Life at Luangwa National Park

Bateleur eagle seen on our walking safari.

Life at Wildlife Camp has been great. We have been able to settle in for a few days (6 days, actually) and really absorb lots of our surroundings. We have been going on game drives, both day and night drives, and also on walking safaris. This provided ample opportunity for everyone to do lots of good game viewing, collect quite a bit of data for the student research projects, and just relax and reflect on this harsh but beautiful part of Zambia. Cliché though it is, the pictures tell a lot more than any narrative I might write. Plus, time is running short.

We leave S. Luangwa today (3 June) and embark on the two day drive back to Lusaka. We will have one day in Lusaka to collect and organize ourselves for our flights, and then we have two days of flying home to Marquette. It will be hard to leave this place, and I think everyone hopes to return…

Part of the group during the walking safari. All walking safaris are accompanied by an armed scout

Some of the gang during the game drive, elephants in the background.



Scott and Emily during the game drive on the plains.



A male and female lion we encountered at close range during one of the night drives.

Nile monitor lizards inhabited the banks near our camp.



Ginger doing some vervet monkey observations for her project.



On night safaris, you always stop for a "sundowner" and get out of the vehicles. The women on the trip all gathered for this picture.

One of the many amazing sunsets over the luangwa river. Wish we could embed the sounds of the hippos chortling from the river below...

Wildlife Camp

So without too much drama, we rolled into Wildlife Camp about a half hour before sunset, the students ready to set up their tents and get settled into their new home for the next six days. Little did they know that we had arranged a bit of a surprise for them. The Wildlife Camp owners and staff had helped arrange it so all our students could be housed in the en-suite safari tents at their rustic “Barefoot Camp” (check out the links for some pictures and explanations), and a delicious fried pork meal was awaiting the hungry and road-weary gang. At the meal, they were given a forceful safety discussion for staying in the camp – at night no one is to go anywhere without a scout (posted throughout the camp all night long), and even in the day students need to be aware of their surroundings. As if on cue, in the midst of that speech by our host, Dora, a lion began roaring within earshot. Back to our arrival –  being that they didn’t have to set up their tents, the students were able to head over to the bar for a traditional “sundowner.” And so sipping their sodas, or Mosis or Gin-and-Tonics (the true “sundowner”), the Zambassadors got to watch a fantastic sunset over the Luangwa River, with vervet monkeys in the trees, hippos rumbling from the water below and a cape buffalo grazing on the opposite riverbank. It looks like everyone is ready for a nice long visit with the Luangwa Valley. (Here sits Ginger, watching the sunset over the Luangwa from her en-suite safari tent.)

On the Road again...

After our day in the village, we had to head back on the road to get to our final destination, Wildlife Camp at South Luangwa National Park. After a brief stop in Chipata for more provisions (and a great meeting with another lovely Banda sister, Nora Banda Phiri), we hit the rough road to Mfuwe, the district in which Wildlife Camp sits. Although only 150km from Chipata, that drive took us more than 4.5 hours due to the notoriously rough road. Several of us agreed that the washboards, potholes and embedded rocks could rival any of the nastiest UP roads you could find. As an added adventure, while driving through a village, we were flagged down by a group of people who had carried an injured man out to the road. It turns out he was in a motorcycle accident and needed transport to the nearest medical facility. Without much hesitation at all, the students made room on the bus, helped get him loaded and got him some much needed water. Eventually we got him to help in Mambwe, aided greatly by one of our students, Alex Moore, who is a paramedic, and Wil Hamilton, who is a Wildlife First Aid trained responder. We got the man loaded onto an ambulance (probably a double tibia fracture…ouch) and we were back on our way

Nyanje Afternoon

After a lunch back at the Bandas and a bit of relaxing during the midday heat, students ventured off to their own desires. One group took a walk down into the village center, where they had some interesting encounters with locals and where they purchased some sugarcane for us all to try. Another group decided to head off for a hike up Nyanje Hill, the remarkable bald mountain that rose directly behind Mama Banda’s compound. Their climb was often a true bushwack, and they were accompanied by the growing throng of “Muzungu” (an African term for “white person”) groupies. Baboons and birds along the way were great, but the view from the top was spectactular. One last group stuck around the Banda compound and tried to help the Banda women with their usual daily chores and their usual daily cooking. Above all else, I think those who stuck around the compound were only further impressed with this remarkable group of Banda women who held their clan together, despite what might seem like trying circumstances.

