Bush Camping with Norman Carr Safaris - "Return To The Wild"

For a number of years now we have been keen to offer a select few guests something further out of the ordinary. Whilst most guests regard our bushcamps as one of the most remote experiences they could contemplate, a few find themselves hankering for something a little more “out there”.

We were therefore thrilled when some guests expressed an interest in camping out in the bush. They declared their interest long before their arrival in Zambia so we were able to make detailed preparations for this safari, during which a group of four guests accompanied by Abraham Banda, Dave Wilson and our top escort scout John Saili set out from Kakuli walking to Nsolo, with a night-stop on the way. Dave recounts the experience below:

Setting up Camp The weather was perfect for walking, slightly overcast with a cool north easterly breeze. We began our adventure from Kakuli camp with our four guests, the omnipotent Abe, indestructible John Saili and myself making up the merry band of men embarking on a true wilderness experience. The plan was to walk from Kakuli to a predesignated spot on the Luwi River where provisions had been dropped for us to stay overnight, before walking into Nsolo camp the next day.

As we set off, there was an excitable nervousness amongst the guests - quite understandably given that, from the comfort of a vehicle, they had witnessed a battle between the eternal enemies Lion and Hyena over a fresh carcass the previous night; but now they were going to be on foot and also sleeping out!

The walk was fantastic as we wound our way up the spectacular Luwi sand river. There were numerous elephant herds along the way, some of which were digging for water in the sand river and spraying themselves with clouds of dust and sand. We expertly navigated our way around the herds upstream through forests of huge red mahogany and stands of adrenaline grass. Abes spotted the spoor of a big eland bull and lo and behold, there he was thirty metres further on, in all his glory. A massive Eland Bull on the edge of the river, chocolate and sand in colour, he stood watching us and then nonchalantly moved into thicker grass.

Not more than 100 metres upstream we walked into three big male lion. At a distance of 60 metres we peered over the top of a termite mound to be met by the lions' intense gaze. One of them took umbrage at our presence and in a characteristic manner let us know in no uncertain terms that we weren't welcome, with a bone chilling growl and swishing of tail. It was an unforgettable scene with us on foot, the lions staring at us, and two herds of elephant in the background. With, needless to say, a spurt of adrenaline, we circumvented the lions, walked down into the river bed between the two herds of elephant and continued our walk through the Garden of Eden towards the campsite.

The approach to the site could not have been better scripted - with the bright yellow flush of Long Pod Cassia tree flowers in stark contrast to a cobalt blue sky, the golden rays of the sunset highlighted a large herd of impala whilst baboons played in the Tamarind tree and yet another lone Eland bull browsed on Bush-willow. To cap the walk off, we spotted a beautiful bull Cookson's wildebeest running in the distance, stopping to look back at us before continuing his rocking gait through the Leadwood forest.

The site of our camp was on a bend in the river, out on the white sand beneath a couple of Red Mahoganies. Bedding consisted of bed rolls, mattress, and a couple of sheets and blankets. It was the duty of each guest to make his bed in the dry river bed - done with banter, a couple of beers and much fervour due to the impending darkness. Fires were lit all round and popcorn prepared and washed down with more beer - we were settled in for the night!

Cooking Dinner Dinner consisted of an aperitif of borevors followed by a main course of marinated steak on the fire, potatoes and honey glazed carrots cooked in the coals with a chilli, tomato and onion sauce. Naturally red wine was the choice of beverage! The campfire stories unfolded with much aplomb and amusement. Everyone settled down with their backs against an old Leadwood trunk watching bush TV (the fire) whilst the night came alive around us, with the ever-present sounds of frogs and crickets, the whooping sounds of Hyena in the distance and the distinctive dueting shrill of the diminutive African Scops owl above.

As eyelids drooped we headed for the bedrolls, except for the indomitable figure of John the scout along with Abe who continued to stoke the fires and keep watch for any unwanted visitors. As the breeze died down we were woken by the whine of mosquitoes so deployed the nets and recommenced our dreams in this truly remote wilderness far from the madding crowd.

Morning Camp We awoke in the early morning to the snort of impala and bark of baboon - possibly a leopard moving across the river bed. The coals were stoked and a kettle put on to boil for tea and coffee all round accompanied by the retelling of the mosquito and hyena exploits of the night. After a quick mouthful of biscuit and fruit we proceeded to pack up camp, dousing the fires so as to leave no sign of our stay other than footprints, and then set out for Nsolo camp. On the way, signs of honey badger, civet and hyena gave the group an insight into the activities of our nocturnal friends. Fresh lion droppings and a sighting of eight hyena on the plain in front of Nsolo told us another story of what had happened during the night under the same sky. And then on to Nsolo for a full English breakfast and to recount the experiences and stories of our return to the wild!

Dave Wilson

http://www.normancarrsafaris.com/cm/about_us/your_hosts/up_front/bush_camping

Local community should protect wildlife

In 1986, Mark and Delia Owens established the North Luangwa Conservation Project (NLCP) to rehabilitate and conserve the 2,400-square-mile North Luangwa National Park of Zambia.

At that time, commercial meat and ivory poachers had killed all of the park\'s 2,000 black rhinos and they were killing 1,000 of its elephants each year.

In the previous decade, poachers had slaughtered up to 100,000 elephants and virtually all of 6,000 black rhinos in the Luangwa Valley as a whole.

They set wild fires that burned over 85 percent of the area every year. If left unprotected, by 1996 North Luangwa would have been sterilized of its large mammals.

The government did not have the resources to adequately protect or develop the park. So Mark and Delia`s first priority was to curb poaching by helping improve the efficiency of local game scouts.

They provided them with patrol food, camping equipment, trucks, houses, an operations center, training, radio communication, a school for their children, medicines, and cash incentives.

After working closely with them for years, the North Luangwa game guards became the best in Zambia.

At the same time, Mark and Delia selected 14 villages located near the park that were notorious for harboring commercial poachers.

