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Oh this is very exciting! The anticipation is building.

That carcass is no hippo. Think bigger. Much bigger! Good to see the tusks were still there. At least it died of "natural causes".   I don't care about the Lions but you saw some really nice birds at least.

What an awesome trip Andrew!

Wowee! What an experience!   Can't wait to hear how this panned out. And you had me at 14 days of walking. Not many people are up for that.

I love the way you express your excitment/anxiety.....;  elements that are not always expressed in TR's,  but are so very real.    You are carrying me along very nicely. Thank you.

I think though I should correct myself - they aren't really rude. they are opportunistic, that's more like it, i think. I was watching a couple of guys trying to cut the Q in a cafe and some people sent them to the back of the line. those guys went to the back of the line, but then they tried their luck again with other people and got sent back again. They seemed good natured about it and didn't raise any ruckus. 

Cheers!

The plot thickens, 'round the clock!  

Stephen says:    "  I am not nearly as concerned with the buffalo herd...........as I am with that agitated male elephant behind you.      Look,   but do so,   slowly".             Stephen,.......he doesn't look that agitated to me!!    He is young!  And cute!!       Welllll.........he IS agitated.     We are on HIS road.      Everyone is silent.     We are too close to start the truck and try to leave.    We wait,   and see what he will do.      Currently,   we have Olimba in a trench at my 2:30.     An injured (but abandoned by her troop) baboon at 12:00.       A massive herd of buffalo (no one really knows how many) at my 11o'clock.      And an agigated elle at my 8o'clock.            

This is great... I’m enjoying reading as I do my own reminiscing. In fact, I’d been thinking before my own trip how I’d not seen any trip reports including Big Lagoon yet. I’ll look forward to reading your views on that and Chikoko.   Already it appears you had some great encounters at Tafika. I remember the bats!

Other times we walk away from the lagoon and the walks are more about the landscape and the birds.   (iPhone 15 Pro Max)   Sasu prepares tea under a Baobab (iPhone 15 Pro Max)   White-crested helmet shrike (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 250)   African grey hornbill takes off past a southern grey-headed sparrow (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f7.1, ISO 200)   Southern masked weaver (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 250)   Dark-capped bulbul (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 320)   Bateleur (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 200)   Juvenile martial eagle  (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1600s, f6.3, ISO 500)   Not long after this the bateleur had enough and chased the juvenile martial eagle away  (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1600s, f6.3, ISO 400)      

Ummmmmmm............Stephen??      Look to the left.      How many buffalo do you figure are there??     (they keep coming,   and coming.     Directly toward us).    We are soon going  to be surrounded by the herd.     They aren't running by any means.......they are approaching slowly,   eating,  and walking.     But they just keep coming and coming.      We are trying to keep an eye on the injured baboon,    and Olimba,  who is still catching her breath.    But the buffalo are headed directly for the area of the injured baboon.     

On my last evening,   prior to setting out to the walking camps (and I now learn Stephen will be my guide there too!),    we are looking for a good sundowner spot.      You know,    when baboons fight amongst themselves?    There is a lot of noise,   and turmoil.    And we had seen a lot of it.       But this was different.       Our spotter yells "leopard!!"      And indeed,    there is a leopard racing in front of us,  followed by an agitated baboon troop.    She dips into "her trench".     They do not follow,    but rather,   they stand and "scold" her relentlessly.     We creep closer to get a peek.     She is breathing heavily,   and has a bit of blood on her.    We try to piece together what we have just witnessed.     Well now I'm excited!!!!      There is a terribly injured baboon who is trying to get away.     The troop obviously came to her rescue,    but I don't think she can keep up now,   or climb a tree for the night.    But our leopardess.......is very winded from the ordeal.     She will need many minutes to recover.     Sundowner spot????    How about right here!!!!!     We tuck around a corner,   grab a G&T "to go" for me,   and head back to "watch the show".       Bonus:    we are the only truck for miles.     We have this all to ourselves.    And it has been tough,   getting exclusive great leopard sightings.     For the most part,   there are film crews who haven't let us in on the "good stuff".      So this rather feels like a "headline scoop".    

There is fresh (and steaming!) evidence of wildlife in camp: a ping of elephant dung right next to the chairs outside my chalet. This gives us hope for the trail camera and we set it up in an area where Billy expects most animal traffic.     The sitenje where we take our meals faces out to the lagoon...     While afternoon tea is taken on the deck that cantilevers out over the water.       Big Lagoon is quite new, opening only 2 years ago (2022) as a replacement to Crocodile Camp. It was developed on the site of the historic Big Lagoon camp, one of the original Luangwa Valley camps, and some remnants of the original buildings can still be seen around the camp area.   Remnants of the original Big Lagoon buildings close to the new camp (Frame grab from GoPro video)   When it comes time to walk, we're guided by the same team (Billy, Sasu and Andrew) who accompanied me here from Chikoko. The first walk takes us the length of the lagoon to see how close we can get to a tower of giraffe we'd spotted from camp, keeping a wary eye on the sole hippo that had made the lagoon its home.   Our first walk took us out along the length of the lagoon (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm, 1/1000s, f5.0, ISO 800)   Puku and impala got skittish as we passed... (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @186mm, 1/1000s, f5.9, ISO 640)   ... male waterbuck and southern ground hornbill are more relaxed but watch our approach with caution (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 2500)   Southern ground hornbill (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 6400)   The lone old hippo resident in the lagoon (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/1000s, f6.3, ISO 2000)   (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @100mm, 1/1000s, f5.0, ISO 1250)   Thornicroft's giraffe (OM-1, Olympus 100-400mm @400mm, 1/800s, f6.3, ISO 5000)   Turning back we more or less retraced our steps back to camp, giving us a good view of the camp's setting against the lagoon.   Big Lagoon's deck (iPhone 15 Pro Max)  

Later we headed out for our game drive. I love being here and being able to just drive around and see the animals. It is so beautiful.               The guide took us to where the lions had taken down a giraffe a day or so ago. By this time they appeared to have had their fill for the most part. Two were still attempting to eat a little more. The third was sleeping it off. Sad for the giraffe but lions do have to eat also (circle of life). We sat and watched for awhile. No other animals or people were around.   Skip the next couple of photos if you do not want to see that.                 As it got later, it was time for our sundowner, gin and tonics.    Cheers to our 1st day on safari!   If you notice, we are all wearing jackets now as it is going toward evening. When planning this trip, there were so many details to take care of that I completely forgot to check about the weather in the Mara in July! Turns out it is their winter. Last time I was there it was Sept and the weather was a little warmer so that is what I was expecting. Days in July are warm, but early mornings and evenings were cold. I wound up wearing every layer that I had with me in the morning and evening and then stripping layers off as the day went on. Even then I was still cold and it would have been nice to have a warm hat, gloves, and sweater. We got back to a delicious dinner and then to our room to get ready for an early start then next day. When we got back to the tent that night we were happy to find hot water bottles in the bed. The 3 sides of the tent are open mesh which I love, especially in the day, but to  me was an interesting idea to have open mesh sides at night in their winter. Fortunately between the hot water bottle and the thick duvet it was toasty in the bed. Not so much when getting out of the bed at 5:30 the next morning.