South Luangwa National Park

From Siavonga we returned to the main road and headed east towards Zimbabwe.  At the border town we took a dusty red road north back up towards the T4.  A few kilometers along we came to a river crossing by pontoon operated by the same company as the crossing from Botswana into Zambia.


Because we had a foreign registered vehicle, the cost was USD $20.00 or R 180.00 instead of the more reasonable local payment.  The hitch was that they wouldnt accept kwacha in payment, we had to pay in rand or USD.  Argh!  We hunted up enough USD and were quickly on the other side.

 We turned into a one lane road through sugar cane, banana and corn fields then this narrowed to a track through the forest and eventually deteriorated into a series of steep turns up the side of a mountain. 

The view should have been amazing but the air was hazy.  The bush was pretty and literally smouldered in many places by the track where trees had been cut down to stumps and the trunks were burning.  At first I was concerned about getting caught in a burn off.  It took a while to work out what was going on.  The trees werent being felled to make a field or clearing in the bush, or even to use the wood for shelter or cooking but to make charcoal to sell in big bags on the side of the road.

We finally emerged from the bush on the other side of the mountain range and through a small village where the children were really excited to see a car.  I cant imagine that road gets much traffic, it was fairly hairy for the Landy in places. 

Another day of driving on roads that turn into goat tracks... At one point we were waved down by a boy who was returning with his wife and new born baby to his village, on a bicycle with no pedals, on a road that required a 4WD to pass.  How could we refuse him a lift?  So the bicycle was strapped to the roof and they piled in the back.

After another full day of driving on dirt 'roads' we finally arrived at South Luangwa National Park.  It turned out the fees were going to be USD$80.00 or $70.00 or $65.00 and we expected them to be payable in USD.  After the Okavango Delta and Chobe I was a bit fatigued of game parks so we set up camp by the river and let the game come to us.  A small herd of elephants walked right through our camp not long after dark while we were walking over to the ablution block thankfully although one of the small ones mock-charged Duncan.  I woke at 5.30 the next morning to the sounds of elephants munching the tree outside the tent.  Upon investigation I found myself only one foot from the elephants trunk, which was delicately picking leaves off the tree we were parked under.  Croc Valley Camp is unfenced and they regularly have elephant, hippos, lions and other game wander through the camp.  Two weeks ago a leopard came to drink at the swimming pool.