In Camp - Zambia

A gentle “good morning, good morning” wakes me; it is 5:30 and someone is filling the washbasin outside my tent. I am up, find my headlamp, find the clothes that I wore yesterday next to the futon bed and unzip the tent to splash warm water on my face. A visit to the pit toilet, and then join the others for breakfast.





The last several days have a comforting routine –
up at 5:30, breakfast of porridge and toast, leave for a walk at 6:15, stop for tea at 9:30, return to camp for a remarkable lunch at 11:30, siesta until 3:30 tea, leave for a walk at 4:00, stop for sundowner drinks at 6:30, return for a remarkable dinner at 7:30, in bed by 9:00. The meals are all made in camp from scratch over a wood fire, including baked bread, muffins and cookies in a ground oven. It is a mobile camp and will to pack up and move to the next campsite during our morning walk.

When we leave for today’s walk, we are with our guide, Jason and support team of Jimmy – the armed park ranger who is responsible for keeping us safe, and Geoff, - the camp naturalist guide who is also “tea bearer”. Our path varies from woodland to tall grass as we follow game trails near the bank of the Mupamadzi River. Jason is a native Zambian whose European parents came to the country in the 1950’s. Along the way, he is prone to say things like: “So, should we go around here and see if we can catch up to the lions?” or “The elephant hasn’t noticed us yet because we are downwind, but we don’t want to startle him, so if he gets any closer let’s hope he goes behind that bush so we can withdraw.” But mostly the walk is “Things seem pretty quiet just now.” and we observe a lot of birds, plants and small antelope. There are signs of wildlife everywhere – vultures on a kill in the middle of the river (maybe wild dogs?), roaring lions and irritated elephant trumpets in the distance, lion, leopard, hyena & elephant tracks, or monkey alarm calls from the trees (leopard nearby?), but mostly everything seems intent on avoiding us.

We stop for tea and freshly baked peanut cookies along the bank of the River and notice a small group of Cape Buffalo in the distance, on the far bank and decide to explore. The river is knee deep, cool, with a sandy bottom, so not a good habitat for crocodiles who like deep murky water, so that’s good to know. But there is a bit of a current, so I have to concentrate to keep my balance.


On the other side of the river we approach the buffalo from downwind, but they soon see us and act warily until they figure out our intent. In fact, everything in this remote part of South Luangwa National Park is a bit skittish because our camp has the only humans for maybe 50 miles and they are just not used to us. Every animal has a natural safety zone, and with the buffalo we cannot get within maybe 100 yards before they retreat. Jason’s experience has led him to believe that all the wildlife is rational and not necessarily a threat – except for the psychotic ones, which he tells us to supposedly be reassuring. In 30 years he has only heard for a handful of cases where a warning shot had to be fired to head off a bad encounter.

 

Following afternoon tea and fresh muffins, the second walk of the day is mostly a stroll with ample time to look back at the developing sunset. We end up on a bluff over the river where the camp vehicle has brought our setup for cocktails and fresh brochetta. When the sun is down, it is easy to spot Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in addition to the Moon. Mercury is up there somewhere, but may be behind a cloud. 

Deep Planning for Zambia

I am getting ready for travel to Zambia tomorrow and I'm taking a moment to reflect on process. I have always known that I get extremely involved with planning details leading up to a trip: making lists, pulling out old gear and buying new gear, charging batteries, counting pills, looking over Google Earth, or weighing boots. This behavior always worried me a bit, but I have found a way to make it feel acceptable – I will call it Deep Planning. I like this name because it sounds purposeful, rather than unhinged.

Right now, I'm going through a final checklist:

• Crisp new US cash, which is accepted if I choose not to convert to Zambian Kwacha - check
• Notify credit card companies about travel - check
• Buy new super glue - check
• Emirates Airline check in - check
• Put mail delivery on hold - oops, better do that now

I've never been to Zambia and we will be spending all of our time in South Luangwa National Park, in the eastern "lobe" of the country. This trip promises to be a bit different from some previous trips. On other visits to southern Africa, the guides make a point of making sure that you do not get out of the Land Rovers if "wildlife" is nearby - I guess that makes sense for all the obvious reasons. This trip: a little different - we will include walking safaris from one tented camp to another, with five miles or so of wildlife in between. This is a main offering at the park, and is done all the time. Even so, it might just be a little nerve rattling, even with the armed ranger along but I'm looking forward to it. I hope I am able to update this journal along the way, but I don't expect any cell coverage in "the bush".
I see from old maps that David Livingstone also walked the area in the 1860's - and his heart lies buried under a tree less than a week's walk to the northwest from our camps.

Z is for Africa?

I'm getting excited about traveling to Africa again next month, but in the course of planning I have been sucked down a rabbit hole. I wanted to have at least a general understanding of the history of my destination - Zambia. But thanks to the internet, I ended up wondering about other "Z" references in Africa.
I quickly came up with Zimbabwe, Zaire, Zanzibar, Zambezi, Zulu, Zebra, and Zahara (Sahara). My next step down the rabbit hole was, naturally, to wonder if any of these were acceptable in Scrabble. This is what happens with rabbit holes - I haven't played the game in 20 years, but it seemed like a reasonable inquiry. I do remember that proper names are not allowed, but today I learned that a few specific ones are - and for some reason Zaire is one of them, but I never found out why (zebra is the other playable word). I also learned that Scrabble authorities briefly considered, then abandoned, allowing proper names in 2010. Nice to know.

Some other relevant discoveries:

Between 1970 and 1997, the large country in the center of Africa was named Zaire - remember Zaire, of heavyweight boxing "Rumble in the Jungle" fame? Before and after that, it was, and is, known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was named for the river, which is also know as the Zaire. Looking at the online map, be careful not to confuse the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Republic of the Congo, its neighbor to the west.

I discovered a little bit about the history of Great Zimbabwe - the ancient stone ruins of the culture that dominated the region in the 11th century. In the late 1880's the British businessman Cecil Rhodes came to the area to secure mining rites and naturally named the area Rhodesia. But when Northern Rhodesia fought to gain their independence in 1964, the new nation was proclaimed Zimbabwe.  

 

The name Zanzibar is derived from the Persian zang-bâr signifying "black coast". The island is part of Tanzania (another z because it is a contraction of Tanganyika and Zanzibar) and has a rich history as a trading center, and happens to be the birthplace of the late Freddy Mercury, of the rock group Queen.

Zulu is a powerful name that brings up images of fierce, savage warriors. I now know that it means "heaven".
 

This all started about Zambia - so, getting back to Zambia, there is an species of zebra found nowhere else - The Crawshay's zebra is identified by narrower stripes. Also, I leaned that its lower incisors lack an infundibulum, but that was enough to make me stop the madness and get back to Zambian history.

I think the flag of Zambia has a funny configuration because most flags have more symmetry, but I imagine that I'll get used to it.The flag contains familiar elements found on other African flags - black for the people, red for their sacrifices - green for the lush flora. What is different is the orange, added for the mineral wealth of the country - copper. And the African Fish Eagle rises above all adversity. I noticed that before national independence in 1964, the flag of Northern Rhodesia also featured the eagle with a fish in his talons, but he's lost his fish in the new flag.