Touring the Schools

Without going into the details of small-town politics and feuds, our intended trip to Rural Children’s Hope did not happen, but since Nelia works in the local preschool, managed by the Reformed Dutch Church, we instead went there as well as the primary and secondary schools also run by the same organization. It was clear that the preschool and the primary school in particular were in need of assistance, and our contributions were happily welcomed by the Reverend Andrew Banda (no direct relation to our Bandas). Our students were amazed at the Spartan but functional conditions coupled with the joy and curiosity of the Zambian students at the schools.

Chieftaness Nyanje

Our village arrival the night before was startling for the students – both because of the dramatically different lifestyle in the village, but also because the family was so warm and welcoming. After breakfast, Mama and Alice Banda escorted us to the home of the local Chieftaness. Since it was Friday, the day the Chieftaness holds her “court” to settle disputes between villagers, there was already a decent-sized collection of people seated outside her door, ready to be granted an audience. Whether it was because we were Westerners, or whether it was because Mama Banda is a cousin of the Chieftaness, I am not sure, but the servant of the Chieftaness came and brought us in first. Chieftaness Nyanje received us in her home, where we greeted her and got to ask a few questions. She also granted us a picture with her, for which she donned her traditional dress. (In the photo with us are the Chieftaness, Mama Banda and Alice Banda, left-to-right.)

To the Village!

After our night in Luangwa Bridge Camp, we packed up and waited for another replacement bus to arrive from Lusaka. Assured that that bus would arrive by 1100hrs, we were only a little concerned about making our appointment to arrive at our next stop, the Banda family’s compound in rural Nyanje village. Of course the replacement bus (actually the now fixed “Zambus”) did not arrive until 1430 hours, leaving us to arrive at the village just after dark. Upon arrival the gang again busily set up our traveling tent city and eagerly met our gracious and lovely hosts, the Bandas. Although the entire cast of the Banda clan is too large to really introduce here, there are three striking women who really made our stay memorable – “Mama” (Levenia) Banda, Alice Banda and Nelia Banda. Within an hour of our arrival, our entire crew was plopped happily in Alice’s living room, eating a dinner of couscous and beans (our concoction) and traditional oxtail soup with nshima (Alice’s great production).

Breakdowns

After our brief respite in Lusaka where we were able to recharge our provisions and our gumption stores, we loaded back into our bus and headed up the Great East Road. Our rental company (Taiwo Travel) had to swap out our original bus (dubbed the “Zambus” by the students) because while in Lusaka, the Zambus blew its clutch. At first, the replacement bus seemed to be everything the students wanted – more legroom and a sweet paintjob. At least that was the case until we blew the clutch on that machine less than an hour into our departure (we were still in Lusaka). To Taiwo’s credit, they had mobile mechanics on the scene within an hour, and only 4 hours behind schedule (notably punctual by “Africa Time”) we got out of Lusaka and on the road. Things went smoothly until we hit the hills past Chongwe, where we discovered our radiator cap had a blown seal…which means every 50km or so we had to stop, refill the radiator with water and then drive until we ran it dry again. Everyone handled it with great aplomb, and although later than we expected, we spent one night at the “Luangwa Bridge Camp,” which was unexepectedly lovely.

At Wildlife Camp

Hello all!

I wanted to let all the blog watchers know that we are in fine shape. We had a great time at Nyanje village, visiting the school and enjoying the warm hospitality of the Banda family. We then proceeded to Wildlife Camp...where we now reside on the banks of the Luangwa. I will try to get posts and pictures up, but as it turns out there is no general internet access available here (its only via satellite) and I am just sneaking into the administration office to get a minute to post this update.

Everyone is doing great, though. If you check the link to Wildlife Camp you can see the sorts of things the students are experiencing...it really is that beautiful, too. The students are staying at the "Barefoot Tent Camp," which was a surprise I kept from them until we arrived. The first night we had a male lion walk through camp. Everynight there are elephants and hippos, and there is a family of mongooses (mongeese?) that has been great entertainment.

Also a surprise, half the group is now proceeding on a walk out to their "Bushcamp." This walk takes them out into the game management area, where they will stay in safari tents, having had meals prepared for them by their guides...along with lots of natural history lessons and stories from the bush. Tomorrow the other half of the group will do the same thing. It should be a real highlight.

Hello everyone!

Zambia has been absolutely wonderful so far. We've seen so much already and we've still got two weeks to go. Today we've just been catching up on errands in Zambia's Capitol (Lusaka). Tomorrow we are heading out of Lusaka and in a few days we'll be in South Luangwa, which I think we're all looking forward to.

Research is underway for a number of us and I know I'm really excited to get mine finished and analyzed. While at Kasanka National Park we met some really great people, like the general manager Ernst who told us more in depth about conservation in Kasanka. We ended our last night there with a delicious South African braai (barbeque). I highly recommending Kasanka if you're ever in Zambia.

