Expedition: Retirement

 Our next camp was the Lufupa River Camp in the northern part of Zambia's Kafue National Park. Located on the banks of the Kafue River where the Lufupa River joins it, our tents were positioned on the embankment above the water, but with areas in between the tents where the banks sloped gently down to the water. These paths to the river were used by hippos to leave the river at night to graze and other animals both during the day and at night to drink.Because of the travel time from Hwange, our game drive the evening we arrived in Kafue didn't start until after dark, and we did our wildlife sightings by spotlight. While that didn't make for great photography, we still saw an abundance of wildlife, including a variety of different antelopes, wildebeests, and warthogs, among others.The next day, we discovered that there was an abundance of different birds here. We saw eagles, storks, herons, vultures, rollers, and bee-eaters, just to name a few. Some of these birds were impressive because of their sizes, others because of their colors. We also found some watering holes that had attracted diverse herds of grazing animals...zebras, antelope of all types, buffalo, and more. We even saw warthogs with piglets!Our second evening game drive was the show stopper for this location. We found two young male lions resting after gorging themselves on a fresh kill. They had stuffed themselves to the point where they actually looked uncomfortable and seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. They had dragged the remains of their kill into the bushes nearby, hoping to protect it from scavengers until they were ready to finish it. We also saw crocodiles basking in the late afternoon sun, and a hippo out of the water grazing. After our sundowners, as the darkness settled in for the night, we found a leopard sitting in a tree. It didn't seem at all fazed by having the spotlights of several trucks pointed at it, and continued to rest quietly in the tree as we watched. Then, on our way back to camp, we found another leopard walking in the road right at the very edge of our camp. Again, it didn't seem at all bothered by us or our lights, and continued on its way down to the river's edge, presumably to drink.Instead of traditional game drives on our second full day at Kafue, we went out for cruises on the Lufupa and Kafue Rivers. This provided use with a very different perspective and exposed us to different animals. The river was full of hippos and crocodiles, of course, but there were also a wide variety of birds as well. And, as we returned to our camp from the morning cruise, we saw an elephant down by the water right at the very edge of our camp. After drinking some water, it then picked up some of the sand from the shore and dusted itself with it.On our evening cruise on the Kafue River, we found a hippo that was trying to get back into the water, but was unwilling to do so with us nearby. We wanted to watch it, but ultimately had to move on so that it could return to the river in peace. We again got to see lots of birds, and  the sunset from the river was stunning.