Croc Valley Camp, South Lunagwa - Tuesday 9th Feb

Up early today four 6am game drive with a brilliant sunny morning after listening to the early morning roars of the hippos in the river.

rather than drive ourselves we would be chauffeur driven this morning for 4 hours by our friendly guide Botha.

Our camp site is about 1km from the entrance which is via the bridge across Luangwa River. View back to the camp site with the rising sun.

Botha had asked us what we wanted to view this morning to which we said we were keen to see the hippos and lions. Wasn't long before we came across 4 lions resting

On next to see lots of elephants and a couple having a tussle between themselves

Also the usual other animals across the park

Post a couple of hours into the drive we had a morning tea break

We only came across one small croc laying in a bank of a water home

Arrived back home shorty after 10am to have brunch of crepes for me and poached eggs and toast for Jo prepared by Amanda. We now had a couple of hours to relax before being picked up again at 4 for the next game drive however we were on high alert with all the playful monkeys trying to get into the cars or Amanda's kitchen area.

Botha picked us up at 4pm for our evening/night game game and was accompanied by his trusty helper who would be the animal spotter when it gets dark.

We came across a couple of elephants very close to the road 

one then walked in front of us and on along the road

 As we slowly started to follow him down the road he turned around and roared as us to show his displeasure. Joey got a bit of a fright

Drove around the park looking at the various animals and came across  2 lions at the spot there were at in the morning- we were only about 5 metres away from them

As we drove along the tracks I spotted a bright green cameleon in the middle of the road

Botha got his car mat out and put it in front to show how the colour would darken as it walked across the matt

 The green shading started to change to a deep green colour

Had a stop and break with  snacks around dusk  with Botha  explaining that unlike other places in Africa , elephants kill more people than hippos with 5 local villagers being killed last year as the elephants looked for food as it was very dry in the park. Apparently when the river is very low the elephants and hippos wander into our camp  and surrounding villages looking for food.

On dark we started the night time viewing with Neville getting onto the bonnet with his spot light

 

We didn't see much until we headed home about 8pm and came across some hippos near the exit and then just outside our camp site

Had a beautiful slowed cooked beef stew in a cast iron pot called a Potjies that Amanda had put in a charcoal fire for about 4 hours.