{"id":262,"date":"2009-06-07T08:45:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-07T12:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gergltd.com\/zambia\/?page_id=262"},"modified":"2009-06-21T21:53:21","modified_gmt":"2009-06-22T02:53:21","slug":"may-22-first-evening-safari","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/safari\/may-22-first-evening-safari\/","title":{"rendered":"May 22 – First Evening Safari"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Campsite

Campsite at Flatdogs<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived at Flat Dogs Camp<\/a> at noon.\u00a0 Flatdogs is located in [[Mfuwe]]. The native language here is [[Nyanja]], the same as in Lusaka.<\/p>\n

We were lucky enough to get a campsite that had a tree platform for our tent.\u00a0 The camp has these platforms because the wildlife commonly roams the campgrounds during the evenings.\u00a0 We were directred to our site and then set up our tent and made some pasta for lunch over John’s kerosene stove.\u00a0 After lunch, we took a walk to the nearby Luanga River to see the hippos.\u00a0 Hippos have no sweat glands so often hang out in water during the daytime to cool themselves.\u00a0 Hippos stay mostly submerged with only their noses sticking out above the water to breath though they can stay completely submerged for up to six minutes.\u00a0 Towards the end of a day, the hippos will stick their heads up out of the water and yawn.\u00a0 This is done to jumpstart blood flow throughout the body in preparation of leaving the water to head onto land for nighttime.\u00a0 At night, hippos will commonly feed on grass, sausage fruit, and Nile cabbage.<\/p>\n

\"Food

Food storage shack at Flatdogs<\/p><\/div>\n

We put our food in a special house so the animals (mostly baboons and monkeys) don’t come through our campsite and take it.\u00a0 The house is completely sealed with mesh wire and has a special latch.\u00a0 It also contained outlets by which to hook up appliances for cooking, such as a hotplate. \u00a0The small shack also contained a refrigerator for keeping perishable items.<\/p>\n

\"Laura

Laura and Robert Malone<\/p><\/div>\n

During this time, we met a couple from Austin, TX.\u00a0 They were retired teachers and have traveled much through Africa.\u00a0 Their names were Robert and Laura Malone.\u00a0 We also met two girls from England who recently finished medical school and were in Zambia volunteering at a hospital.\u00a0 Their names were Charlie and Bex.<\/p>\n

Before we left the campsite, Robert and Laura exchanged contact information with me.\u00a0 They have a travel blog at http:\/\/malonetravels2.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flatdogs had an Internet Cafe on site, the only Internet cafe in the Bush as they advertised.\u00a0 I checked my Facebook at this time to let my family know I arrived safely there.<\/p>\n

\"Safari

Safari vehicle<\/p><\/div>\n

We went on a night safari this evening, our first safari of four at the camp.\u00a0 The safari was a driving tour through the [[South Luangwa National Park]].\u00a0 We drove in modified Toyota Land Cruisers.\u00a0 The safari was four hours in length with a half an hour break for drinks and snacks.\u00a0 We had two hours of daylight and two of nighttime.\u00a0 The nighttime part was the better half.\u00a0 We drove right through a pride of lions and encoutered a single lion that was no more than ten feet away.\u00a0 It was incredible!\u00a0 During this safari, we saw:\u00a0 [[giraffe]]s, [[water buck]], [[bush buck]], [[civet]]s, [[impala]]s, pride of lions, many species of birds, [[hyena]]s, [[warthog]]s, [[elephant]]s, [[baboon]]s, [[hippo]]s, [[zebra]]s, [[crocodile]]s, and a [[leopard]] hunting impalas.<\/p>\n

\"Zebra

Zebra grazing<\/p><\/div>\n

The night sky in the park was incredible; it was entirely filled with stars all the way to the horizon.\u00a0 You could clearly see the cloudy Milky Way as well as the [[Southern Cross]] constellation — absolutly amazing!<\/p>\n

The Malone’s came with us on this safari and their experiences about it, including pictures, can be found at http:\/\/malonetravels2.blogspot.com\/2009\/05\/lion-on-hunt-night-game-drive.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A

A hippo at our campsite at night<\/p><\/div>\n

When we arrived back at our campsite, I attempted to brush my teeth.\u00a0 I went up into our tree platform to fetch my stuff and began to climb down the ladder when I heard some rustling below me.\u00a0 I originally thought it was John just goofing off. \u00a0When I turned around though, I saw a huge hippo \u00a0next to our sink! I climbed back up the ladder and waited for the hippo to finish grazing and leave our campsite. \u00a0Visitations by hippos were something we would experience nightly at our campsite over the next few days.<\/p>\n

I had a cold today — \u00a0sore throat and a stuffy nose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrived at Flat Dogs Camp at noon.\u00a0 Flatdogs is located in [[Mfuwe]]. The native language here is [[Nyanja]], the same as in Lusaka. We were lucky enough to get a campsite that had a tree platform for our tent.\u00a0 The camp has these platforms because the wildlife commonly roams the campgrounds during the evenings.\u00a0 … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":69,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417,"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262\/revisions\/417"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gergltd.com\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}