Zambia’s Kafunta Safaris shares their latest news

It’s heating up here in the Luangwa Valley as we are switching to summer, and the safari season has reached its very peak!

August has been a busy month, with several interesting sightings of leopard and lion cubs. The wild dogs are still elusive, although we have hopes that they are now coming out of denning. The good news is that we are starting to see Carmine bee-eaters as they are now gathering to form breeding colonies.

I wanted to start the newsletter with this cute photo of our new crocheted friends: Ginger & Garlic! If you’ve been on safari in South Luangwa in the past year, you are most likely familar with the nicknames Ginger & Garlic given to 2 male lions forming a coalition. Conservation South Luangwa came up with the brilliant idea of associating with Little Ndaba to make these handcrafted toys to help raise funds for anti-snaring patrols in South Luangwa. They are available at our shop for purchase (limited stock)!

Little Ndaba was formed in 2014 to create toys with big hearts and long tales (pun intended)! Groups of women from Zambia gather to knit and crochet gorgeous animals which are designed to help raise awareness and where possible funding for the conservation of many endangered animals.

Can I take this opportunity to remind all of our guests to post a review on Trip Advisor, if you haven’t done so already?

It would be very helpful, especially for Three Rivers Camp and Island Bush Camp so you can help them climb up the T.A. ranking (currently respectively 37 and 36 out of 44). Here are the links to our three properties:

Kafunta River Lodge

Three Rivers Camp

Island Bush Camp

Thank you so much! Here’s a wonderful review from our long term return guests Hanne & Sorren Elkjear, and I think they describe superbly what Three Rivers is about. Don’t worry your review doesn’t need to be as detailed, but I hope it will be as sympathetic!

End of July, early August we received a new visit from Mounir Hassanieh, tour leader and travel agent for Nachbaur Reisen in Austria.

Mounir brough along 16 guests from Austria and Swizerland who shared their time between Kafunta River Lodge and both our bush camps for a total of 8 nights! They had the luxury of enjoying each camp on their own.

We celebrated Switzerland national day during that time and had fun with bush brunches and special sundowners too.

Actually, I’m not sure who is the mouse and who is the cat in this story!

On a recent game drive, our safari guide spotted a lot of vultures circling above the plains which is most often then not a sign of a dead animal – most likely a lion or a leopard kill. So he decided to investigate.

At first all he could see was a family of elephants standing on the plains, and then he spotted a nearby hyena that was quite agitated. On the other side of where the elephants were, was a carcass in a bush.

The hyena was obviously interested in that, but the elephants were in the way.

Then he also spotted a bystander… a leopard – probably the rightful owner of the carcass, and we guessed that the hyena had stolen the kill from the leopard (they do that a lot!), but was then interrupted by the arrival of elephants.

As it was an interesting sighting, our guide and his guests decided to stay a bit longer. The hyena was trying to dodge the elephants, and in doing so annoyed one of them who started chasing the hyena away. That was actually quite funny because the hyena was swerving left and right and the elephant was following it around! It went on for a few minutes!

Eventually the elephant gave up, and the hyena grabbed the kill away. The poor leopard was left there as an unfortunate spectator!

As it was dusk, the photos are not great quality, but I still think the story is too amusing not to show it.

This is another occasion where a hyena was spotted stealing a kill from a leopard. The photos are from our guest Rosie Atkinson.

The leopard won’t usually fight long for its dinner, as getting injured in a squabble would be too much of a risk to take. Best to give up a meal than not being able to hunt for the next one!

But sometimes it must be frustrating to be a leopard, for sure.

I’ve heard many stories of guests coming back from their drives all excited after seeing cute fuzzy balls with blue eyes and knew my day would eventually come!

And it has!!!

But as it is often the case in the bush, the unexpected happened. We came across a hyena wandering around on the path, and the next thing we saw was a leopard at the base of a tree. When Chapuma said "look up", and I saw another tail, I could not believe it! My day had come!!!

The only downside was that one of the cubs has a condition that will sooner or later be fatal, despite having already survived several months. I submitted the picture above to Dr. Mwamba Sichande, the vet for the Zambian Carnivore Program, who said it looked like the cub has a prolapsed rectum and unfortunately the prognosis is not very good. This is a natural condition, and not one that we would intervene for.

Let’s just hope the cub will be lucky and can survive as long as possible.

It’s not the case in all African destinations, but here in South Luangwa, we are allowed to remain in the park after sunset, for a "night drive".

Some guests are not keen on night drives, as they are sometimes on the quiet side and it can be a little drowsing to follow the beam of the spot light, going left and right, and left and right.

Our night drives are on the short side however (usually just the last hour, hour and half, of the game drive). And most often than not, quite rewarding!

At night you have a better chance to see predators on the move.

Just like the photos above of the leopard and her cubs, this one on the left was taken right after sundowners. We were watching 4 lionesses in the distance, belly up – and thought they were not about to move. But as the night came, they got up and walk right past our vehicle.

Seeing lions on the prowl, in the darkness, is a truly unique feeling.

Then so many other little nocturnal animals can also be spotted at night. Such as the water thick-knee above (catching a frog) or genet, civet, scrub hare or mongoose, as seen in the photos below. It would be a shame to miss out on the night life of the African bush.

