South Luangwa

When I first came to Africa, I claimed with great self-righteousnous that I had come to meet African people and not Africa's animals. As a volunteer who liked a night on the town, I was always too poor to afford the trips into the game parks and was trying to justify my lack of interest. In any case in the late sixties, there were still hyaenas, leopards and snakes around Mitundu, so I had enough contact with wild things. As a result, I have never done the full safari thing to a game park. Conseqiuently, I was quite excited about this trip with my fellow retirees, to follow up on the reports from last year's Vanier nurses about their experience in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park, which is supposed to be one of the finest game reserves in this part of Africa.

The four day trip involves a day trip each way between Lilongwe and the park plus three nights allowing 2 full days of viewing. We got a wonderful deal with Kiboko Safari in Lilongwe and set out with Francis Kamoto who drove us from Lilongwe to Luangwa. He very professionlly briefed us on the process and we successfully got through the paperwork at the border, currency conversion as well as the last 100 kilometres on a terrible temporary road. The new road right beside the terrible road looks wonderful. At this point it is an almost completed prisitine tarmac road blocked with many barriers to keep traffic off until it is finished.

We were getting close to our destination, battered and bruised from the drive, when it was all made up for by the sight of a herd (or rather a parade) of elephants about 15 or 20 barely 200 metres from the road and only 500 metres from our campsite. Upon arrival at the site we were greeted by the huffing and grunting of the hippos in the Luangwa River outside our campsite. Our guide, Moses Mwanza, trained at college to do the work. He is a consumate professional and from his first greeting and introduction to the camp, the programme, and the animals he never quavered or ran from the dumbest questions.

Karen, Tom, Ian and I have guided many student groups into unfamiliar territory, but taking people into a game reserve in an open sided land rover is a challenge beyond the ordinary, that he handles with cheerful ease. Nothing phased him. The first night after our briefing, we sat in the eating tent on the banks of the river enjoying the hippo conversations. In the bar of the lodge next door, the Zambia national soccer team was playing Ethiopia in the first round of their group competition of the Africa Cup, so we set ourselves up at their beautiful bar and watched the better part of the two games being played Monday night.

We were roused the next morning at 5h00 with a cheerful greeting and we were on the road shortly after six. Even before we reached the gates of the park, we were entertained to the sight of a breeding group of elephants rolling in the mud and playfully pushing each other around. We saw baboons galore and sighted several bucks of different sorts. We didn't believe that the park would top that. But once in the park. The WoW! factor took over. The game was plentiful and varied and the list covers about 5 pages in Tom Peters pocketbook. I'll type it up and append it. We got up close to a single male elephant that came within a metre of the uncovered landrover and saw many herds of breeding elephants, young male herds and a few solitary old male grouches.

By the second day we were already so overloaded with the quantity and quality of what we had sighted that baboon or impala no longer merited photos or even stopping the Land Rover. We gave Moses our wish list of outstanding animals to see – buffalo, wild dog, the small cat predators and Patrick added crocodiles. As we crossed the Luangwa after signing in at the park gate we first witnessed and impressive raft of hippos floating high in the water. The day was cloudy and grey so they could expose themselves. But there just 50 metres upon the shore from them was a 4 metre crocodile. An impressive beast demanding immense respect. The rest of the morning continued like that with a plethora of birds and animals including the cape buffalo.

While I am impressed, even awestruck by my experience in the game park – its diversity and richness, I am also excited by what some of these things represent. Moses our guide is himself a product of the efforts to conserve, invest and make sustainable wildlife areas like this. He and several of his peers from the area were given specific training, including a 6 month driving course and 1½ years at a national wildlife college in Lusaka to learn the skills of wildlfie guiding. His knowledge is encyclopedic down to the Latin names and biolgical explanatoins for literally every phenomenon we ask about. He and his fellow guides work for the bourgeoning tourist industry which is growing in this otherwise remote area. Their livelihood depends on the wildlife attracting the tourists and it is in their interest to make sure that local peple do not participate in poaching. They know the park inside out and the certificate is internationally recognised so that Moses has also led 10 day safaris to Nyika National Park in Malawi

The antipoaching efforts seem to have been implemented with local people as a primary focus and not using the methods so often seen where the foreign and national elites organise the programme and the local villagers are viewed as the problem and not part of the solution. Worse still the local residents are often driven off their land and disenfranchised creating great resentment and removing any reason for them to want to help preserve the game that they consider have cost them their homes. There are 3 levels of anti-poaching vigilance – national regional and village. Local people like Moses have been working with and educating the villagers and when a local is caught with bush meat, he or she is turned over to the appropriate authorities. Regional groups coordinate efforts around protecting the specific environment in and around this park, while national efforts ensure park security, enforcement laws and resources, international support, and broad overall coordination among the many national parks that exist.

It is also clear that there has been considerable investment both from government and the private sector. There are lodges up and down the river shoreline appealing to the rich as well as the dollar a day backpackers and many tours in many formats are advertised all over this part of Africa and over the internet. The park infrastructure is well maintained and even the roads are reasonable.Staff seem trained, cooperative and tourist friendly. After two days we have not come across any evidence of a gun. There is a permanent road maintence crew in the park and the main road into the area is being upgraded to asphalt and should be open within the year. These expenses as well as the anti-poaching strategies and the pro-village education and involvement strategies come at a price that clearly the government has deemed important to pay.

The result is seen in the animals themselves. The tour LandRovers are able to pull up to a pride of dozing lions or stop in the middle of a dazzle of zebras or a rank of impala without disturbing their daily activites. This closeness to the animals reinforces respect for their beauty, power and abilities.This is only possible when human presence is not a threat. The more often they see humans the less sensitive they are to them. If poachers were thinning their numbers then they would flee at the first sight of humans. Poaching has been ended and not one elephant nor other animal has disappeared from this park exept by natural means. This is an exceptional record given what we know of the fate of elephants in particular throughout the rest of Africa. I for one will most certainly be recommending South Luangwa Park to anyone who cares to listen.

Purely by chance we have come at the low season and are the only guest in our campsite and the park roads are largely empty so we literally have the place to ourselves. As we gaze out over the savannah at the herds of buffalo, the impala, and wandering birds, it is not hard to envisage the life of many millenia ago when the mother and father of the human species were actually the ones being hunted and struggling for a toehold in this planetary existence.

January 2013