Country 4, Zambia

Left Kande Beach and crossed the border into Zambia.  Several people upgraded here and the rest of us put our tents up and relaxed once we arrived at our destination of Crocodile Valley.  They had a pool so I was able to get in a bit of a swim, although, it wasn’t very big, but it was nice when a person was overheating.

Monkeys Everywhere!

We were asked not to feed them but some people still felt the need to give them food.  The problem with feeding them and being friendly is that they get used to it and become pests to the local people.  We saw several monkeys missing their tails and at least one without a hand – this is a sign that that particular monkey is a troublemaker and they mark them this way.  They only get some many strikes, or body parts chopped off, before they are killed.

One of many monkeys

On the grounds of the campground

Night Game Drive

Most of us are doing a game drive while we are here.  It starts in the late afternoon and then goes into a night drive.  My hope was that we would be able to see something in the dark.   We drove around the park for a bit and saw a lot of hippos, giraffes and elephants.  As the sun was setting, we stopped at a river bank and we had a snack of popcorn and juice while we watched the hippos hang out and make a lot of noise.

Getting ready to head out

So many hippos as we entered the park

Giraffe native to this area

One of several groups of elephants we saw

So cute!

I just couldn't resist this picture

Most of the animals didn't care about  us

He had no interest in us

Watching the sunset and observing all the hippos

We don't know where the lone hippo was going.  We thought the elephants were coming for water but they turned.

Nope, water wasn't interesting.

From there, we went driving in the dark.  Each car wandering around had a big spot light on it with someone dedicated just to running it.  They would sweep the light from side to side, looking for reflections from the eyes of an animal.  We did manage to find some giraffe’s, hyenas and some napping lions but it was difficult to get any good pictures due to it being night

As we were heading out of the park, we came across a “game drive traffic jam” and we approached slowly to see what was going on.  It turned out some lions had brought down a zebra and were having a hearty supper.  With all the cars there, it was easier to get a decent shot as there were a lot of lights.  While it was something gruesome to see, it was amazing to see something like this in the wild.  From what the guides said, it sounds like it doesn’t happen that often as they tend to take their kills further from the road.

Warning:  Graphic pictures ahead, view at your own risk.

Sleepy kitties

And these kitties were hungry