In fact, poaching was the primary industry in the area, providing more jobs and more sources of protein than any other.

So Mark and Delia began NLCP\'s Community Development Program, establishing small sustainable businesses which provided basic goods and services to the local people and alternative legal jobs to poachers.

This program was not a handout. Each business was run as a free enterprise, and the entrepreneur had to repay his initial start-up loan, so that the project could then help others start their own businesses.

In this way, NLCP supplanted an illicit economy based on poaching with a legal one, thereby undercutting large-scale commercial poachers who hired hunters and carriers from the villages.

In the past, many villagers traded poached meat for ground maize, their staple diet. NLCP helped them form ``wildlife clubs,`` which used NLCP business loans to purchase and run grinding mills, offering employment to millers, mechanics, and bookkeepers.

In some villages these same clubs also used loans to open small general stores, which sold soap, salt, matches, and other basic commodities that people formerly could purchase only by walking days to Mpika and other towns along the main Cape-to-Cairo Road.

Villagers also traded poached meat for cooking oil, a much prized commodity in rural Africa.

As an alternative, NLCP taught them to grow sunflower seeds and press them for oil using simple hydraulic presses, once again replacing poaching with a sustainable legal trade.

Other cottage industries that provided jobs, food, or services to the local people were carpentry shops, fish farms, poultry units, bee keeping, sewing coops, rat trap makers, and cobbler shops.

NLCP also assisted subsistence farmers with seed loans, transportation and technical assistance to help them grow protein-rich crops with better yields so they did not have to depend on meat from wild animals.

More than 2,000 families in the NLCP target area benefited from NLCP\'s Community Development and Agricultural Assistance Programs.

Mark and Delia also established the NLCP Conservation Education Program in these same target villages. Many students had never seen a color photograph and schools lacked even the most basic supplies.

The NLCP Education Officer visited schools monthly, offering a 500-volume mobile library, curriculum guidelines, school supplies, wildlife slide shows, lectures, and drama competitions, all with a conservation message.

Forty-eight American schools participated in a ``Sister School Program,`` a conservation oriented exchange program with NLCP\'s students exchanging letters, art work, reports, and essays.

American schools sent letters, school supplies, books, and donated magazines to their Zambian counterparts. These Zambian students, it is hoped, will not grow up to be poachers.

NLCP\'s Rural Health Program taught hygiene, first aid, preventive medicine, family planning, and advanced clinical techniques to village medics.

NLCP trained and equipped 48 ``traditional birth attendants`` to assist the pregnant women in the villages near the park. Traditional birth attendants also taught AIDS prevention, early childhood development, and nutrition to the women of their villages.

The ultimate goal of NLCP was to ensure the development of a low-impact tourism industry for the North Luangwa National Park, an industry that would provide employment opportunities and development revenues for villagers who would otherwise depend on NLCP or poaching for their livelihood. Mark and Delia worked with the government to design an enviro-friendly tourism development plan for the park.

The North Luangwa Conservation Project was remarkably successful. When Mark and Delia arrived in 1986, 1,000 elephants were being poached every year. From September of 1994 to May of 1997, not one was killed in the Project area.

For the first time in 20 years the elephant population of NLNP increased slightly, and villagers reported elephants, buffalo, hippos, and other large mammals in areas where they have not been seen for two, even three decades.

Wildlife research and ecological monitoring documented the recovery of the elephants and other animal populations.

Thirty-five elephants were collared with radio transmitters and aircraft were used to chart their range movements, habitat utilization, group size, social structure, and reproductive success.

The people near North Luangwa no longer had to poach, or collaborate with commercial poachers to feed their families.

The heads of more than 2,000 families, many of whom were once involved with poaching, had legal, sustainable jobs.

Leaders from villages beyond the NLCP area began asking how to start NLCP programs.

NLCP has been declared a model for integrated rural development using techniques that involve non-consumption of wildlife resources.

http://ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/07/18/118728.html

Hot Spot: Puku Ridge Camp, Zambia

This newly opened lodge is located in South Luangwa National Park, a remote part of southern Africa where tourists are few but wildlife plentiful. Visitors travel an hour by plane from the capital, Lusaka, then drive two hours to the hillside property.

Rooms: Each of the six spacious tents has its own private deck overlooking the Luangwa flood plains—perfect for game-viewing. The en suite bathrooms feature luscious Africology products.

Dining: The hearty, healthy meals are regularly interrupted by sightings of elephant and cape buffalo. Morning game drives are punctuated by coffee stops, complete with cookies and brownies. At sunset, guests enjoy cocktails in the bush overlooking waterholes teeming with hippo.

For an elegant supper in colonial-style surroundings, the Chichele Presidential Lodge is just a short ride away.

Amenities: Guests venture out on game drives in customized viewing vehicles to spot lion, leopard and the rare gray-crested crane. But best of all are walking safaris, accompanied by armed park rangers and tracking guides.

Service: The staff is friendly and hospitable, from the waiter who delivers tea at dawn to the night watchman who protects guests from prowling lions. No children under 12.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145821

Zambia-Norway forge project links

NORWAY has added a new dimension to its development cooperation with Zambia by helping the southern African country in developing the potential of petroleum. Landlocked Zambia is exploring for oil and gas in Eastern, North Western and Western provinces of the country. Zambia’s minister of mines, Kalombo Mwansa, says the results of the microbial analysis of samples collected from the three provinces have been encouraging.

In view of the expected boom of the oil and gas industry, the Norwegian government is helping Zambia with preparatory work, which includes the repeal and replacement of the Petroleum (Exploration and Product) Act of 1985 to provide for two separate licences for prospecting and for production of oil and gas. Norwegian ambassador to Zambia, Tore Gjos has said the repeal and replacement of the Act would also provide for stronger legal provisions on environmental protection.

Mr. Gjos described the on-going consultancy his country is offering Zambia as “oil for development” saying it is a programme whose purpose is to make oil resources a blessing and not a curse. He berated the failure of developing countries to utilise petroleum to the maximum, citing Nigeria, one of the leading producers of oil, which has remained poor. He said preparatory work for Zambia involved strengthening the country’s institutional framework for regulating the oil and gas industry.

