Safari Images!

As promised, here are some shots of the Safari. Can’t post them all, but will show them when we return.

We went to the Mfuwe Lodge in Mfuwe, Zambia. We flew over from Lilongwe, Malawi in an 8-seater ‘air taxi’ with a family from Spain, also headed to the Lodge. The plane ride was cool, although a little turbulence when flying through the clouds occurred, much to Ashley’s dismay. She lived and we made it safely to the Mfuwe airport, uh I mean strip of pavement in the jungle.

Our Safari guide Richard, a local Mfuwe resident, picked us up and transported us to the Lodge. The accommodations were amazing – we stayed in the ‘Lion’ chalet on the lagoon. From our deck, just to give you an idea, we had to step back to let the baboons cross over - here is a shot of one of the monkeys sipping from the sprinkler right outside our door... there were tons of these guys everywhere... some small like this guy and some larger:

We saw crocodiles and hippos:

...as well as elephants:

...and impala, and puku (deer) right from our room. There was a swimming pool we relaxed in during ‘Siesta’ which occurred between the morning drives (starting at 5:45am) and the evening drives (from about 4:30pm to 8:30pm).

Some of the coolest terrain and sights we’ve ever seen. We saw, in addition to the above, hyenas, lions (yes, we were that close):
...giraffes, nocturnal creatures (mongooses, genets, etc.), tons of birds, and the elusive leopard (we were the only car to see one out of about 4):

I liken our guide/driver to Andruw Jones… he knew where the ball would land (in this case, where the animals would be), went to that spot and waited to for them to land in our glove. Here is a shot of him with us and the Spanish Family we spent our days with:

It was truly a great time. Afterwards, we flew back on a 4-seater plane. That was great fun, and the ride was smooth, so Ash was less freaked out as she was when we saw what we were climbing into to fly back to Malawi.

Will try and post a few more images later - depends on access... but we are off to Cape Town in about 30 minutes.

Love, Ash and Park