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Up at 4:30 and on the road by 05:00 with only a cup of coffee and a biscuit in out stomachs. The wildlife experience starts as soon as we are in the vehicles - this is Tzetze fly country, and they are out in force. Luckily it is not far, a 20 minute drive brings us to a hide overlooking the swamp. The hide is built in a tree and we all climb up the wooden ladder to the platform 60ft above the forest floor. The dawn is rising and the view is magnificent.
Day 4. Tue 24th September Kasanka national Park.
DaveMidgley2005-10-22 12:02:41
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animals (although even he makes the occasional mistake, as we shall see). On this occasion I do note down that we see yellow billed kite, cormorant (yes, really!), little bee eater, senegalese coucal, wattled crane and crowned hornbill.
About 09:00 we return to the hide to find that there are still some sitatunga grazing in the open, including a superb male. The Tzetze files seem tohave been waiting for us in the Land Rover, there are hundreds, like big horseflies with a bite to match. They are the most tenaceous of insects, and don't even let go when swatted. Their bodies seem to be impervious to being squashed, and the only way to kill them is to pick them off between finger and thumb and squeeze. Rather than have fingers covered in Tzetze juice I use my hat as a glove - I fear it will never regain its pristine whiteness. Still, no one goes down with sleeping sickness!
On the drive back to the camp a troupe of yellow baboons cross the road in front of us and gibber at us from the trees.
We return to the camp for brunch, a siesta, and a late lunch of pasta and salad, and at about 15:30 set off for another nature walk by the river. We cross the river on a "ferry" consisting of a platform that is pulled across the river with a rope. However, as the platform as over half as long as the river is wide, we wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to make it a bit longer and call it a bridge! Presumably the situation is somewhat different in the rainy season when the river is full.
I am still listing wildlife in my notebook, and record steenbok, helmeted guinea fowl, wattled crane, Boehm's bee-eater, green pidgeon, bulbul, jacana, and harrier hawk, shrub hare and common duyker (a small antelope).
Dinner at the lodge is interrupted by an uninvited guest, a tiger snake nestled at the bottom of a tree. Everyone rushes out for a look, including the camp staff. These snakes can be aggressive but the venom is not dangerous to humans. This one seemed quite happy to lie back and be photographed.
See photographs from:
Zambia Gallery
