your spotter at LRL?

Since Ruth is fine, I can laugh about her not being a water person and that your first impulse at seeing her overtuned was to pick the telephoto out of the 10 lbs of SLRs around your neck and shoot.

I think I know Moses, who was there back in 2003. He was careful and cautious. Ruth even had a guide with her in the canoe so you were doing everything right. I have always insisted on not sharing a canoe with someone I don't know in Africa.

If one of you had to take the dip, it appears it worked out best that it was Ruth. Her gear was waterproof/resistant and not 10lbs of SLRs, her profession predisposed her to
carefully listening to the safety instructions, and the other woman was nervous to begin with. Wonder if Ruth agrees with that?

Now that you've divulged the details on that fiasco, I'm ready for leopard and cubs, bee eaters, and more drama
on your walk compliments of the buffalo and eles, etc.

I am so glad that Ruth was not hurt and survived the incident with only a nice story to tell. I wonder what the frequency of such incidents are? Just todsy I was chatting to a tour operator based in Hingkong on the safet of camera gear on a mekoro in Okavango in Botswana and he told me about pelican cases, but then again you need the SLR ready in your hand most of th time.

Waiting earnestly to see our pics and the rest of your trip report

Here we go with our review of the first camp we visited on our trip.

Warning: It's a love affair, not only for the wildlife we saw, the setting, our accommodations, but, not least, Chiawa's staff.

The pics I've posted for now are all with our digital point and shoots cuz the slide film on which I took all the telephoto shots are still not back. I'll add to and update the photo site later. Since the digitals are only a max of 114mm equivalent, I did some cropping on some of the pics.

I had quite a bit of anxiety over logistics upon our arrival in Zambia--e.g. visa waivers, internal flight confirmations, etc., but, between Rocco and direct contact with the camps we would be visiting, I had printouts of just about everything. Turns out none of them were needed.

We were greeted on arrival at Lusaka by Chiawa patriarch, Dave Cummings, and logistics went perfectly. The only minor glitch (through no one's fault but British Airways) was that my fly rod didn't make it (In the future I'll only carry four or five piece rods that will fit in my luggage.

Dave took all the claim check and flight info, but, even after several follow-ups over two weeks, even he could not crack BA's inefficiency.

There were only three of us on the flight via a Zambian Airways Caravan to the air strip adjacent to Chiawa . Our bags were not weighed, but I would have just paid the modest excess baggage fee if they had been.

Chiawa has a max of 16 guests with a staff of 32. We were given the Cheetah "honeymoon" tent (I hesitate to use the word tent, since even the bath is more luxurious than those of most high end homes. WE watched impala, warthogs, hippos, and even lions from our deck. I can’t comment on the other tents, though.

Barbara and Craig are Chiawa's managers, and are both thoroughly professional but also seemed to have an extra sense in anticipating our wishes before we even expressed them.

I guess we were very lucky because Ruth and I were the only ones on most of our drives and walks with the exception of a few outings with honeymooners Andrea and Adam from L.A. Paul and Joe traded off as our guides. They gave us a bit of a safety talk, a preview of what we might see, and how the drive would be conducted, particularly emphasizing care would be taken not to do anything that would influence the animals' behavior, or give predator or prey an advantage. This respect for the game was clearly of foremost importance, and was evident particularly on night drives when we encountered hunting lions and nervous impalas. It was also brought home again, a few days later, in stark contrast, when we went out on a night drive at Sausage Tree Camp in which the guides communicated little, rushed along stampeding herds of elephants sending them off shrieking in fear and anger, and harassed hunting lions even to the point of following so close to a female she was forced to run to avoid being hit.

A leopard with two cubs and an impala kill had been spotted in a tree before we arrived and we drove toward on our first night drive. Well before we arrived, we could hear sounds of movement, snarling and roaring and when we got closer we could see a pack of hyenas, yelping, circling the tree and jumping as high as they could with mom leopard glaring down and growling. The cubs would occasionally peak out, but were mostly buried in the foliage. The scene played on for about 10 minutes, until mom leopard made a break to another nearby tree. Paul said it was to divert the hyenas attention. It must have worked, because the hyenas finally gave up and slinked off. We then found the larger of the two resident prides in that area, the pride of nine, on the hunt. The count isn’t technically quite correct since Douglas, the lone male (his buddy, Dan was killed by a buffalo last year) shares his time between the pride of nine and the smaller pride of five (also counting Douglas) on the other side of Chiawa. Between the two prides we had good lion sighting on virtually every drive. On our walk with Joe, we followed fresh lion tracks until we lost them in the rocky swale near Chiawa, and then found the smaller pride the next morning within 200 meters of our tent.

