We went down all the way to Lunda, we actually reached the border of the park and over. Was a long day as I said because we left camp at 6.00 this morning and came back around 6.00 in the afternoon…. 12 hours of bush diving.
We got lions just close to camp but we where so focused on exploring that we did not even stop for more then ten minutes. We went all the way to makutano, the farthest area we normally roam, and then on again towards new horizons.
We stopped a lot on the way discussing flowers, trees and birds to identify them in the correct way, it was good fun and a good learning process. Doesn’t matter how good you are, there is so much in the bush that one life is not even enough to be able to know everything, so there is always big room for learning something new. Insect wise we saw a nice cone head katydid on a African chestnut fruit and a beautiful blister beetle on what we think is a Clitoria ternatea (what a name!!!)
“Bigger stuff” wise we saw giraffes, lesser and greater kudus, hippos and crocodiles and much more.
We saw many different environments and landscape. The only pity is that the area has only one main road so we could not go everywhere.
The sun was very hot, and lot of wildlife was just under the shade of trees and bushes, the only brave ones were zebras and grant gazelles that kept grazing regardless of the heat.
On the way we also found the grave of a men called Sangulichuma Mpululu, we don’t know anything about him except that he died in 1955 but would be nice to find out something.
A big big leopard tortoise stopped us on the way and some kilometres later we spent almost half an hour taking pictures of an incredible flower, it is called Caralluma speciosa, and it is a succulent, it stinks like hell but is really beautiful. Especially if you look at it at close quarter.
We saw many different environments and landscape. The only pity is that the area has only one main road so we could not go everywhere.
The sun was very hot, and lot of wildlife was just under the shade of trees and bushes, the only brave ones were zebras and grant gazelles that kept grazing regardless of the heat.
On the way we also found the grave of a men called Sangulichuma Mpululu, we don’t know anything about him except that he died in 1955 but would be nice to find out something.
A big big leopard tortoise stopped us on the way and some kilometres later we spent almost half an hour taking pictures of an incredible flower, it is called Caralluma speciosa, and it is a succulent, it stinks like hell but is really beautiful. Especially if you look at it at close quarter.
Both of them, the tortoise and the flower amaze me for their geometries and patterns of lines and colours.
We even went outside the border where we unexpectedly drove into a hunting camp, the camp was closed, there was lot of litter around and the skull of an elephant. The thing was so huge that our mouths almost dropped to the ground.
I have nothing against hunting if done in the proper way but still seeing that skull and thinking about the magnificent beast that now is dead made me feeling a bit sad.
Anyway on the way back we stopped and had a chat with the rangers at their post, we saw a herd of elephants that was at least one hundred strong, and we also saw another pride of lions at the bridge.
The females and two big males were sleeping in the shade, only the cubs and one female were in the sun and one cub kept licking the female reinforcing their bond, they were quite tender to see…. Sorry I will post other pictures later because I have to go “rescue” a car that has a problems .....
I have nothing against hunting if done in the proper way but still seeing that skull and thinking about the magnificent beast that now is dead made me feeling a bit sad.
Anyway on the way back we stopped and had a chat with the rangers at their post, we saw a herd of elephants that was at least one hundred strong, and we also saw another pride of lions at the bridge.
The females and two big males were sleeping in the shade, only the cubs and one female were in the sun and one cub kept licking the female reinforcing their bond, they were quite tender to see…. Sorry I will post other pictures later because I have to go “rescue” a car that has a problems .....
ok I was back and posted the pics
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