Under this cooperation, Norway is helping Zambia in the areas of financial management, environmental sustainability and technology and technical issues. Recently, the Norwegian and British government helped Zambia reform its mining tax to help the benefit more from its lucrative minerals. “We have been working with the government on the tax reform of the mining sector in order for Zambia to retain more of her mineral wealth for the benefit of the whole population,” Mr Gjos said.

Norway encouraged the Zambian government to engage mining companies with whom it had development agreements, as part of the process of introducing the new tax regime which came into force on April 1, this year. Norway helped Zambia with finances to get independent technical and legal advice on negotiating mining development agreements.

The new fiscal regime for the mining sector includes a 30 percent corporate tax, a new mineral royalty tax on base metals at three percent of the monthly average London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price per metric tonne multiplied by the quantity of the metal or recoverable metal sold from 0.6 per cent.

Company tax has gone up from 25 to 30 per cent while Government has also introduced a 15 per cent variable profit tax on taxable income, which is above eight per cent of the gross income and a windfall tax to be triggered at different price levels for different base metals.

For copper, the windfall tax has been pegged at 25 percent at the copper price of US$2.50 per pound but below US$3.00 per pound, 50 percent at price for the next 50 cents increase and a 75 per cent for the price above US$3.50 per pound.

Government expects to earn US$415 million additional tax revenue this year from the mining sector, which would create higher liquidity in the economy and help the local currency, the kwacha to appreciate further against major international currencies. Mr Gjos said the revenue would also provide more prospects for the development of infrastructure that would create extra opportunities for economic expansion.

Treasury data shows that Zambia in 2007 only got US$142 million from US$4.7 billion in copper and cobalt exports by foreign owners of its vast copper and cobalt mines. This is despite a 400 percent increase in global metals prices in the past seven years.

President Levy Mwanawasa announced on January 11 when he opened the second session of the 10th national assembly that government had decided to introduce windfall tax on copper and raised mineral royalty to ensure Zambia’s maximum benefit from mineral resources. The new tax regime has already started paying dividends with the Zambia Revenue Authority collecting K29.7 billion in mineral royalties following the introduction of the new fiscal regime for the mining sector this year. This is up from an average of K5.2 billion that the mining companies contributed per month in 2007.

Zambia and Norway’s development cooperation goes back more than 40 years. Zambia has been one of the largest partners of Norway for many years Norway now, however, channels most of the financial support through the Zambian budget as budget support and has selective support to democratic governance institutions covering areas like anti-corruption, the auditor-general’s and the judiciary.

Norway has supported Zambia in infrastructure development like hydropower, roads and water supply.

Norway has been a large supporter in the education, agriculture and wildlife sectors in the south Luangwa national park and the Kafue national park.

http://bistandsaktuelt.typepad.com/blade/2008/06/by-benedict-tembo----lusaka-norway-has-added-a-new-dimension-to-its-development-cooperation-with-zambia-by-helping-the-so.html

Hippo therapy - Zambia

It's not every day a hippo wakes you with its noisy chewing or an elephant threatens to mow you down. But then a Zambian safari on foot is not exactly your average walk in the park

THE elephant, standing alone on the far side of a dry water hole, seems benign enough. If she sees the red mist she'll have to cover a lot of ground to reach us, and even if she does decide to charge, she looks, to the untutored eye, cumbersome enough to dodge.

To the trained eye, however, it is time to retreat discreetly into the bush. Our guide, New Zealander Bryan Jackson, has picked up the danger signals – the first flap of the ears, then a lumbering pace forward.

"Come on, come on," he whispers urgently. We don't hesitate. It has been drummed into us, on this walking safari in Zambia's vast South Luangwa National Park, that such instructions must be obeyed instantly.

Batewell, our accompanying scout, is carrying a .375 calibre hunting rifle, but he will only fire it as a last resort and will aim to kill only if a warning shot has failed. In any case, we are not keen to test its efficacy. If the elephant comes on regardless, we could still be in trouble. "They can turn on a sixpence. She'd have you," says Jackson.

In the open vehicles most commonly used on safari, you are, to some extent, insulated from the surrounding wilderness. On foot you are exposed to it, with no engine noise to drown the sounds of the bush. It's not that you get any closer to the wildlife but, as just another bunch of creatures moving slowly across the landscape, you become part of their environment. There is a need for constant vigilance but, such is the expertise of Jackson and his colleagues, a faint feeling of vulnerability, probably advisable as a guard against complacency, never gives way to anxiety.

We have been walking between and around three camps run by Remote Africa Safaris, which also does conventional game drives. The company is aptly named. At its main base, Tafika, the remoteness is immediately palpable. At its two smaller camps, Crocodile River and Chikoko, the feeling is intensified, as they are accessible only on foot.

Tafika is an hour's flight by turboprop from the Zambian capital, Lusaka, to the small town of Mfuwe, followed by a two-hour drive on dirt roads. Lying by the wide Luangwa River, Tafika is home to the densest hippo population in Africa, and from one vantage point alone I see 36. One comes up the bank in the night, to chew the cud noisily by our hut.

All three camps, where accommodation is comfortable without removing the sense of adventure, have to be largely rebuilt after each rainy season, when the grass thatch and maize stalks used for roofs and walls become sodden and insect-infested. The food – Tafika has a magnificent garden in which a rich variety of fruit and vegetables are grown – is outstanding.

Days begin early – at 6am – with breakfast eaten around a fire if temperatures are low, and by 7.15am you set off on the morning walk. Itineraries vary according to the guests' fitness and enthusiasm, but we are out for five hours at a stretch and the ground, often comprising sun-baked mud pitted with elephant prints, can be difficult.