We returned to where the leopard had been the next morning but she was gone and so were the cubs and any sign of the impala. We were concerned for the cubs’ safety, but Joe said that we would have seen some sign of a fight if the hyenas had returned.

We next encountered the pride of nine feeding (or trying to) on the carcass of a hippopotamus. They had been able to get a bit of meat around the head area, but were stymied by the hippo’s thick skin. They finally gave up and laid in the shade, Douglas off to one side until joined by one of the females, while the rest of the pride groomed and played with each other. The cubs, four of them, didn’t look like they were doing very well--especially compared to the fat cubs of the smaller pride that we saw later.

We encountered them again that evening, only a few minutes after they had killed an impala. Not much meat for nine hungry animals. They were playing tug of war with the still intact carcass, but it took only a few moments before Douglas took the bulk of the kill. The females seemed to be getting a few bites, but the cubs really looked forlorn going from one adult to another tryimg to get a scrap but receiving little more for their efforts than snarls and cuffs. Douglas seemed more patient than the females, but still didn’t share. In less than 10 minutes there was nothing left of the impala except a bit of skin.

We also fished for tigerfish (they look like a cross between a pirhana and a striped bass, and fight like a mini-tarpon). I was fly fishing, and, even though Ruth is not a fisher person, she came along, catching the biggest fish. Naturally. We had sundowners on the boat and watched the sun set over the Zambezi. Beautiful. Another afternoon we had a wonderful canoe ride through a side channel to the Zambezi.

We also had champagne brunch on the river, a night time bbq over a fire set in a dry river bed which featured traditional Zambian foods, along with less exotic bbq’d meats. Our guides not only knew just about everything possible about the bigger animals we were seeing, but we really appreciated the attention to the small critters, birds and plants. One of many highlights was the giant baobab tree which is hollow inside and home to hundreds, perhaps thousands of bats. Shining a flashlight into the cavity provided one view, but reaching in and taking pictures with the digital camera really opened up an amazing world to us. We also were able to view a small python hiding inside.

Hmmm. Sorry, I'm still a little new at this report writing on fodor's. I pasted the copy I had written in Word, then did considerable edits at this site, including providing the link to the pitures. For some reason, when I hit "POST MY REPLY" none of the edits, nor the link were included. So, I will have to try again. Please forgive.

Jim

Excellent sightings, especially lots of predator action at Chiawa. I'm looking forward to the photos. I may have missed it, but in which park is Chiawa?

Please let me know if you can get to the link to the photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/steeliej...tOct2006Chiawa

It's the first time I've tried this, and when I try it, Picasa recognizes me as the one who uploaded the photos, givng me total access to editing, etc., so I do not know if you can see the photos, or if you see them in an uneditable version.

Chiawa is in the Lower Zambezi National Park. If you decide to go there, I also urge you to spend time at Old Mondoro Bush Camp which is jointly operated by Chiawa and
Sausage Tree. It can accommodate only eight guests and is quite rustic compared to Chiawa, but it was a most amazing experience for game viewing up close and personal and the camp managers, Helen and Rulof (who is also the head guide) are real treasures. I'll be writing about Old Mondoro in my next report.

Jim

Jim - I think you and Ruth (and I) had a very similar trip. I look at your photos and they just bring eerything back... Craig and his flashlight ;-) the special dinners, canoeing the Inkalange Channel...I think you have photos of the same lion cubs as well. And when you mention Helen and Roelof, Barbs and Joe, Craig, Victor, et al.. man, its just makes me want to hop a plane back there right now! What a place, eh?!

:-)

Thanks, and yes I can open the link to your photos, but I need more time than I have now to look at them. Thanks for sharing.

I mentioned it before, and I will say it again. Writing about our trip and going through photos produces mixed feelings. Mostly the happiness of reliving the trip through writing about it and viewing the pictures, but also sadness that those wonderful places and people we met are half a world away. Also some new sadness that Rocco, who I had never encountered before this forum, and still have never met, and who made our trip of a lifetime possible has gotten caught up in a mess that is not (okay, maybe a little) of his doing.

