About a week total including internal transportation:
10 hour round-trip drive (rented a 4x4 pick-up truck) from Lusaka to Kafue and back. Then a 24 hour round-trip Jonda Bus (that was intense!) from Lusaka to South Luangwa.
That left me me only part of 2 days and 1 night in Kafue and 2 full days and 3 nights in South Luangwa. It was non-stop amazing animal viewing!
The first night I arrived I rushed from the bus arrival station (13 hours after leaving Lusaka) to drop my bags at the lodge (Thornicroft Lodge- couldn't recommend them more highly!) to then immediately head out on a night drive. We arrived in the park just as the sun was setting. There was a calm before the storm, a few Baboons near the entrance of the park, Puku everywhere of course haha, a great view of an African Savannah Hare.
Then as soon as it was dark, the floodgates opened up and it was non stop for the next 90 minutes (cars have a curfew there). A genet, 1 minute later a Meller's Mongoose! 5 minutes later a great view of another genet. 5 mintues later we find bats in a tree. 5 minutes later a pride of lions in the darkness (my first wild lions!) 8 minutes later a Spotted Hyena approaches near the pride (my first wild hyena). 1 minute later a hippo lumbers past the spotlight. 2 minutes later a bushbaby in the tree. 7 minutes later another genet. 1 minute later 2 more hippos.
5 minutes later, I spot eye shine at an odd height. Not on the ground, but also not in the top of a tree. Turns out it's a leopard sitting on the stump of a fallen tree! For the next 18 minutes we observed the Leopard walking around! Such an incredible sight! My only previous wild leopard experience was a matter of seconds of one darting across the road early morning on an Indian safari. In general they seemed pretty confident at this park to find leopards almost every night (at least every other night).
Rounding out the evening 3 minutes after the leopard appeared yet another genet, followed 3 minutes after that by my first wild African civet! Stopped by the bat tree again on the way back and then got a great view of a bushbaby on the road on the drive back with bushbuck sleeping on the grounds of the lodge. I've never been more excited about any other mammal watching experience.
While there was definitely some luck involved to be able to see so many of my targets in such a short amount of time- sometimes I make my luck as well. For instance this first night I just described- most people wouldn't have on a game drive immediately after taking a 13 hour bus (maybe most people from zoochat would haha). But I knew my time was limited and I was determined to make the most of it. And sure enough a few special species were only seen that first night! My goal of maximizing the species count was helped by asking around for bats and rodents. Most people that go on safari don't ask to look out for squirrels or ask their accommodations for buildings with bats (usually the opposite haha!). I also did research ahead of time with certain species in mind realizing that for Hartebeest and Grysbok my best bet would be Kafue, while South Luangwa had decent chances for elephant shrews, bushy-tailed mongoose and even meller's mongoose.
So making my luck a bit by asking the right questions while being very lucky to have chosen Thornicroft Lodge featuring an equipment shed home to not one but TWO lifer bat family representatives!
@Giant Eland
Wow! Sounds absolutely incredible! I can't wait to be old enough to finance a trip to a place like this, and I have a feeling Zambia would be my first port of call on this continent now
It is incredible that one can see such a variety of wildlife in a single night! I've only twice been out wildlife watching at night, and it is quite a thrilling experience even if the most dangerous creature you are likely to encounter is a Greater horseshoe bat!
For now, I have to stick to trips I can justify from a non-wildlife perspective (i.e. mostly city trips with zoos ) but as soon as I can venture off the beaten track a bit...
I'm also quite interested in squirrels and the like - I just finished writing down every mammal species (+latin names and taxonomic grouping etc.) in a Pukka pad so I had plenty of time to research all the rodents and bats as I scribbled them down!
Did the guides think you were a bit crazy? Probably used to people coming and asking to see the Big 5