However, there are plenty of stops to look at plants and trees, watch lovebirds thronging between shrubs in green and crimson clouds, or lilac-breasted rollers performing aerobatics. One day another guide, South African Greg Patrick, calls our attention to a tiny scops owlet, perfectly camouflaged among leaves and branches. It takes me probably five minutes of concentrated peering through binoculars to locate what he has spotted with the naked eye.

The main break is in the mid-morning, at the edge of a lagoon. Moffat, whom survival expert Ray Mears would love, brings up the rear of the group with tea-making equipment. He makes fire by revolving a stick from a large-leaved skunk bush in a hole chiselled from a piece of Natal mahogany until it is hot enough to set a dry crumbling of elephant dung smouldering.

While we wait for the water to boil, we watch a pied kingfisher dive like an arrow into the lagoon. A crocodile snaps up a spur-winged goose and slides off with it, the bird's feather still visible above the surface. One morning we watch an airborne army of yellow-billed storks arriving in seemingly inexhaustible numbers to scoop up fish and fly back with them to feed their young at an extraordinary breeding colony in trees that are snow-white with droppings.

We learn that it is not just animals that can be dangerous. Don't linger under the sausage tree (Kigelia africana), we are warned. Its fruit, from whose shape it gets its name, is used to make a form of beer, but since it weights up to ten kilos it delivers a much bigger punch if it drops on your head.

Lunch is followed by a siesta, with time to read or doze. At Chikoko, where we sleep in tree houses by a creek, the temptation is to take advantage of the elevation and scan the bush. After more tea, in the late afternoon, there is a second walk.

This is the most stunning time of day. The long light catches a herd of leaping impala. Dry earth and dull scrub take on pastel shades. It's easy to imagine predators shaking off the coils of sleep and stretching in anticipation of the hunt. And if you strike lucky, you may not even need to exercise the imagination.

As we return to Chikoko one evening at dusk, Batewell spots three lionesses barring our route back to camp. When Patrick says he isn't sure what to do, my wife tenses, thinking he is worried about our safety, but he means he doesn't know how we can get a closer look. After pondering tactics, he whispers to us to walk quietly, crouching below the line of a dry lagoon bank, until we are only 50 metres or so away.

They look us up and down and then, as if deciding disdainfully that we will make a poor dinner, stalk off deliberately into the gathering gloom. We are privileged to watch them only briefly, perhaps for less than a minute, but in the mental file of experiences it seems much longer.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Hippo-therapy--Zambia.4207182.jp

NORTH LUANGWA NATIONAL PARK

This remote tract of land covering 4636 square kilometres offers one of the finest wilderness experiences in Zambia, if not Africa itself. It is not open to the public and there are no permanent lodges there. Access is with one of the few safari operators granted permission to conduct walking safaris there.

The beauty of visiting this park is the truly remarkable opportunities to experience Africa as it was. It is wild and untouched and you are simply an unobtrusive witness to its natural beauty and drama.

Although declared a wilderness area, the North Park, was not open to anyone other than Game Department rangers for more than thirty years. In 1984, Major John Harvey and his wife Lorna sought permission to conduct walking safaris in the area and for many years were the only operators in this remote wilderness.

Then in 1989, Two scientists, Mark and Delia Owens, famed for their book ‘Cry of the Kalahari’, were granted permission to set up a research station in the park. Through their influence and as a means of helping to curb poaching in the area, the authorities allowed entry to the park to a few more safari operators who bring limited numbers into the park for guided walking safaris and game drives. Their efforts in the North Luangwa are documented in their book ‘Survivors Song / The Eye of the Elephant’.

There are very few roads and you’re unlikely to see any other visitors for the duration of your trip.

Like the South Park, it lies on the western bank of the Luangwa River bordered on the other side by the dramatic Muchinga escarpment which rises over 1000 meters from the valley floor. Its hazy outline can clearly be seen from the Luangwa river.

There are a number of tributary rivers running through the park and into the Luangwa which play an important ecological role in the Area. The crystal clear Mwaleshi River trickles down the escarpment in a series of small waterfalls. It recedes in the dry season, leaving many pools along the way, drawing the animals from the bush to its banks in search of water. No game drives are permitted in the Mwaleshi area, access is by organised walking safaris only.

Vegetation ranges from mopane woodland to riverine forest, open grasslands and acacia thicket, the beautiful sausage trees, vegetable ivory palms, red mahogany and leadwood.

What to See

The park is noted for its massive herds of buffalo, a spectacular sight if they’re seen on the run, kicking up dust for miles behind them. Large prides of lion inhabit the territory and it is not uncommon to witness a kill. Other common mammals are hyaena, Cookson’s wildebeest, bushbuck, zebra, warthog, baboon, vervet monkey, puku and impala. Elephant and leopard are also seen, but not as frequently as in the South Park. You are more likely to see hartebeest, reedbuck and eland here, however. All the birds in the South have been recorded here as well. Sighted regularly are the crowned cranes, purple crested loeries, broad billed roller, Lilian’s lovebird, the carmine bee-eater, giant eagle owl and Pel’s fishing owl. Occasionally seen are the bathawk, black coucal and osprey.

Getting There

Although this park was officially opened to the public in 1984, the infrastructure in and to the park is not sufficiently developed to cater for the independent traveller. Special permission to enter it must be obtained from the Dept of National Parks and Wildlife Services in Chilanga or Mpika. This is not advisable due to its remoteness should anything go wrong with your vehicle. The best way to experience this park is with one of the operators running safaris here. One can fly in to either Mfuwe International Airport, about four hours away and be picked up, or be brought in from the Mpika side of the escarpment. There are two airstrips that are open for charter traffic.

Where to stay

There are no lodges open to the public in the North Park but several operators run prebooked, organised safaris there.

Shiwa Safaris have two bush camps and their safaris begin at the Shiwa Ngandu estate over the western side of the escarpment.

Zambia's smallest owner-operated camp, Kutandala Camp catering for only six guests on each safari. All the rooms have an unrestricted view of the Mwaleshi River and its flood plain throughout the day.