I do wish that my completely edited version of our stay at Chiawa had gotten through, but since it didn't, I'll just try to reconstruct the close.

I would highly recommend Chiawa, from the setting on the banks of the Zambezi, the accommodations, the food, the game, and the staff. All the way from the owners, Dave, Jenny, and Grant, to Craig and Barbara, the managers. James, our fishing guide, Paul and Joe, our guides on walks, canoeing and drives. And the rest of the staff. Joe and Paul were extremely knowledgeable,and always respectful of the wildlife. One more example. On night drives, Paul would sometimes stop the Land Cruiser, turn off the engine and light, and we would just listen to the night sounds in the darkness. That produced our second leopard sighting, when Paul heard it softly gruntng and coughing as it marked its territory.

As Ruth said after only our first day, "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a unicorn next." It was very soon after that Ruth saw her "unicorn." Actually better, because the massive bull greater kudu that stepped into view had two, not one, spiraling horns that would put the horn of a unicorn to shame.

Anyway we WILL be back to the Lower Zambezi and Chiawa. But, next, Old Mondoro, plus a few more comments about our brief stay at Sausage Tree and our eventful trip to Old Mondoro by canoe.

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in getting more pictures posted. These

http://picasaweb.google.com/steeliej...aAndOldMondoro

are a selection of scans from slides from our stay at Old Mondoro and some more from Chiawa.

We also stayed one night at Sausage Tree Camp, which is located between Chiawa and Old Mondoro.

Sausage Tree was the one place that we found disappointing. I had suggested going there, because I wanted to fly fish for tigerfish. As it turned out, Chiawa provided all the great fishing I could have hoped for.

Some of the problems we had at Sausage Tree were small, but when you are repeatedly promised certain things which are not delivered, the annoyance builds.

It was the night drive where our experience at Sausage Tree escalated from annoyance to, frustration. We had just come from Chiawa and our guides had been safety conscious, communicative, knowledgeable, and respectful of the game. Our Sausage Tree guide did not give us any of the precautions about being quiet, not standing up, etc. And, there was very little communication about what we were seeing, night time game habits and patterns, or telling us, as the guides at Chiawa had, that they would make sure that no advantage would be given to predator or prey when spotting with the light.

To the contrary, he rushed along, our spotter's light dwelling on the animals and sending groups of elephants running away shrieking in anger and fear. And when a lioness was spotted hunting, another Sausage Tree vehicle close by tailgated her, forcing her into a run.

At that point our only other experience had been with the guides at Chiawa, but we then went to Old Mondoro Bush Camp where we stayed for three nights (we were able to get an extra night there and cancelled going back to Sausage Tree for our final night) where our guide's behavior was also expert and respectful of the wildlife. And then on to Luangwa River Lodge where the guiding was also wonderful. The contrast between the disappointing experience we had at Sausage Tree and the other camps was most glaring. And, the price we paid per night was certainly no less.

Other people we talked to at Sausage Tree seemed to be satisfied. Perhaps were were considered an afterthought, because were staying there only two nights, one each, before and after Old Mondoro.

Anyway, I thought it appropriate to share our experience at Sausage Tree, because it positions itself as a luxury camp and is priced as such.

Enough.

I will get back to our wonderful stays at Old Mondoro and Luangwa River Lodge soon. Promise.

Jim

Jim
Some nice images there. How did you find the reach of the 300 + 1.4 tc on your film SLR?
My wife and I are off to Zambia (7 nights Kaingo + 5 nights Puku Ridge)late Sept '07, also booked thru Rocco. I'm taking the Nikon D2Hs (DSLR) and 300 f/2.8 VR + 1.4 & 1.7 tc, 70-200 f/2.8 VR and 17-55 f/2.8 and a borrowed spare DSLR body (essential). Can't wait!
Cheers
Marc

Jim - some great shots and you captured the beauty of the Zambezi valley. I will somehow have to include it on my next Zambia trip. Some of my favorites include:

The bats inside the boab tree (I also attempted this shot on one of our walks without any success).

Serval - this board full of wonderful big cat shots, but I have not seen a really good clear serval shot until this one.

Canoe Trip on Zambezi- Two great shots - your wife with her "croc" friend and the elle crossing.

Tiger Fish- That looks a crossbred striper and dracula!!

Sundowner/Sunset - Glass against the African sunset really has me staring at my frequent flier mile tally, caluculating how long it will take me to return!!

