IN THE PATH OF HIPPOS
Trip Start
May 16, 2008
1
11
15
Trip End
Jun 09, 2008
Chongwe River Camp, Lusaka, Zambia
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
From Livingstone we flew to Lusaka from where we hopped a smaller plane to the Royal Air Strip to get to the Chongwe River Camp. On our flight into Lusaka there was a fun, boisterous group of five young people aboard our twelve-seat turboprop aircraft. While I was talking to one of the girls of the group, one of the other members of the group asked if I knew I was talking to the current Miss Zambia. She was traveling with her camera crew and, as you would expect, was tall and gorgeous. I can't believe I didn’t get a picture with her.
The Chongwe River Camp is just awesome. There are only nine tents. They are widely-spaced and are strung along the three-foot bank of the Chongwe River. Our tent is only twenty feet from the water and about 100 feet from the hippos lounging in the middle of this small, slow, moving river.
This camp is more rustic than our previous camps. Here the open-sided tents sit on concrete bases (apparently not restricted in that regard at this location) and have thatched shelters built over the top of them. The tents have mosquito mesh on the sides with roll down canvas on the inside for privacy. From the back sides of the tents, you enter the open-air bomas where the bathrooms are. The boma enclosures are only about five feet high and have no roofs over them. So when I shower, or stand at the sink or at the toilet, I can see out to anyone who happens to be looking in! Everything done in the bathroom is done in the open air. The camp’s generator runs only the one light in each of the tents and one in each of the bomas. Water is heated by tiny gas units. Each night they bring an oil lantern to your tent; you light and swing this lantern to catch the attention of the night guard if you need help or need to leave your tent for any reason. This place is so cool.
We have had wildlife near us at all of our camps, but Chongwe River Camp is the busiest and noisiest. The noise is due mostly to the nearness of the hippos (grunting wheeze, snort, snort, snort), but the hyenas and baboons make their share of racket as well. The night before we arrived, an elephant destroyed tent #9 and yesterday the same elephant strolled through camp during the day—Linda was within feet of him as she stood in the dining boma not knowing what to do. I lay in bed at night and am wakened by the vibration of the hippos lumbering by the tent. I raise my head and can see their shadowy hulks only twenty feet from me. The herd will follow, single file, the dominant male for miles inland each night to feed, returning on the same path before daylight.
