SafariChick and Sangeeta's Adventures through Kafue and Liuwa Plain National Parks

[AfricIan]

Fascinating TR @@SafariChick, especially all the non-wildlife aspects of it, fly-in takes all the fun away doesn't it!! I was also very interested in your thoughts on Musekese as it was one of our thoughts for this year before we plumped for Kichaka

[Galago]

@SafariChick I loved the video of the African spoonbills, real Fred 'n Ginger choreography!

 

The reason Liuwa is so unbelievably bumpy is because of the Sufrutex. These are mini-trees that grow just at the height of small plants and their branches reach across the tracks, just under or on the top of the soil. When I was first told about this I thought it was a wind up, but it's true - it's mini-trees under the surface. One theory is that this was an evolutionary response to fire, but it's not certain. What is certain though is that it makes for an unbelievably bumpy ride which makes all other reserves seem like tarmac highways! When we saw the dogs starting a hunt we were quite some distance away and went hurtling across the Sufrutex at 35 kph. I was riding shotgun with Jason and almost fell out of the vehicle (no passenger doors of course).

 

So pleased to hear about the cubs - she was pregnant when I visited. And sad to hear about the male, he was a magnificent black-maned lion.

[Big_Dog]

Apologies for lateness - loving this TR! The hyaenas in the puddle, Dracula LFV, and lions eating their unusual hippo prey were awesome.

[RichB]

I just watched the Last Lion, very moving.and the story is so sad..At least she isnt lonely anymore..

[SafariChick]

@@AfricIan @@Galago @@Big_Dog thanks for the nice comments. Glad you are enjoying the report.

 

Galago, I am curious you mentioned having been guided by Jason but also that you took the pontoon ferry in Kalabo. My impression was that Jason had until now always guided Liuwa trips under the auspices of RPS and that those trips were always done by flying in to Kalabo, not driving and taking the pontoon ferry - did you do your trip with RPS but not fly in? Also, thanks for that explanation of the bumpiness! Such an interesting phenomenon and I remember I think Jason explaining about the sufretex to us but I don't think I heard that it was responsible for the bumpiness.

 

Sorry for the slow updates, I took so many photos and have a hard time choosing which to use. Not that I have so many that are wonderful but trying to pick the better ones and ones that represent what we saw.

 

I also looked back at my notes and realized I don't have photos of a lot of what we saw that first afternoon. In addition to the birds and wildies I posted photos of, we saw:

 

a pair of Oribi

long-tailed widowbirds (had never seen before and found them lovely - we'd see them throughout Liuwa)

spur-winged geese

teal ducks

plovers

crowned and wattled cranes

 

Also, I don't know if it was apparent in my photos but the birds we saw were often in large numbers, at least the numbers were pretty big to me! For instance, at the second pool we saw, we estimated we saw perhaps 60 Marabou Stork and perhaps 35 pelicans. I also forgot to mention that Jason explained that the zebras seen in Liuwa have a different kind of stripe than the usual plains zebra. Plains zebra found north of the Zambezi, they have no shadow stripe and their dark black stripes go all the way around their belly.

 

I need to also mention that Bundu had arranged for a ZAWA scout to be with us for our entire stay, and he stayed at the campsite with us. His name was Gideon and he was amazing. He knew so much about Liuwa Plain and he was actually the ranger who guided Herbert Brauer, the cameraman who filmed The Last Lioness about Lady Liuwa. Bundu had used him before and he and Biggi knew each other and from what we heard, he was considered to be possibly the best ZAWA scout at Liuwa. The whole set up was a little unusual though. Jason was our privately hired guide but in the past, he has only guided at Liuwa with RPS, using their vehicles, Matamanene as the camp, and he would be the driver. In this case, Biggi was driving the Bundu vehicle and Gideon was also taking an active role in the guiding, so things were a little different than anyone was used to and I will just say that it led to some tension and challenges. I won't go into it in detail but it was a constant factor in the background - and sometimes the foreground - of the dynamics. I'll just say that i don't think this particular combination will be tried again!

 

There are four campsites in Liuwa Plain. The campsite we stayed at the first two nights was called Lyangu. The set up here was two flush toilets but not separated into men's and women's rooms - just one little bathroom building with two toilets (and a separate building with two showers but we also had two bucket showers of our own just for our use that Bundu brought). This toilet situation was a little disconcerting to everyone but we managed and tried to give each other privacy where needed! There were other people staying at the campsite besides us but we didn't see them too much. The doors on the stalls were quite unique and creative. One of them consisted of a giant Purina dog food bag opened up and unfolded with holes in the top end and hung up with a string like a shower curtain you could pull open and closed!

