It was a cold night camping and not much warmer when we got up in the morning. After breakfast we headed into Lusaka and morning traffic, in Lusaka it’s all day traffic. We filled up with diesel and headed south. The road was tarred but had some serious potholes, this combined with trucks made driving difficult. There were also mountain passes, which although beautiful, added to the difficult driving conditions.
Just before Chirundu we turned off onto a dirt road, which we had been warned was difficult and would take us around 2 ½ hours to do 65km. Much to our surprise, the roads had been newly graded and we had a very pleasant trip through. At the Kafue River we had to catch a pontoon, fortunately it was working and we a very easy crossing, costing us US$28.
We arrived at Mvuu Camp just on lunch time. It is a stunning camp, in the middle of the African bush, on the banks of the Zambezi River. We have our own ablution area, a stone structure, shoulder height, with no roof. Our welcome committee was a troop of cheeky monkeys.
Shortly after setting up camp and exploring the deck/bar/boma area, we heard the familiar sound of breaking branches and there was a herd of ellie. We followed them down to the river to watch them drink and on the same bank was a hippo grazing. Back at camp Ga was making lunch, with huge difficulty as the monkey were proving an almighty nuisance. Just as he was putting the finishing touches to his own gourmet sandwich, a monkey swooped out the tree and stole half of it. He was furious and spent the next half hour trying to shoot the thieving little monsters with a cattie.
Our lunch proved a lot more peaceful and we sat and watched another herd of ellie, with the tiniest baby we have seen browsing on the trees right next to us. Then the baboons arrived, something agitated them and there was a huge commotion and rustling of trees.
We spent a lazy afternoon on the deck, overlooking the river, playing games and watching the game along the river banks.
We made a big ‘atmosfire ’ in the evening, for our braai and to keep us warm. There is no electricity in the camp site and it was wonderful to see the stars peeking through the branches above. The best was having a nice hot shower and looking up to star filled sky. We all went to bed listening to the sounds of the wild and rather embarrassingly, some fellow campers clearly enjoying their evening.
Ellie and Hippo
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