9/15/17 Lufupa Camp Zambia

We left the Delta this morning after breakfast.  On our way to the airstrip in the land rovers, we stopped to take pictures of a tesessebe antelope (the second fastest land mammal - the cheetah being first).  So today was a long day of traveling: land rover to bush plane to small bus to small boat across the Zambesi river to small bus to very small bush plane to land rover.  After we crossed the river into Zambia, we were surrounded by men trying to sell us copper bracelets or small carved wooden animals.  That must be a hard way to make a living.  No one on our bus made a purchase.  The unemployment rate in Zambia is 60%.  On our bus ride to the airport, we passed a few villages.  Some of the houses were made of block with tin roofs, but others were small mud huts with conical thatched roofs.  We saw a number of children walking along the side of the road.  They were all in uniform and school had just let out.  The bus stopped at a market before we got to the airport.  We were each given a small slip of paper with an African word written on it.  Our mission was to find the item and purchase it (Vimbai gave us each 1 or 2 dollars for this purpose) in the 20 minutes she allowed us.  Dave and I stuck together even though we had different items to purchase.  I asked a woman at one of the stalls and she called out to a young man who obviously knew how to read and he was a great help.  He was joined by a boy who tagged along, but we finally got our items.  Dave purchased peanuts and I bought a colorful piece of cloth.  We will have a cultural night while we are here and our items will come into play on that day.  I wish we had more time to explore the market.  I saw a variety of things being sold: hardware items, used clothing, beans, produce, live chickens, dried fish, flour, sugar, cloth, shoes, etc.  We saw someone getting her hair braided in one little booth.  It was a colorful venue with a bustling atmosphere - great fun!  As we were standing by the bus admiring some dried beans, Mike asked a woman what the packaged white rocks were.  She indicated that you were to eat them.  She popped some small pieces in her mouth and chewed them.  Mike mimed that he would like to try it so he broke off a small piece and puts it in his mouth.  He said it was quite soft.  Meanwhile, the woman was cracking up as this was the mud that is iron-rich that pregnant women eat!  The camp here is lovely - a very large lounge/dining area with a large deck right on the river.  The camp is actually located at the point where the Lufupa and Kafue rivers meet and continue on to become the Kafue River.  Our accommodations are wonderful.  We are in a family unit so we have a front porch overlooking the river.  The rest of the tent is screened with a king-sized bed, open closet, a toilet room, a shower and a room at the back with two twin beds.  We were very hot when we got here as we put on long pants and long sleeved shirts this morning knowing we were traveling to Zambia.  They have tsetse flies here and I certainly do not want to be bitten.  We have loaded up our pocket with applications of Deet and we intend to be very careful while we are here.  We had a half hour to stow our gear and then we met up for a late afternoon game drive.  Dave opted to take a nap and he was feeling very tired.  The guide of our truck was Neddy.  We will switch to the other guide, John, tomorrow afternoon.  John explained the rules of the game drive, which were basically the same as in the other camps.  Instead of a loo with a view however, he said the ask the guide to stop if we “needed to raise the water table”.  The first thing we stopped to see was a tree with small bright yellow flowers - It is called a scrambled egg tree.  Not far from there, we spotted a tree with long pods hanging from the branches.  He called this one a sausage tree.  They use this tree to make dug-out canoes.  I just you can walk into the bush and get a visual breakfast - although they are missing a toast tree.  We saw some pukus and a black headed heron.  We also saw some kudus, elephants, storks, ibis, and a white tailed mongoose.  We saw our daily ration of impalas, a scrub hare, and a common dyka.  We also learned that there can be up to 30,000 gallons of water in a baobab tree.  Mothers in the bush would bathe their new babies in the water of this tree for seven days to ensure a long and healthy life for their child.