Fred

Nice pics, Jim. Thanks for sharing. I particularly liked the elephant with the flower on it's head. All your pictures are good, though......

Hari

Your photo sequence really captured the safari experience. I assume the canoe pix of Ruth were pre-upset. You have some good perspectives in your animal closeups. Thanks!

Thanks for the kind comments re. the pics, Marc, Fred, Hari. That means a lot to me. Yeah, I was pretty happy with some of them, but when you take over 1200 shots (that was just on film and not counting well over 1000 with the digital P&S's), a few ought to turn out, eh?

As for the serval, we had several brief sightings on the trip, but that one was really amazing. Ruloph, our wonderful guide at Old Mondoro, said that he'd never had a sighting as good as that. He spotted it in the distance, and rather than the usual melting into the grasses, it decided to walk right up to our LC and sit down for a bit before continuing its hunt.

I originally thought that this trip to Africa would be our one trip of a lifetime there, and then it would be on to other places. Ha! I can just see the knowing smiles on your faces.

Marc, if I did the math right, you have almost double my "reach" with the fine glass you are taking. That 300mm f/2.8 is an especially nice lens. I chose taking Canon's f/4.0 because of space limitations (we traveled BA right after the restrictions for one brief case-sized carryon were put in place). Also, I was concerned about being overloaded on our game walks, because I like to carry two bodies at the ready, one with the tele, and the other with the wide angle zoom.

Doesn't the D2H have a crop factor of 1.5? So, the 300mm with 1.7 tc you will have a reach of 765 mm. Whew! That will be awesome for small critters like birds, but there were situations in which I had trouble tracking moving objects in my viewfinder even with 420 mm total. I got pretty quick at taking off the TC and putting it on again.

I'm really itching to make the full switch to digital, esp. for those low light/night situations so I can bump up the ISO and also for the instant feedback. I just had cheap low res scans done for posting on the net, but it's a hassle and the cost adds up--and I still haven't done the South Luangwa pics yet.

If I want to do high res scans, I'll have to get a dedicated film scanner. I'll be doing that eventually anyway, but, beyond addl expense, it's gonna be really time-consuming.

I love Canon glass, and I have lenses for my old film gear from 20mm to the 500mm F/4.5 L lens. It takes awesome pics, but the equivalent 500mm autofocus IS lens is over $6.K, and it's a load to haul around. Still, some day...

I think Nikon has jumped ahead of Canon, though, on semi-pro digital SLR bodies with its D200. Canon's 30D and 5D are very good, but I'll bet by next spring there will be a next gen with active dust control, and even higher res. And that's when I'll jump.

Thanks again for the compliments.

Jim

Thanks Lynn (hope that's right).

Yes, there was definitely a different atmosphere surrounding us post-hippo, although Ruth really did recover (at least outwardly) more quickly than I. I do have a pic of her sitting on the bank right afterward, smiling, but it doesn't do justice to the fact that she's muddy and soaking wet. I took one quick shot from my canoe just behind her as her canoe went over and the hippos crashed off to the other bank. An out-of-focus picture of trees and sky.

Jim

Sorry, hippo-singular--scary enough.

Jim
There'll be no looking back once you go DSLR! Especially with the D2Hs/D2Xs,D200 and their Canon equivalents, the noise factor at iso up to 1600 coupled with excellent software such as Noise Ninja or Neat Image makes shooting in low light a whole lot easier.
I wouldn't wait for any extra increase in MP's, hell my D2Hs is ONLY 4.1 MP and leaves the D200 for dead in image quality IMHO. MP's aren't everything (unless cropping is your thing). Small file size means a lot too! Plus I'll never need to create images any larger
than 20 X 13 inches.
Just my 2c.
Cheers
Marc

Welcome back... what a wonderful report to come back to from my own trip. Haven't had a chance to look at photos yet but have been enjoying your report hugely...

Lovely pics - looking forward to more. Thanks for captioning them too - definitely adds to the viewing experience.

Hi kavey,

Thanks. Being the first time I've done a trip report here, I wasn't sure if the captions were a good idea, or maybe too much. So, on my latest pic post (scans from slides, I was more selective and just let the pictures do the "talking." Curious as to what you think is better.

So you had several serval sightings?! (Say that 3 times fast) Wow.

We've all been there with that once in a lifetime trip mentality.

Any thoughts on the next one?