Mwaleshi Camp situated on a scenic bend of the Mwaleshi River, a beautiful river within the North Luangwa National Park. It comprises of 3 attractive reed chalets, each with stunning views over the river. Game viewing is on foot, in a remote area renowned for its lion, huge herds of buffalo and endemic Cookson’s wildebeest.

When to go

Operators in this region conduct safaris in the dry season from June to October when animal sightings are at their peak. Access in the wet season is virtually impossible.

http://www.zambiatourism.com/travel/nationalparks/nluangwa.htm

Wildlife Conservation 20 Feet Away

You know how after you have been somewhere for a while, it begins to feel comfortable and you begin to feel like you can become part of it’s day-to-day fabric? After nearly 2 weeks in Zambia, it’s beginning to feel like that. It certainly helps that Zambia is a beautiful country with very generous and friendly citizens.

My IBD team and I have been lucky to have had the chance to start our experience with an amazing half-week of safaris in the South Luangwa National Park using the services of a bushcamp called Flatdogs. The bushcamp staff was very, very friendly, professional and seemed to love their jobs at the bushcamp.

I think I might love my job if I got to wake up every day wondering whether there were any hippos, elephants or lions roaming the grounds of the bushcamp the night before (or even during the day, which happened while we were there). I can see myself getting used to that very quickly. After a couple of days there, I started to feel like it was my home in Zambia and I didn’t want to leave.

But back to the safaris: there are very few more pristine experiences I can imagine than going into a national park like this one. There is very little evidence of human presence there. In fact, human presence is mostly only found in 4-hour blocks of time: once in the morning and once in the evening when (walking or driving) safaris take place in the park.

Outside of those hours, visitors are kindly welcomed outside the park. In the park, there are no bathrooms, no garbage cans, no convenience stands, nothing for human comfort. All this takes some adjusting to if you come from a western country but as a result, the wildlife in the park is nearly undisturbed.

Luckily for us, the animals in the park do not have a strong memory of being poached, which means safari vehicles can get pretty close to them and they won’t hide back in the thick bush. In Zambia’s recent history, widespread illegal poaching has devastated wildlife populations in many areas.

But Zambia has done a fantastic job of making wildlife conservation a top priority and now enjoys a steady recovery from illegal hunting and poaching activities. I’m not sure when again I will get to see an elephant and its baby eating the trees from 30 feet away, or a lion laying unconcerned of our presence only 20 feet from our vehicle, or the large, awkward-looking but magnificent giraffe running as if it was doing so in slow motion…and seeing a pack of hyenas tear a waterbuck to pieces in front of some very angry, hardworking lions who had done the work of capturing and killing the prey is an exhilarating experience impossible to describe.

Our International Business Development (IBD) team from Haas is in Zambia to work with the WCS-funded COMACO model. COMACO stands for Community Markets for Conservation. It is a group of trading centers located in three different towns in the Eastern Province of Zambia that promote wildlife conservation and alleviation of rural poverty by providing trade incentives to farmers who engage in conservation farming. COMACO is doing amazing work. Our job is to help them improve their organization by doing an annual check-up of their operations. Had we not visited South Luangwa National Park and seen the amazing wildlife we saw up close and personal, we would not have seen with our own eyes the importance of wildlife conservation. Now it is knowledge that cannot be taken away from us.

http://globalinitiatives.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/wildlife-conservation-20-feet-away/

Unwind in the wild

Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park has teamed up with The Personal Touch to open The Bush Spa this May, the first of its kind in the area. Guests will now be able to enjoy an indulgent pampering after a day’s safari or to simply just relax with a signature massage whilst watching the wildlife saunter past their open fronted treatment rooms.

Overlooking the oxbow lagoon and onto the savannah plains beyond, the settings are hard to beat and treatments have been carefully adapted to match these magnificent surroundings. A carefully selected contemporary range of both East and Western spa treatments are offered here - some are traditional favourites, whilst others are signature therapies designed and adapted by The Bush Spa to blend harmoniously into this serene and wild environment.

Africa has an abundance of rich plant life containing an array of curative properties and The Bush-Spa embraces their ancient healing heritage. Products that contain blends of indigenous plants including: Kalahari Melon, Marula Oil, Baobab Oil, Honey Bush Tea, Green Rooi Bush tea, Buchu, African Ginger, Mongongo Nut and Cape Aloe are but a few of the wonderful therapeutic ingredients that the Bush-Spa incorporates into their signature therapies to create their truly unique Zambian inspired treatments.

Treatments range from a Herbal Flower Foot Bath to ease swollen ankles after a long flight, hot stone massage or an Eastern Shiatsu hydrotherapy massage to relax stiff muscles following a bush walk – all whilst you sit back and enjoy the view, and possibly more game spotting. A range of body wraps and scrubs are also offered using these traditional ingredients and techniques vary depending on the different aromatic oils and scrub materials being use according to the season.

With almost 15 years of experience behind her, Nathalie Zanoli, also founder of The Personnel Touch, leads the team of hand-picked therapists ensuring they have that essential sense of touch and are meticulously trained in the technical skills needed when working in the bush. In line with the company policy of providing income and opportunity for the local community, all therapists are from Zambia.

All visitors to the region, whether staying at the 18 chalet Mfuwe Lodge or at one of the nearby camps, are welcome at The Bush Spa. Visit Bush-spa.com for more information.

A 7 night walking safari, including 3 nights at Mfuwe Lodge, one treatment per day and a 4 night walking safari between the Bushcamp Company’s camps costs from £2,410 per person and includes international flights, internal transfers as well as full board accommodation and safari activities.

http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Hotels/article-178903.html

Remote Africa

Remote Africa Safaris operates quality game viewing safaris in both the North Luangwa and South Luangwa National Parks of Zambia.

Renowned for excellent guides and the ultimate luxury of private space in a pristine wilderness area, guests enjoy an exciting variety of activities such as walking trails, day and night drives, microlight flights, mountain biking or a quiet afternoon painting beside the Luangwa. Remote Africa is unique in offering canoeing and boating on the Luangwa River in full flood during the Emerald season (Feb-April). Visits to the local village and school give an insight into the culture and life style of the local people.