 

Bundu had wanted to book us all five nights in one campsite, which would have been nice as we were getting quite tired of one-night stays and constantly packing up - but they were not able to. November is high season in Liuwa and for this year, there was literally nowhere else one could stay in the park other than the community campsites and they were all fully booked apparently during the days we were there. The reason there was nowhere to stay other than the campsites is because RPS was not operating in Liuwa after May of this year. It's a long, complicated story but from what I understood, Normal Carr Safaris (NCS) had arranged the rights to be the only operator and has been planning to build a luxury lodge near Matamanene, the researchers camp which RPS formerly used for its guests to stay. This is apparently considered the "best" area for wildlife viewing and is where Lady Liuwa and her pride normally hang out. However, NCS has not yet broken ground. Just recently, in fact when we were leaving Liuwa and got wifi again, we learned that NCS has started advertising that for 2015 they will be operating out of a somewhat remodeled Matamanene, which is interesting, and one wonders if they ever will really open their lodge or just remodel Matamanene?

 

Another issue that made things different than in previous years, apparently is that for as long as RPS was operating, they were allowed to drive off-road at sightings but as of now no one is allowed to, officially, and Jason had been told that our group would not be allowed to go off-road. So we were not able to go off-road which meant some sightings were from farther away than otherwise would have been possible, and also that we could not go look for certain hyena dens Jason knew about that were way off-road. This was a bit disappointing but it was what it was.

 

I had been hoping to see some of the large hyena clans in Liuwa that I'd heard about. I find hyena quite fascinating. On our first night, I was awakened in the wee hours by a shrieking and cackling and commotion (as was everyone else, I learned in the morning). It was confirmed in the morning by those who know that it was hyenas. Jason thought hyenas had been in the camp, though probably not at our specific campsite, and had found some food perhaps left out by some of the other self-drivers camping there and were fighting over it! It was really loud and honestly sounded like they were right outside our tents, so that was quite exciting. Perhaps this was a sign of things to come, as when we set out on our morning drive, one of the first sightings we had was running into (well not literally thank goodness!) a group of five hyena. They were a bit spread out but two were quite interested in our vehicle and came rather close. I have a lot of photos and have had to try to limit myself as it was hard to pick which to post! So sorry in advance for the large number. One of the hyena, as you may see in the photos, seemed to be pregnant, and one had a collar.

 

 

 

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The one with the collar in the photo below appears to me to be lactating - didn't notice it at the time.

 

 

one of the hyenas started to approach the front of the vehicle so closely that we had to try to stand up a bit or kneel on our seats to see what it was doing. It was putting its mouth right up against the vehicle.

 

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as it moved away again from the vehicle we saw something black sticking out of the side of its mouth. You can just see it sticking out of the left side of its mouth in this photo:

 

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It had taken a black square piece of rubber or plastic off of the vehicle and, with a slightly guilty look just like your dog might do when it's taken something it's not supposed to, proceeded to stand just a little ways away and chew and chew it up and, eventually, swallow it!

 

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I think it might not have gone down so smoothly!

 

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I felt worried that this would harm the hyena and wondered if we should try to do anything to get it to stop eating it. Maybe we should shout, as I do at my dog when he picks up something that's bad for him, "Leave it!" But everyone told me no obviously we couldn't get out and pull it out of its mouth or anything like that, and I shouldn't worry that it would be fine. I certainly hope so!

 

We watched a couple of the hyena relaxing and drinking from the pool nearby

 

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a wildie walked by, photobombing our hyena photos:

 

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One hyena walked up to another, seemingly greeting it affectionately:

 

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but the apparent affection was not returned - after seeing the reaction of the lying-down hyena to the other's advances, Jason said this was a lower status hyena who had approached a higher status one and was being put in its place - wow!

 

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That concluded that sighting as we decided to drive on. We were heading towards Matamanene. We wanted to meet up with the Zambian Carnivore Programme researchers stationed there and chat with them, and see if they'd seen Lady and the pride and find out what other news they had.

 

To be continued .....

Edited December 14, 2014 by SafariChick

[graceland]

Wow, @@SafariChick - not only did you have accommodation issues, there are "dynamics" to deal with. And sharing loos. Ok..one night (maybe ). Last thing iI want to stumble upon is a strange man. Or a lion - was this one a good walk away as well?

 

You can't imagine how some of us quiz the Ops on "EXACTLY where is that loo placed????" Guess I won't worry anymore since you've acquired such adventure skills. I feel like a girly girl.

 

 

That hyena certainly did have the guilty "look". Did youall ever figure out what he took off the vehicle?

