Vacation Re-cap: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

It's another rainy day here in Lilongwe. When they said 'rainy season' they meant it. It feels something like December in Corvallis but twenty degrees warmer. Our sheets feel damp and our roof is dying; last night it sprung a leak! Right on top of my ipod, which won't turn on and is now laying in a bed of rice. Send it good thoughts.

When we set out for Zambia it was less rainy. In fact we had great weather for our entire trip (or should I say 'safari'?) to South Luangwa National Park. After some adventures at the border and a long drive on a crappy dirt road we arrived at our camp to find beautiful, clean, warmly lit tents waiting for us. Between the breezy white mosquito net and the open-air shower it felt a little like a honeymoon destination.

That's our shower and part of our tent.

At night the hippos and elephants walked though camp, chomping things very loudly and scaring me a little more than I'd expected. The monkeys were a constant menace. We went on an early morning game drive and a night drive, where we used a spotlight to look for the eyes of animals glowing in the dark. The next day we drove around the park in our own car without a guide.

We did finally find a leopard reclining in a tree but she hopped away after just a few minutes. We didn't see any lions since it's the rainy season and they're out hiding away in the bush. But we did lots of other animals, like zebra and giraffe and warthogs and impala.

We had a great time and would definitely return - which I am, next week, for a meeting. A meeting in a National Park? Yep, I'm lucky, though I'm not looking forward to the drive up on those dirt roads again.

Here's a picture of a crazy bird we saw which never made it to Facebook:

That thing on his neck looks terribly uncomfortable.