The Journal

South Luangwa… it’s a great time to visit

South Luangwa

Author: Track & Trail River Camp

We have had a lot of rain in the Luangwa Valley during the rainy season, the lagoons are still full of water, the vegetation is dense and still quite lush but gives you pretty contrasting images. The mornings are getting more chilly and the hazy light may bring cool soft scenarios of elephants crossing the Luangwa River. Lots of travellers no longer bother themselves bringing fancy cameras and heavy equipment on their holidays, nowadays smartphones are capable of getting good results as long as your subject is not too far away from the game viewer. What does matter is to catch that specific moment in the right light to give your picture that extra value. We at Track and Trail give your clients extra attention to details like that.

Image 29 06 2022 at 14.00

It has been an action packed month concerning wild dogs and leopard sightings in the Valley. A pack of 20 Wild dogs show up regularly in the open areas of the main gate towards Chichele. It’s such a pleasure to see these dogs do what they do best, completely oblivious to the spectators. Wild dogs are very efficient hunters with a success rate of about 75%. The below female Puku, falls in the 25% that get away. She was too quick and too smart for the dogs and even jumped over the attacking dogs a couple of times to get away in a most fascinating wayAs for leopard sightings, once there was Alice who was famous for her calm nature and for using the game viewers vehicles to maximize hunting results. Then came Lucy her daughter our now local female leopard who has a young son, of nearly two years, and he still in the early stages of hunting, which brings rather surprisingly funny sightings. See video below.

Young Male Leopard trying his luck with a Male Warthog