Remote Africa Safaris has four intimate camps, each accommodating 6 to 12 guests. Built entirely from natural materials using the skills of local villagers, these comfortable camps blend harmoniously with the environment.

Tafika Camp, in the South Luangwa, is the base camp and home of John and Carol Coppinger with a relaxed family atmosphere. Tafika boasts excellent leopard viewing and exhilarating microlight flights.

Following the footsteps of David Livingstone, who passed through the area in December 1866, Chikoko Walking Trails offers the most authentic walking experience in the Luangwa Valley. Guests walk between Crocodile River Camp and Chikoko Tree Camp along hippo footpaths- no roads, no cars! Real Africa!

Flying North to the North Luangwa National Park, Mwaleshi Camp overlooks the clear Mwaleshi River in a walking wilderness known for its lion, herds of buffalo and Cookson’s wildebeest. Mwaleshi is a unique experience of peace, comfort, simplicity and untouched, untamed Africa.

Remote Africa Safaris is the “once in a life time experience” you will be drawn to repeat over and over again!

http://www.remoteafrica.com/default.asp

Visiting Zambia and South Luangwa National Park in the “Green Season”

Some amazing safari images can be seen by following the link to the original below:

“My most recent visit, March 2008, was during the so-called ‘emerald’ season. Game viewing at this time of year is a whole different ball game but equally thrilling. ‘Emerald’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘green’. The view from the 20-seater plane as we landed at Mfuwe Airport confirmed to me the appropriateness of this label. The scene was a far cry from the dusty, brown images usually conjured up when the words African Safari are mentioned.”

“March and the ‘emerald season’ brings with it wonderfully colourful migrant birds as well as providing a brilliant chance of seeing wild dog (from mid-February to mid-March). I experienced 7 different wild dog sightings of 3 different packs. Game viewing is excellent as many of the lagoons are full so animals gravitate towards the higher ground. Lions as well as wild dog are often seen walking on the roads.”

http://coxandkings.blogspot.com/2008/04/south-luangwa-valley-zambias-pot-of.html

When to Travel to Luangwa

There is no best season to come on safari as each season brings its own delights. There are different aspects to every month of the year:

• The green season (November – March) is the most spectacular time for birdwatching, with all the migrants arriving to breed and displaying their bright plumage and intricate song.

• The month of May is the busiest month as it is the impala's rutting season. The bush is now full of the snorts and grunts of male impala that busy themselves either seeing off the competition or trying to impress the females.

• As the bush dries rapidly, stark changes take place over the next few months. The lagoons, already separate from the river in most cases, slowly dry up and disappear. Large herds of buffalo, elephant and other animals gather at the river's edge to take advantage of the permanent supply of water and one gets the feeling that everything is leading inexorably towards the onset of the rains once more.

Although the Luangwa and our company in particular are famous for walking safaris, we like to offer variety to all our guests. You will always have the choice between walking and driving but we strongly recommend a combination of both.

Driving Safaris

Most of our safari vehicles have only two rows of seats and we prefer not to put more than four guests in a vehicle. We do have a larger vehicle for families and small groups but we like to ensure that everyone has a window seat - not that our vehicles have windows of course - in Zambia we are lucky to be allowed completely open vehicles in our National Parks enabling you to be as close as ever to the animals you are watching.

Game drives generally take place just after sunrise and around sunset. You will follow the loop roads in the park, stopping to view wildlife and for the quides to offer you their observations. Morning safaris will include a stop for tea or coffee. You will return to camp at around 10am. Evening safaris will include a stop at sunset for Sundowners – aperatifs served by your guide. The safari will then continue after nightfall viewing nocturnal wildlife, and returning to camp in time for dinner.

Walking safaris

Norman always maintained that to view the bush from a vehicle was to observe, but to get out on foot was to become instantly a part of your surroundings. Anyone experiencing a walking safari will concur that to stand and see the flick of a lion's tail as he disappears behind a bush 100 yards away, incensed and mystified by your presence, is infinitely more exciting than to sit in the safety of a jeep within inches of the same creature.

Zambia’s Luangwa Valley is regarded as the home of walking safaris. In recent years many private reserves and National Parks across Africa have caught on to the trend but nowhere yet comes close. The level of training required before qualifying as a walking guide and the concept of an armed escort as well as the naturalist guide leading each walk, mean that the emphasis in the Luangwa is on getting up close and personal to big game.

Our four bushcamps are positioned such that we can offer a trail combining any number of the camps. Your safari will take on an expeditionary feel as you walk from one camp to the next. We have camps both on the Luwi River (one of the Luangwa’s primary tributaries) and on the Luangwa itself. Your guides will point out the significance of the changing habitats as you walk through the Valley enjoying a complete safari experience.

http://www.normancarrsafaris.com/safari.shtml

Zambia: Born to be wild (+photos)

So kids," I say, dragging out a kindly voice from my schoolteaching days and turning to the children seated behind me in the four-wheel drive, "which animal do you most want to see on safari?"

We're about to leave Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, and head across the Zambian border for a five-day safari in remote South Luangwa National Park, and have just met the British family of five who will be our companions on the trip. Rosie, 10, answers first: "Elephants and hippos and zebras and giraffes."

At 12, Josh is more decisive. "Wild dogs," he says, choosing one of the rarest, most elusive carnivores in all Africa.

Sam, who is 8, has his nose buried in the latest Harry Potter book. His head is too full of hocus-pocus at Hogwarts to give a definitive answer, but the African wilderness is about to create its own magic - for all of us.

Our cheerful guide Ben, from Land and Lake Safaris swings up into the big Land Cruiser and we're soon chewing up the kilometres towards the border. Once in Zambia, the going is slow, hot and dusty as we negotiate 100km of rough dirt road, passing through forests and scattered villages of thatched huts where villagers stop to watch the unfamiliar vehicle bounce by. It's fascinating, but everyone sighs with relief when Ben says we're nearing our lodge.

