Into Remote Africa - Early September in the Luangwa valley - A photographic report from Tafika and the wonderful Takwela in North Luangwa.

[madaboutcheetah]

First of all, Big Thank You to @Sangeetaand Chalo Africa for putting this trip together in super quick time ........ At the time, we Indians were not allowed into Kenya, Tanzania or Botswana without a quarantine as they were slow to relax the rules after the restrictions that came into place during the height of the delta wave in India.  Zambia and South Africa would let us in = so Zambia it was !!  I had to get out after the trauma of the delta wave that had gripped the entire country here.  

 

Big Thank You to Remote Africa and the hands on approach of the owners.   An absolute pleasure to be in the company of John, Carol, Jen, Nick, Bryan and the wonderful guides during the stay - Lloyd, Amon and Alex who runs a fantastic camp at Takwela in North park.

 

I will start with the first few photos of the Quintessential Luangwa in September photos - Carmines!  

 

Literally a couple of weeks prior to the safari - Dubai had relaxed the rules too - so it was the easy Emirates flight to Lusaka.  All very smooth to get into Lusaka with a covid test prior to the flights.   While we were in Zambia, India put in a rule that all arriving passengers into India need to take a Covid test on arrival regardless of test prior to boarding the flights.  It ended up very easy (although Mumbai airport made us run from desk to desk - the results of the test came to me by Wassap and email in a few hours) ...... all very easy.  Talk of travel in the times we live in!  Prior to the return flights, we opted for the in camp testing at tafika which was all very easy and the Covid negative certificate was collected in Lusaka prior to check in for the emirates. Didn’t need to overnight in Lusaka on the way home. 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by madaboutcheetah
Addition

[madaboutcheetah]

Some iPhone photos from Takwela in North Luangwa national park

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by madaboutcheetah

[Zubbie15]

This should be interesting, I've been enjoying your Instagram photos it'll be nice to have some backstory.  

 

It looks like a couple of your photos in the second post are upside down, I wonder how that happened? 

[madaboutcheetah]

Thanks @Zubbie15- not sure what happened with those upside down photos…. Will re post those later. Thanks 

[Kitsafari]

Yay you started! i was looking out for this. those flaming carmines are such a delight to watch!

 

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Today's instalment with some random images ....... We were lucky that the Milyoti pack that were denning deep in the Nsefu sector made an appearance and were trying to introduce their puppies to the Northern sections of the park.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by madaboutcheetah
Spelling

[BRACQUENE]

19 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Big Thank You to Remote Africa and the hands on approach of the owners.   An absolute pleasure to be in the company of John, Carol, Jen, Nick, Bryan and the wonderful guides during the stay - Lloyd, Amon and Alex who runs a fantastic camp at Takwela in North park.

 

Marvelous and some fantastic pictures Hari ; I am looking forward you can imagine to see some old friends when I will be there in July 2022 visiting Tafika , Takwela and Mwaleshi 

 

[Athene]

Beautiful pictures @madaboutcheetahTafika is a place I hope to see in the not too distant future. We also visited Zambia in early September and had an exciting safari in the Lower Zambezi.

[madaboutcheetah]

@BRACQUENE- I’m sure you look forward to your visit in July 

 

@Athenei am sure you had an amazing time in LZ. Other guests and pilots I met in Zambia mentioned the epic wild dog sightings in the park this season. Awesome stuff 

[madaboutcheetah]

The Lion series and the Leopard in thicket are images from Takwela (North Luangwa) -

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Olimba - the famous Leopard from the documentary "A leopard's legacy" was seen in the Nsefu area every day along with her two cubs - 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by madaboutcheetah
Typo

[madaboutcheetah]

A very very brief trip to the Banguwelu swamps ........ resulted in this shoebill 

[BRACQUENE]

@madaboutcheetah

 

A question Hari : I would love to do the same next year  as they took over Shoebill Island Camp but had you planned it beforehand with Remote or your travel company or not as I suppose you didn't stay a night in the camp ? 

[Towlersonsafari]

hurrah!  what were the logistis of a "brief trip to banguwelu 2 please/-lovely photo's @madaboutcheetah

[madaboutcheetah]

@BRACQUENEand @Towlersonsafari …. I booked through chalo Africa in advance. I did stay at shoebill camp. 

 

Flights are expensive - best way to do this is to fly from tafika and back …. You will anyway take the pro flight from/ to Lusaka.  Lusaka is also very far to begin with. 
 

hmmmm I think African parks manage and run the operations there - not exactly sure what the arrangements are with Remote Africa. 
 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by madaboutcheetah

[Kitsafari]

what a stunning dinosaur shoebill. still among the top of my list of lifers. 

[Athene]

@madaboutcheetahyes, we were lucky enough to see the 23 strong pack at Old Mondoro but not the pups. They came out a few days after we had left. Old Mondoro's other vehicle guests witnessed the pack hunting and bringing down a fully grown buffalo cow. We arrived a few minutes after the kill and saw the dogs feeding.

[BRACQUENE]

Thanks @madaboutcheetah ; on their website Shoebill Island  is mentioned as their new 6th camp and flights(one hour) are possible from Tafika , Mfuwe and Mwaleshi but I suppose it will be difficult in one day meaning I will have to expand my safari  !

[linjudy]

@madaboutcheetah, amazing photos, especially of the carmines! Only "disappointment" on our June trip was that we saw exactly one poorly lit carmine. So we are vowing to return in Sept or Oct next year.  What was the temperature like in Sept?

 

Also very happy to see the Nsefu pack with the puppies out! In June the female was very pregnant and just started to den. It's very nice to see and hear about these lovely animals from other travelers. Thanks for posting!

[madaboutcheetah]

@linjudy- yes I’d recommend September for carmines …. Not unbearably hot by any stretch. Low 30s C or low 90s F 

[Caracal]

I'm envious of your Shoebill sighting @madaboutcheetah - back in 2007 I stayed 3 nights there and had extensive searches but no luck. The handsome black lechwe however were superb and in masses.

Shoebill Island Camp was very basic - I imagine it's quite different nowadays.

 

Superb photos.

[madaboutcheetah]

@Caracal- I’m told shoebill sightings in Uganda are relatively easy and logistically very easy from Entebbe. 

[michael-ibk]

Great photos Hari, particularly love all the Carmines! They are just wonderful, seeing their colonies is a quintessential safari experience for me. Fantastic light on that Lion, and great sightings with the Dogs and the Leopard cubs. And the Shoebill is just the icing on the cake - just wow!

[Atravelynn]

You had to be thrilled with the shoebill.  I love the puku family time shots.  Daily leopard cubs is quite astounding.

[AKR1]

Great start to your trip report, Hari. Glad everything worked out, especially the fairly seamless logistics in these times. You appear to have had excellent sightings. Love the Shoebill shots.