Day 64: Mfuwe / Southern Luangwa National Park
What a day!
We arrive at the gate to the national park before six, but it's still closed :-) Then we pay the US $75 and rush off without a receipt – the ladies will do the paperwork later in the morning.
The first two or three hours are a bit sobering. The scenery is beautiful, but there's no life at all. And we wonder again whether getting up early isn't superfluous. Over the course of the day, however, we spot so many animals that we leave the park very satisfied in the evening.
The highlights were a few wild dogs and about a dozen lions sleeping and digesting. A hyena (from a distance), some giraffes, zebras, warthogs, hordes of baboons, hippos, crocs, elephants, crowned cranes, birds of prey (which seem to be rather rare here) … The only thing we somehow never find are owls in their night quarters, and we have no luck with leopards either.
At lunchtime, we take a break and eat in the village – the advantage of having the camp and village only five minutes from the park. And we pick up our good flashlight from the workshop, which ended up in someone else's pocket on Saturday.
And speaking of the workshop and Becky: Today, we had another moment of carelessness that turned out to be without consequences. While reversing (oh, great, the Wild Dogs), one wheel ends up in a drainage ditch. The other rear wheel no longer grips the gravel, and one front wheel doesn't have enough grip either. We can't get out with just one wheel. And so the winch comes into play again. And always keep an eye on what the animals around us are doing.
What do we learn from this:
- Always double-check when reversing.
- We can trust the winch.
- There's a rule of thumb (well, that's enough!).
In the evening, we have a meal cooked for us and are actually proud of ourselves.