Rosie gets one of her wishes before we even arrive when we jolt around the final corner to find the track blocked by a herd of elephants.

The rigours of the drive melt away as we sit in awe, watching them use their dextrous trunks to tear at trackside trees before they amble off into the bush.

On arrival at the lodge, strange noises draw us to a bank overlooking the Luangwa River. Several large crocodiles bask on a sandbar in the middle. Just below us the nostrils, eyes and ears of a dozen hippos are visible above the murky water. Every so often a hippo surfaces, opening its cavernous mouth to let out a mournful bellow, a sound that becomes synonymous with our stay.

South Luangwa covers 9050sq km, with the twisting course of the Luangwa River at its heart. This seldom-visited park has one of Africa's highest concentrations of game, so with that in mind we retire early to get a decent sleep before our first game drive. The hippos and the trill of myriad insects and frogs disturb our slumber, as do elephants cavorting in the overflow from the nearby water tank and ripping at low trees right outside our window.

Still, lack of sleep doesn't dull our anticipation and we set off at sunrise, wrapped up well against the chilly African morning.

Just over the bridge into the park our safari guide, Flemings, opts to take one of the smaller trails.

We've been on it only two minutes when someone whispers loudly, "Wild dogs".

Everyone looks sceptical, but Flemings obligingly reverses our customised open-top vehicle and noses off the track, crunching through the thick undergrowth. Sure enough, there in a clearing, six wild dogs are devouring an impala they've just killed, their white-tipped tails wagging furiously and their mottled coats stained with blood.

The dogs, also known as Cape hunting dogs or painted wolves, aren't going to give up their kill because of us so we're able to edge in close.

In the tall, tawny grass we spy a spotted hyena greedily eyeing the dogs' meal. He tries to slink in beside them but is smartly chased away, with a sharp nip thrown in for good measure. Soon the dogs have had their fill and lope away, bloodied tongues lolling as they run. Immediately, the hyena moves in, making short work of the carcass as his powerful jaws crunch through bones and skull.

So Josh gets his wish with the unexpected sight of the endangered dogs and a scavenging hyena.

It will remain a highlight, but there are many more to come. During our stay we have three lion encounters, one of which involves a lonely lioness stalking a handsome male and another female. While we're engrossed watching the pair in front she sneaks alongside us, using the vehicle as a shield.

The British children's mother, Louise, gasps as the lioness passes within centimetres of Rosie, who has opted to sit in the door-less passenger seat.

But the lioness moves on to confront the other lions. The angry male snarls and lunges, chasing her behind a tree where she curls up sadly like a rejected kitten. The last we see of them, the single lioness is watching forlornly from a rock as the pair saunter away across a dry watercourse.

Later we come across a herd of about 600 Cape buffalo and, when we stop near a waterhole for morning tea, a dozen zebra step down to drink - nervously watching us as well as the hippos and crocs. Giraffes, elephants, zebra and warthogs regularly cross our path and impala become so commonplace that we barely notice them.

We do notice the incredible variety of birds and with Flemings' help we are soon able to identify gorgeous lovebirds, weird ground hornbills, various water birds, kingfishers and birds of prey.

South Luangwa has a good population of leopards and during night safaris we hope that the powerful spotlight will pick up one of the big cats. It doesn't, but we see other nocturnal creatures, including genets and civets, mongooses, hares, hyenas, and hippos that have come out of the water to graze.

Our final great experience comes at the last sunset of the trip when we stop to watch the blazing red ball sink below the forest.

In the river behind us hippos moan and groan, while in front of us three enormous elephants materialise out of the trees and stroll across the open ground. All of our safari wishes have come true.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/7/story.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10505200

Get there before the rush

After the rainy season, Luangwa Valley is spectacular, the weather superb, the game as prolific as ever, and while the camps begin to re-open, May and June are traditionally quiet months - a great time to visit the Zambian bush before the crowds! Tailor-made natural history specialist Wildlife Worldwide offers a last minute discount of over 20% on a special 9-day Leopards of Luangwa safari, spending 8-nights in the Valley and 1-night at Pioneer Camp in Lusaka, for travel between 28th May and the 30th June 2008. Tours depart Heathrow once a week.

The holiday is based in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, the jewel of the country's national parks, comprising 9,050 square kilometres of unspoilt African wilderness. With accommodation at Kapani Lodge, once home of Zambia’s most famous conservationist, the late Norman Carr, and its satellite bush camps of Luwi, Nsolo and Kakuli, guests can explore a different habitat at each location. Experience the rich wildlife viewing opportunities of the broad banks of the Luangwa River, the edge of open grassland or mopane woodland close to a waterhole.

Enjoy expertly guided walking safaris – something for which the Luangwa is renowned, morning and afternoon game drives and night-time safaris with spotlights. Luangwa Valley offers a rich diversity of wildlife and in particular, is home to Africa’s highest naturally occuring Leopard population.

Of 60 other resident mammal species recorded, Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Hippo and Cookson’s Wildebeest feature high on the list together with an exciting array of over 420 birds including some of southern Africa’s most colourful species. The final night is spent at Pioneer Camp in Lusaka, located in quiet bush and farmland, amongst 25-acres of wide open spaces and exquisite Miombo woodland, before homeward flights next day.

http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Holidays/article-174990.html

Luangwa: The Hollywoods return!

Two nights ago the camp was full of lions but by daybreak yesterday morning they had moved into some combretum thickets near the workshop. They were very relaxed and I was able to approach quite close on foot. Unfortunately they were extremely well hidden and impossible to photograph. Last night they were out and about again and we had a few fleeting glimpses by torchlight as they moved around the camp. I counted 4 adults (1 male, 3 females) and 7 cubs. They were around at first light this morning for a short time before disappearing into even thicker vegetation.

