We spent a wonderful 5 days in South Luangwa at Flatdogscamp The camp is on the banks of the Luangwa river and you can watch hippos and crocodiles in the water from the riverside tents. Elephants, and hippo wander through the camp night and day so campers, not in the purpose built and protected tents are advised to use the tree top platforms to camp….

We were very pleased to be in our van where we slept soundly but Lewis in his eyrie hearing elephants in the night looked out to see an elephant trunk pulling leaves off the tree at eye level….he had tied his guy ropes on to some branches so spent the rest of the night worrying what would happen if an elephant pulled the branch off… would the guy rope snap or would the tent come off…..
We did a night drive with Edward and then using the rest of our 24hr entrance pass drove around in the van we saw one other vehicle in the entire day, not helpful when we had our first puncture in the whole trip and had to change the wheel with Lucy on lion watch. Thank you Lewis!
We saw the most wonderful variety of wildlife, fish eagles, Pels fish owl (huge) leopard up a tree with a kill

and on the riverbank as well as elephant,zebra, giraffe countless deer, wharthog, crocs (flatdogs in local parlance) and of course the hippo and thousands of monkeys and baboons. Brilliant.


A bloat of hippos (yes thats the collective noun for the next pub quiz!)

After a lovely few days at Chitimba we decided to press on south keeping to the lake shore, but the first leg was up into the hills reaching Mzuzu before heading back to the coast. No sign of diesel ( which had been in short supply for several weeks) so we turned back to the coast passing through miles of rubber plantations.

The drive was spectacular but long…..and no fuel, so we were pleased to have 50 litres spare on the roof.
We spent the night in Senga bay and then headed for Lilongwe the capital… made the decision as there was still no fuel to go for the border after a couple of days at Mabuya camp with intermittent power caused by the fuel shortage. Tom and Jane who run the camp were wonderful as was the campsite.
The poverty statistics are quite simply horrific even by african measures 40% of the population live on less than US$1 a day and nearly 50% of the population are under 15. Life expectancy is 43.

I am told that cane mice(?) are delicious…
We met Lewis at the bar who was looking for a lift to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, our next stop, so we gave him a ride to Flatdogs where Edward who had been to school with our sons was based. Bit of a drama just outside Chipata when the gear stick came off in me ‘and……