Leslie Polizoti stayed with us for 10 nights in August, experiencing our three properties. Originally from the US, Leslie left her former life as a corporate litigator & law-firm partner in March 2016 for a new adventure in Africa, concentrating on her passion for wildlife conservation. She spent months volunteering in Namibia and Madagascar, trained on venomous snake husbandry in Kenya and most recently, qualified as a field & back-up trails guide in South Africa!

Leslie is one of those guests who definitely leave a mark wherever they go! We enjoyed her visit very much, and her snake-handling skills certainly amazed many of our local staff and guests alike.

Without hesitation, I targeted Leslie as our guest of the month! And she happily played the game, before heading off to Rwanda to meet some gorillas!

Leslie is also an accomplished photographer as you will see below, and you can follow her adventures in her blog "Working with my Hippo".

Here’s Leslie’s account of her stay and safaris with our guides Andrew & Abel (private vehicle).

You’ve been in Africa for over a year, is this your first trip to the continent?

No–my first trip was a safari in March 2008, at Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. I got hooked and since then I’ve traveled to Africa on safari every chance I had!

Why did you choose South Luangwa, and our camps?

South Luangwa has always been on my list of places I’d love to visit, because of the high density of leopards. The first time I tried to come (in 2015), I learned that my vacation time coincided with the height of the rainy season…so I went on a different trip instead. After I moved to Africa the following year, I met someone from NatGeo who raved about the park, saying how amazing the sightings were. So, I decided that now was the time for a trip!

I picked Kafunta because it was one of the few operators I found that offered exceptional value for money based on all of the reviews I saw–and the reviews turned out to be right! I also liked that Kafunta operates multiple camps in different areas of the park, and can do trips to Nsefu Sector, so you really get to experience the park.

How was your experience?

Exceptional. The staff are kind and attentive. The guides are very knowledgeable and lead fantastic safaris. The food is amazing. The camps are all different, and the newest Three Rivers camp blew me away with its chalet design–the most creative in any place I’ve stayed. And I had even better wildlife sightings that I thought possible.

What was your greatest wildlife sighting during your stay?

It has to be our time with a particular leopard and her young cubs. There were several vehicles out on the plains one morning, and as we approached we saw the reason: a female leopard. We followed her a bit through the tall grass until she disappeared into thicket next to a gully.

We branched off for our morning break. We unpacked and were chatting when we heard leaves crunching and birds alarming. My guide Andrew spotted the leopard on the far side of the vehicle, along the riverbank. She stopped and looked at us from 20 meters away.

Apparently satisfied that we weren’t a threat, she began calling her cubs with a short little bark. As she moved off, still calling, we
set a record for fastest packing up of a coffee break and got on the road in time to see her first cub greeting her under the trees.

The leopard then moved to a fallen tree, standing on it and calling her second cub. Having spent enough time at the sighting, we began to leave. Just as we started down the road, the second little cub shot out from under a bush, crouching low when she saw us. This cub is known to be very shy around vehicles (unlike her Mom and brother). We felt fortunate to have seen her and moved off so as not to disturb her.

There was another sighting that was absolutely amazing and would have been my favorite…except I like leopards just a bit more than lions!

We had driven in Main Gate and were on the main road when a collared lioness crossed the road in front of us. When the lioness put her head in some thick grass on the roadside and poked around, I picked up my camera and was astounded to see her pick up a tiny lion cub, still with its eyes closed.

As the lioness put the cub down gently, another lioness came and the two adults greeted each other, rubbing and grooming. The cub, with barely enough strength to walk, wobbled out from hiding and onto the lionesses. They paid no attention, carrying on with their grooming. The lionesses actually got up, one by one, and flopped down not far away around the corner, leaving the cub at the side of the road, crying for Mom.

At this point, there were more vehicles and this was obviously a very sensitive sighting–so we and some other vehicles moved off. My guide and I were totally confused as to what had happened. Based on their behavior, neither of the lionesses were the cub’s Mom.

The good news is that the following day, other Kafunta guests saw the cub’s Mom moving it to a new location–so the cub is ok!

Was there anything that made you nervous in the African bush?

No 🙂 The thing that usually makes people nervous–a snake–is one of my favorite animals!

Do you think you will travel again in Southern Africa after this? If so, where?

I’m nearing the end of my training as a field guide–so yes, I intend to spend a lot more time in Africa! For more safaris in Southern Africa, I’d like to return to Kafunta and South Luangwa again, and I currently have plans to visit Madikwe, Mashatu and Kruger Park.

You may have seen some of her photos in the past months, or actually met her at the lodge – Jessica Minogue was our front of house volunteer since early May.

Jessica was a guest with us last year, and was actually our first "guest of the month" feature. She came back this year to help us with front of house operations and the bakery.

But every good thing comes to an end, and we just said our farewells to Jessica who is now on her way back to college in the US. Thank you Jessica for your hard work and good company!

Time to get ready for the hot months.

I leave you now with these scenic photos of elephants at the lodge.

We expect the elephants to become more and more frequent visitors now that our wild mango tree and fig tree are blooming and will soon be dropping fruits.

Fun times ahead!

I’ll let you know how it goes in a month’s time!

Izzy

Kafunta Safaris