 

I certainly hope a case of amarula was in that vehicle. Making *Mudslides out of Sufrutex...

 

*Mudslide the drink; not mudslide the unfortunate... (made with Baileys, similar to Amarula...(I'll tell you all about it when I see you!)

 

That would cut any tension and certainly make it easier to laugh at the situation.

 

 

 

And I too have become fascinated with hyenas after Zim. They were everywhere --and so noisy. But rather fascinating once you got over that grating vocalization.

 

Looking foward to MORE

[Atravelynn]

So glad I'm all caught up with your adventures at last!

 

@@Atravelynn oh and re this:

 

 

"a woman I'll just call A and our fourth participant, a man I'll call J" I am anticipating some difficulties in the upcoming journey with A and J, adding to the intrigue of it all!

 

No, not at all! The four of us all got along really well.

Great, you're just into initials.

 

 

 

Good thing you held off on the photos in the store. They’d think you were using the old “you’re wearing a t-shirt of a restaurant whose owners I know right in my hometown and I want to get a photo of it” trick.

 

Fight at the ferry! Glad everyone calmed down. Far more drama than what I recall.

 

Those spoonbills have their synchronized swimming act down perfectly.

 

Sad about the male lion. If it was a snakebite, I’d would view it a little less sad.

 

No offroading in Liuwa?! Thanks for mentioning this. Could be a deciding factor.

 

Hyenas out IN FORCE.

 

Regarding accommodations, I’d prefer not to travel a great distance, like you described, to the loo in the night I recall being provided a bed pan at least once when the loo was not near.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Atravelynn

[pault]

Ha! You kept the suspense going. Quite right not to tell us what you saw yet - peeking at the end of a book is no fun.We're reaching the finale and we don't know if we end of a sustained, quavering high note or a big, flat low one.

 

What an interesting, flat, flat place. Nice colours too. The number of birds was fairly apparent - certainly guessable.

[SafariChick]

@@graceland the walk to the loo was not as long as at that first campsite - maybe took me a minute? or 45 seconds? I don't know. But I started to not go all the way there in the middle of the night - I figured no one would care if I just went behind my tent at that time! After hearing the hyena that first night in the middle of the night, I was slightly concerned to keep an eye out for animals - but really, the only animal in Liuwa to be concerned about I think is lion and they did not hang out anywhere near our camp so after the first night or so, I wasn't even worried about animals any longer!

 

We did look at the front of the vehicle later and saw there was a thing on the other side of the front that looked like what the hyena took, so there must have been two identical ones. But what it's purpose was, I don't know. Must have been some kind of a cover for ... something? LOL all I know is the vehicle still ran without it!

 

We did start carrying our Amarula with us for sundowners, as well as other beverages everyone else liked.

 

@@Atravelynn ha ha - not that I'm into letters but some people don't like their real names used and I wanted to have the chance to check with my friend. Turns out she doesn't mind if I tell you her name is Anne-Marie! Re the off-roading - there was still an exception in place for the researchers with ZCP. Perhaps NCS will be given the same exemption that RPS used to have when they start operations in 2015? A bedpan? Wow! I'll have a bit more to say about the male lion in a little while.

[Kitsafari]

oh i love that sequence of hyenas. i find them appealing and very fascinating, and so misunderstood, although i know they aren't attractive to many people.

 

drama on drives. too many cooks? i guess it's tough to have guides from different camps/agencies on the same drive, although i recall a few ST-ers using 2 guides during entire trips. and no off-roading? luckily the lands are flat! but still not that much fun then although when the crowds do finally come with the new camp, it will surely be a better way of controlling the vehicles.

 

when I was at Mchenja, i was told that the new Norman Carr luxury camp in Liuwa would open only for a few months each year because of the rains. I wonder if they are having second thoughts about the entire cost and returns of building such a camp, especially in current times when tourism is supposedly down? but it would definitely provide more beds (a bit more at least!) in the area.

[Big_Dog]

What a wonderful sighting and sequence of pictures - my new favourite from the report!
Perhaps a trip to Liuwa is in order...

[Atravelynn]

Looking forward to the male lion and all the rest.

[Galago]

@SafariChick Yes, we flew in from Lusaka in a 12 seater, but you still have to go into Kalabo and cross on the pontoon. The airstrip is unusually large - as you can see. Not very good photos as it was a wet and gloomy day.

[Galago]

@@SafariChick @Kitsafari Time & Tide who now own NCS have, as you say, announced Liuwa for next year at Matamenene. Interesting that they've now banned off-road driving. Jason and Robin Pope were very careful never to drive over tracks already made on the ground because of the damage it does to a terrain that is very slow to repair. However, I've seen independent drivers behaving badly.