That's all for now, just keep following the blog and check out the fabulous pictures that Dr. Lindsay keeps posting!

Kristin

End of Kasanka...

On our last night at Kasanka, we treated ourselves (well it was a part of our budget!) to a great braai (African BBQ) of chicken, boerwors, coleslaw and potatoes. It was put together by the folks at the lodge, and it was a delicious and relaxing end to a great few days in the bush.

Now we head up the Great East Road for our visit to Nyanje village (and Rural Children's Hope) and then on to South Luangwa National Park and Wildlife Camp.

Research underway...

One of the good things about Kasanka is that more students were able to get their research projects off the ground. Here you can see Elise and Ginger starting their Vervet Monkey behavior projects...who took this photo, by the way? One of the monkeys?

Emily got a good start on collecting her carnivore dung. Between here and Dave (below) there was lots of excitement over animal feces. Its great to be traveling with biologists.

Below, Kristin helps Dave set up some of his pitfall traps for dung beetles. Yes, they were baited with different types of mammal dung. You've never seen someone get so excited over dung as these students.

Fibwe Hide

One of the great things to do in Kasanka (at least in May) is to see Sitatunga. These ungulates are really shy and spend most of their time in the reeds of wetlands. At the park there is a "hide" built way up in a mahogany tree, so if you get there early enough in the morning you can see the Sitatunga out in the open. The view across the vast wetland was remarkable. Here are Chloe (visible) and Mick (hidden behind the spotting scope) from the top of the hide.

Chief Chitumbo and Livingstone's Monument

 One of the things we did while in Kasanka National Park is take a quick day trip over to the spot where David Livingstone died. We stopped to visit the local chief - Chief Chitumbo - on our way. He was the great grandson of the chief who was in power when Livingstone arrived to their village and then died. Meeting the chief was an interesting experience (I am sure the students will chime in with comments).

At the monument, lots of local children and a few adults came running out to meet us and talk with us. That too was interesting. From the visit to Westminster Abbey in London, where we saw Livingstone's gravesite, to this spot where his heart was originally buried in the African bush, these Zambassadors saw ALL of Livingstone in a two-week span. Probably only a few other people can boast that...

Camping in Kasanka

 So we camped within Kasanka National Park for four nights and were without any internet, phone or electricity. This is the view of a backwater behind our campsite. We watched puku, sitatunga, jacanas, kingfishers, plovers and lots of other birds and beasts right out our backdoor. The other photo shows the open-air shower and the pit toilet. Everyday the attending men would come with water that they had warmed over a fire and fill that jug enough times so everyone could shower.

Back in Livingstone...

So while back in Livingstone, a few Zambassadors spent their "free" day back at the Falls, and while there got invited into one of the swanky hotel compounds. There they found giraffes and zebras that were quite docile (the animal handlers were right with them, I am told). Here you see Alex, Dave and Kristin with the Zebras and Giraffe.

Reality check in Zambia

Today was a great day in Livingstone, we had a free day to either re-visit the falls, go bird watching, and a few of us went to visit an orphanage here in town. Those of us who went to the orphanage really got a good look at the hardships that face the everyday people of Zambia. This is a third world country, and sometimes it's easy to forget that when we're in a bus looking at the elephants and rhinos. When you get down to the people, we often forget what their lives are like everyday. We wanted to spend a bit of time helping out and giving back to the country that has already in our few short days given us some lifetime experiences. We visited the Lubasi Orphanage in town, and played some futbol with the kids there for just a little under 2 hours. In those hours, many of us got a really hard reality check on what it's like here for many kids. Most of the kids in the home were orphans from parents that died from HIV/AIDS. It's tragic to see these kids that have lost so much at such a young age, but have the biggest smiles and are so willing to share and play with you.

Not only did we get a chance to play with the kids, but an administrator also gave us a tour of their facilities. This gave us a chance to understand what the orphanage needs, such as books, cooking supplies, hygenic items, and money. We are trying to give back, and many of us hope to contribute to this foundation once we return home. If anyone is interested in checking out their website, here's the link. http://www.lubasihome.org/

Thank you all for reading. It was truly an enriching experience that some of us were able to share in today.

Emily and Elise

Game drive in Mosi-oa-Tunya park

On the driving portion of the safari, we were fortunate enough to see lots of game, and many of the species that everyone was dying to see. Elise, in particular, had her heart set on elephants, as it was a fantasy of hers since childhood. Here she is atop the vehicle, with a nice herd of elephants (7+ adults with 2 young) passing right in front of our vehicles. Perhaps the highlight was watching one elephant just tear down a decent-sized tree so it could access some of the upper branches.

