OUR TRAVELS OVER THE YEAR

As we have now been in Ndola for just over a year I thought we could catch up on all the different places we have been, mainly with a wildlife feel

A year ago we were in the middle of our trip from Johannesburg, where we collected our trusty car and home from home, and returning back to Ndola via a very circuitous route. After a couple of days in South Africa we crossed into Botswana and into Kharma Rhino Sanctuary before heading into what really has to be my favourite place. The Central Kalahari game Reserve is a huge place with very little in there apart from a few isolated camp sites, tracks across the sand and old dried pans and animals. You can drive for days without seeing another person but you will see totally wild animals. Not only do you see them but you camp with them as there are no fences at all. Everything you need has to be taken into CKGR including fuel, food and water. This time we spent 6 nights in the CKGR and saw some amazing wildlife.

White Rhino

Evening camp in CKGR

Wide open spaces in CKGR

This is a single campsite, miles from anyone else

The rare Aardwolf and our first ever sighting

Tawny Eagle

Watching

Scretary Bird

Elephants are rare in CKGR due to lack of water

Morning Stretch from a Jackal that are very common in CKGR

Trying to spot animals

African Wildcats are very rare and hard to spot 

Leopard in CKGR

After the isolation of CKGR it was onto Maun and a hotel followed by a journey up the west side of the Okavango Delta and into the Caprivi strip in Namibia for a few days then crossing into our new “home Country of Zambia and a short time at Livingstone.

From the home of Victoria Falls we moved north into Kafue National Park, another of our really wild places where not that many people go, for several days and then a three day drive through Lusaka to South Luangwa National Park. Of all the parks in Zambia this is the one to visit if you want to see wildlife. It has pretty well everything you could wish for in Africa apart from rhino. From here the drive was across rivers and up the escarpment before eventually heading back to Ndola and to start work.

Lazing lion

Giraffe in sunset

The lions loved this tree

Meal time?

Oxpeckers on a giraffe

Young elephant scratching its ear

African Hoopoe

Buffalo running through a dry ditch

This is what lions love doing the most, Sleeping!

Spotted Hyena

The next place we visited was Kasanka National Park to see the Bat migration. Here, the amazing sight was up to 10 million bats all leaving a roost in a small wooded area and taking to the sky at once. It happened to coincide with a full moon so an amazing spectacle. We also took the chance from Kasanka to visit Banguela Swamps and see the prehistoric looking Shoebill Stork.

Bats at Kasanka

Full moon and Bats

A few of the 10 million or so bats at Kasanka

The very rare and prehistoric looking Shoebill Stork

At Christmas and New Year we met our family in Botswana again for a driving experience second to none. In our vehicle plus one we had hired for Andrew Karen and Louise we spent a couple of weeks driving through Chobe, Savuti, Moremi and the Madkgadkgadi Pans area before returning back north to Chobe and then for a day into Zimbabwe for a visit to Victoria Falls.

All the family were privileged to see a Zebra Being born in Botswana

Md
eerkats 

Saddlerbilled Stork

Lions

What a huge mouth

We also spent Easter back in South Luangwa when a friend came out followed by an aborted visit to Lower Zambezi National Park. It was the end of the rainy season and managed the drive to the park ok but on or first night and all the next day it just poured and poured. The mud was way too thick to drive safely so after a couple of days sitting in a camp we decided to leave and head to Lake Kariba area.

Our final trips have been back down to Kafue National Park for a few days as this is our nearest “wildlife area”.

Kafue elephants are very wary of Humans. This one is smelling the air

The drowned forest at Itezi Tezi in Kafue National Park

Hyena

One other trip we made, but for a change not in our car, was a fantastic week in Capetown back at the end of February.

You can obviously see that as well as working with Beyond Ourselves in the schools we also thoroughly enjoy getting out and about.

It is not just when we are out and about we see wildlife. Here are a selection of snakes, many including the dangerous ones were seen in the garden or on Cherry Farm

Deadly Puff Adder probably causes the most fatalities of any of the African Snakes. This one was in our garden and about to shed its skin

Harmless but aggressiveHerald Snake common where we live

Western Green snake is also harmless and seen around the garden

The Gaboon Viper is not one to mess with as it has fangs around 18 cams long and packs a powerful venom

Beautifully coloured Puff Adder that we relocated from a house to some scrub on Cherry Farm

This is a young python and is not venomous but is the first snake to bite me

The deadly Vine snake or sometimes called the Twig snake is only small 

Harmless Spotted Bush Snake is common around us

With that in mind, we leave Ndola this Friday (29^th July) for a drive down to Livingstone again but not the main road for us. We are going to take 9 days driving through Kafue National Park before meeting friends in Livingstone and then crossing over into Zimbabwe so that all of us can drive around such wonderful wildlife areas as Mana Pools, Matusadona, Chizarira and Hwange National Parks. Tim, Jo, Shula and Sarah then all fly back to UK while Jan and I head south hoping to explore other areas in Zimbabwe before heading back to our home in Ndola and starting work again in the schools.

A few friends have contacted us and are coming out to visit at the end of this year and into 2017 so if anyone else fancies it then let us know. We will be finishing our work here in Ndola at the beginning of September 2017 and returning back to UK sometime in December 2017.

Mike and Jan