 

It seems to me that a lodge would be entirely unworkable for several reasons. If there are more than a very small number of vehicles on the plain the whole place would be changed because you can see for miles and miles and vehicles are not what you want to see. Also, the game viewing seasons there are very short, so you wonder how a 'luxury lodge' would pay its way. And, in addition, if off-road is no longer permitted then the chances of seeing hyena dens and dog hunts are much reduced. I'll be at Destinations (travel show) in February, so perhaps I'll find out more then.

[SafariChick]

@@Galago ah, ok of course, that makes sense. We flew back to Lusaka from Kalabo as we didn't feel the need to drive both ways and of course we did have to take the pontoon back to Kalabo and then fly out of that same airstrip. It will be interesting to see what happens with NCS/Time & Tide - maybe they will be allowed to do the off-road driving again.

 

and to both you and @@Kitsafari - I also wonder about how a luxury lodge which would cost an awful lot to build would recoup those costs while being open such a short time each year. If you find out anything more in February I'd be interested to hear about it. I would hope not to have many more cars in the area as Galago you're right, one of the main draws of the area is the peaceful wilderness with so few cars and humans around.

Edited December 17, 2014 by SafariChick

[Marks]

The spoonbill video was really cool; they are like single-minded feeding machines,

Your second hyena photo on this page is a good example of what I think of as the perfect hyena: cute face, just the right amount of fluff, and all the latent power I associate with the species in every muscle, especially in mid-stride.

[marg]

@@SafariChick...really enjoying your report. Hyenas... Our first trip we left our dirty shoes outside of the tent when we went to dinner. Returned and they were in the tent along with the chair cushions. The hyenas eat these things along with airplane tires. Another game drive a pair after tussling with each other came so close to our vehicle that I was afraid that one of them would jump into it and land on me. Our guide threw some water at it. They are such interesting animals and always play the part of the bad guys. Thanks for your photos....your new camera works well!

 

Are you dry up there?

[SafariChick]

I have also heard stories about hyenas eating airplane tires, and had an encounter with hyena pups in Botswana where they came right up to our vehicle and were very interested in our vehicle tires. They are fascinating creatures and I really enjoy observing them.

 

I would not say I'm dry - it's been raining on and off all week but not as bad as last week's storm! How about you? (More on the report later today)

[Galago]

@SafariChick Hyenas are amazing and have such an inaccurate image attached to them. Yes, their curiosity is so engaging and I too experienced youngsters coming right up to the vehicle, although this was in Liuwa. I was told that the reason they chew everything is simply to find out what it is. I've heard of them taking shoes, soap, onions and a toilet cleaning brush - none of them hyena food items! I once lost some sunglasses in the bush (out from Luwi camp in the Luangwa Valley) and decided that the hyena calling nearby that night was swanning around in my Donna Karan shades. Btw I particularly liked the shot you posted of the subordinate hyena trying to curry favour with a higher ranking member of the clan. The facial expression is priceless!

[SafariChick]

I was really happy with how that photo of the two hyenas came out too - just lucky I caught it - thanks!

 

Continuing with our day, we saw vultures circling and saw a track that had been driven over to where they were circling, so we followed that track and came upon an interesting but sad sight: the mostly eaten carcass of an aardvark. I say sad because I've never seen an aardvark and have always wanted to see one. It seemed a bit odd because the tail and paws and spine remained. Jason thought the lions had probably killed and eaten as much as they wanted. We figured hyenas would have eaten more of it if it was their prey. We also contemplated whether it could have died of natural causes and the vultures just had eaten as much of it as they wanted? Jon thought if the lions had eaten it, they would have pulled it apart more. For some reason I found the paws very poignant and sad.

 

Gideon, Jason and Jon inspecting the carcass:

 

 

a closer look:

 

 

Even closer (this one may seem kind of creepy, sorry):

 

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Sorry if that last one was too close! I seem to be having a morbid fascination with caracasses on this trip.

 

After this, we drove by Matamanene and went to talk to whoever was at ZCP. We talked to Finn, one of the researchers who Jason and Gideon knew, for a while and asked him for news of the various predators in the park. He said the dogs had not been seen in Liuwa for a long time, and that in August they had found the Alpha female's collar chewed up. They thought she could have been killed by a hyena Combined with the fact that the alpha male had been killed some time before that, it sounds like the pack must have dispersed.