Canoeing the Zambezi

Yesterday we went on a canoe safari on the upper Zambezi, and finished the day with a game drive. On the canoe portion (16km of river) we saw hippos, eagles, crocodiles and many species of birds. You can see the types of boats we used (inflatables), although they reserved the boat on the far left for the professors. Everyone had a blast, and you can see the guide, Dominic, point out a crocodile on the Zimbabwean bank of the river to Emily.

Victoria Falls

Once we arrived at Victoria Falls, we went into the park (paid our admission) and then proceeded to explore. There was more water going over the falls than I have ever seen – the rainy season lasted quite long this year. Walking across the bridge, Scott (and everyone else) got absolutely soaked, but it felt very refreshing in the hot African sun. We saw some great wildlife and plants on our walk down into the gorge, including some close encounters with the resident baboon troop, but those pictures will have to wait.

Driving to Livingstone

I am sorry to say that the internet connections are few and far between, but the students were very anxious to get more pictures up on the blog. We flew into Lusaka, found our vehicle and driver, acquired a few supplies and then drove off to Livingstone. On the drive, we stopped for some bananas. Casey was clearly excited about the bananas (Elise's photo). This is how they felt about roadside bananas - you should have seen their reaction to Victoria Falls, or to seeing the rhinos and elephants...

We made it!

Cheerio London!!

Bwanji Zambia!

We made it to Livingstone today to Jolly Boy's Campground! We left yesterday at 7pm after our afternoon tea time in London. We arrived in Lusaka around 6am in Zambia time. We thought it was going to be a 14 hour flight, and it was only 10 , so that was nice! We then rode in a bus for 8 hours to get to Livingstone. It was amazing to see what life is like here. When we bought bananas, we were stormed by many people trying to sell us fruit. Our campsite is really cool and it's just so awesome to be here. Tomorrow we get to see Victoria Falls, and some monkeys!!!! Also, we saw a ton of Lilac-breasted rollers on the way here.
-Ginger & Brianne

The girls from 106 (LeeAnne, Brianne and Emily) decided to add some more photos from the past few days. We included our evolutionary picture taken at Darwin's house in Downe, Mick receiving Baker's elephant gun at the Royal Geographic Society, a sketch of a baboon done by Baker and a dinosaur skeleton from our trip to the British Natural History Museum.

12 May 2011
Today was another great day in London. We visited the Royal Geographic Society and the British Field Museum. At the RGS, we were taken into the library to see artifacts of both Livingstone and Stanley, along with other explorers, including their hats, maps they had drawn during their explorations, and some of the equipment they used on their expeditions. It was awesome to see how these guys just went off exploring and came back with this knowledge to share with the world. At the Field Museum, we were taken on another tour that showed us the storage and preparation areas for the specimens on display at the museum. It was very cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at the labs, and even cooler to see the storage area. Darwin's original preserved specimen samples from the Beagle explorations were down in the basement, and we were given a chance to see them! Overall a very cool day to be sure! We're off on our flight to Zambia tomorrow, and can't wait for the sights and adventures to be had there.

May 11

May 11- After catching up on our sleep and recovering from serious jet lag, we headed out to the Down house where Charles Darwin lived. It was beyond amazing, all of us were in awe of this house and how they kept notes, artifacts, and the gardens the same as Darwin had it in his time. We even got to view some of his experiments that he worked on in his own yard. Touring inside the house really took you back into time (and again- we weren't allowed to take pictures inside). The whole group ultimately agreed that we would all love to live there! The area he lived in was also beautiful, the townsfolk were very nice and we caught glimpse of the inside of this 800 year old church! The pub food was divine and the pints even more so. After heading back into London we strolled through rose gardens, checked out the fountains in the parks (along with many bird species), and circled Buckingham Palace. - Busy too! due to the royal wedding perhaps?

May 10

May 10- Here we are at Sawyer before going on our voyage. We were super excited for our month long journey! Chicago was a long layover for us (8 hours), and when we actually reached London it was 7 am! Big Ben/Parliament and Westminster Abbey was first on the list. The church was gorgeous, it held so must history and burial sites of royals and famous Brits. Some examples are Chaucer, Darwin, Newton and Livingstone. Unfortunately were weren't allowed to photograph the inside of the church. After that we headed to the Tower of London, and ending the tour with a relaxing breeze on the bridge. To beat the jet lag and long travels we receded to our rooms and fell asleep with no trouble. Some of our rooms had a wonderful view of the Sussex gardens out in front of our hotel.