 

Even more sad news - Finn told us that all five of the cheetah cubs that we'd hoped we'd get to see had been killed He said it was the lions but later Graham, another of the researchers, later told Jason that it had been hyenas, so who knows. Either way it was terribly sad. She was a first time Mom and Finn said she's unfortunately brought her cubs right into the lion's territory. Finn did tell us that there was another cheetah Mom with one cub that had been seen recently further south, down near our campsite.

 

Something interesting that cheered us up a bit about the loss of the male lion was that Finn said the lions seem happier without him! He said he was always taking too much of their food, and that he would follow the lionesses when they'd hunt and roar about every five minutes, scaring away the prey! Here I was thinking they must be so sad and missing him, but Finn thought the opposite was true. We asked Finn if there was any more news yet of how or why the male died. He said they still were waiting for results of testing the tissue to try to come to some conclusion. They still thought it was some sort of poisoning, either accidental (such as snakebite) or deliberate (human). Something disturbing that Finn confirmed was reports that some parts of the lion were missing when it was found. Apparently some organs and some of his fat had been removed. This of course makes one think of human intervention, but it could be human intervention after finding him dead and he still could have died from snakebite. Some lion parts are used by Chinese in their traditional medicine, and also lion fat is used in some African "black magic" or witchcraft. Either way, the whole thing is disturbing and just sad how many of the translocated lions have lost their lives. Jason mentioned to us later that in his opinion, there was going to have to be something done about the male lion even if he hadn't died because fairly soon, the cubs (two of which are female) would be old enough to mate and African Parks would not want him mating with his own daughters. But there are no other lions in the park other than Lady and Sepo. Maybe he would have just mated with Sepo, but maybe not so Jason thought there was going to be a problem with him. And now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking about the male cub - who is he going to mate with? All he has is his mother and sisters. They cannot bring in a new male for at least a year until the cubs are old enough that the new male would not try to kill them. Taking on trying to repopulate Liuwa with lions has certainly been a difficult challenge.

 

Of course we wanted to try to see the lions, and asked Finn if he had seen them that day or knew of their whereabouts. Lady and Sepo are collared, but I think they hadn't gotten a location on them via the collars that day. However, he told us they'd heard the lions early that morning behind Matamanene, so we thought we'd have a look around as that is their usual territory anyway. Jason said there are about 10-15 spots within the greater area of Matamanene that they usually hang out, and he and Gideon both knew where those were so we thought we would have a look around and see if we could find them. As we drove around, we ran into some of the self-drivers who had jumped the line in front of us at the pontoon crossing and paused to chat. We asked if they'd seen the lions and they had, earlier that morning. The guide of the self-drivers said he saw them walk into an area we'd been at about an hour prior but then lost sight of them. Sleeping, no doubt. We looked around but didn't find them and decided to go back to camp and have lunch and try again later.

Edited December 18, 2014 by SafariChick

[graceland]

@@SafariChick, it is sad you missed the arrdvark - I too would have loved to see one alive. Well interesting on the dynamics of the pride - happy to see the dude gone so they can eat. But sad "someone" would take parts; leave parts, and leave the park without a male. Makes one sad; I do hope they can figure how to repopulate Liuwa with lions as so many here want to go and always hope for a happy ending.

 

Can't wait for more on Liuwa and hope you found the "Lady"

 

It definitely has been a safari of carcasses. My stomach is already churning.

[twaffle]

Enjoying the Liuwa portion, you never know what's around the corner.

[Galago]

@SafariChick Your record of the aardvark carcass is quite extraordinary. Indeed, a rare sighting alive, but I have never heard of anyone finding a carcass. Yes, the feet really do bring an emotional twinge into what is just nature.

 

I was sorry to hear that the alpha female dog had died. When I saw the pack a year ago the male had died some time before (jaw broken, possibly in an attack by predators) and ZCP had only collared some of the youngsters as all darting carries a risk and, if she had died, the pack would not have survived. For me, it's fascinating to get a follow up on my own sightings from your reports. Usually you visit a place, see the wildlife, learn some of the background, but you never know what happens to the critters afterwards. Anyway, here's a pic of one of the dogs:

[Marks]

 

 

For some reason I found the paws very poignant and sad.

 

Agreed...I wonder if it is because the paws are so untouched and recognizable compared to the rest of the carcass. It makes for an unsettling contrast.

[Atravelynn]

Whatever the reason, those paws are touching. Very interesting commentary on the male lion. Maybe in another year, a different male will be the ideal pride-mate. The female cheetah may have learned a lesson even if her unfortunate cubs paid the price. I hope she can raise future litters, having learned her lesson. Thanks for sharing the uplifting and the not so uplifting.