I was very keen to find out which of the cubs has survived the rains (as I’m sure those of you who have been here and know these lions are too). I didn’t see them all at once though so difficult to tell. I think there are 4 left of the group of 5 that I last saw in December. Out of the 2 smaller cubs only 1. There was then another 2 cubs that looked about 3 months old - so new ones to me, born during the rains. Hopefully I’ll have a good sighting soon so that I can confirm this. It is really encouraging to see so many though as this pride does not have a good track record for raising cubs.

Those of you who are wondering why they are called the Hollywoods - this was a nickname given to the Lion Camp pride due to all the attention they received from a documentary film crew who were here a couple years ago. They’re also rather glamorous!

http://livingluangwa.com/2008/04/11/the-hollywoods-return/

The Luangwa Valley

The Luangwa Valley is at the southern end of the east African rift valley system.

One of the continent’s least known rivers, the Luangwa with its palm fringed lagoons, winds 400 miles through the Valley to join the mighty Zambezi.

A tsetse fly and malarial zone, it is inhospitable to farmers and has traditionally been the territory of hunter-gatherers.

Historical records of the Valley began with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century;

Livingstone was one of the early British explorers to cross the Luangwa River.

Slave traders from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, of Arab, European and African origin, all preyed on its peoples.

Read more at:

http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/research/projects/mfuwe/luangwa/index.html

Canoeing the Luangwa

Our friends John and Carol Coppinger set off on a ten day canoeing trip to the Luangwa/ Zambezi confluence this week.

Sarah and I joined them for the first (65km) leg to Mfuwe. It was a wonderful day although a little hair raising at times as the crocodiles suddenly become very inquisitive when they see you floating past.

John has actually had one bite through the front of his canoe before!

http://livingluangwa.com/2008/03/21/canoeing-the-luangwa/

I lost my heart to Zambia

A trip to Luangwa Valley, Zambia proved life changing for Wild Notebook columnist Simon Barnes

I got up before dawn to say farewell. One of the great times of my life was ending. I had been here for two months, on an all-but-ruinous self-imposed sabbatical. I had stayed at the same camp on the Luangwa River in Zambia, slept in the same hut, driven the same drives and walked the same walks. Now it was over.

Outside my hut – a sort of largish laundry basket containing a bed and a table – lay the deep, hollow bed of the river. After an endless expanse of beach, you could at last make out the knee-deep trickle of the river itself: at its last gasp, waiting for rains. The camp had to be dismantled that day, before the rains came, and I had to say farewell to the people I had shared the place with and start making my way back to real life. Or back from real life: you decide.

I had seen wonders. I had been on terms of the closest possible intimacy with a pride of lions. I had been charged by an elephant while on foot – not very seriously charged, she turned away at a nonchalant handclap from my cool-in-the-bush companions.

I had seen crocs in teams of a hundred and more, I had seen the air turn into flame at the carmine bee-eater colony. I had walked with impala and puku, gazed at kudu and eland; I had followed leopard on their wild night-hunts and watched them kill. In short, I had lost my heart: or a piece of it, anyway.

I have my notes for that last day. For some perverse reason I only recorded the creatures I identified by ear. Hard to remember why: but I suspect it was an expression of my intimacy with the place. I no longer had to look in order to know. All my senses were now bush-senses. I was not an outsider looking in: I belonged. My ears told me that.

Six species of mammal, then: the distant crump of lion, the explosive scolding of a baboon spat, the dirty-old-man laughter of hippo from a still-deep pool of the river, the bark of impala, the last noise you’d expect from so frail a beast, and behind camp, the log-sawing roar of leopard.

I also noted 30 bird-voices; not so many, perhaps, but then I was only at it for an hour or so. On one day, a reasonably leisurely one, I had recorded 134 species in a single day, a record that has since been beaten many times. At that time, I could put a name to every cough and trill and tinkle. It was a matter not just of listening but also of belonging.

What I like best about the Luangwa Valley is absolutely everything. The totality of the environment is the thing. I love above all the way the place sucks you in, the way you cannot help but become a part of it. And everything you do is spiced with just a little whiff of danger, to make you feel more alive than is possible anywhere else, because, of course, the place is full of things that can kill you.

So I noted the orange-breasted bush shrike, which sings Beethoven’s; Fifth, and the distant booming of ground hornbill, and the sweet whistle of black-naped oriole, and the rest; lion roaring in the distance. There was, inevitably, a clamorous farewell from the African fish eagle: the very sound of the valley. And then I left.

Ah, but that’s the most terrible lie. I’ve never left. I’ve been back, a dozen or so times, but in a way, that hardly matters. The fact is that the place has become part of me. When I go back, I see new wonders, and I become reacquainted with the same old wonders seen a hundred times before. But I don’t really mind if I see nothing at all. I demand nothing of the place. I just need to breathe the valley air: to know that there are wonders out there still. Whether or not I see them myself hardly matters any more. It’s just good to get back in touch with that missing piece of my heart.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/related_features/love_nature/article3537153.ece

The Luangwa ... Zambia

The Luangwa River, one of the Zambezi's biggest tributaries flows south through a deep valley of fertile grasslands, woodlands and riverine forests. The Luangwa Valley itself is the southern extension of the Great Rift Valley that stretches from North Africa down to the Zambezi River.

The Luangwa Valley has a long history of game protection despite which horrendous decimation of its great herds occurred in the mid-70's and 80's following independence. The valley has recovered steadily over the last decade thanks to subsequent government intervention and the work of amongst others, organisations such as Save the Rhino Trust and the Luangwa Independent Rural Development Project.

Safari operators in the valley since the 1960's and particularly over the last few years are largely responsible for the ongoing conservation efforts and positive results seen today.

The valley contains 4 designated conservation areas including the South and North Luangwa National Parks, the Luambe and Lukusuzi National Parks. The latter two parks have no safari facilities and the state of their game populations remains uncertain with poaching an ever-present reality.

The Luangwa is essentially a dry-season safari destination. As all of the camps are small and relatively exclusive, advance bookings are essential.

http://www.zambezi.co.uk/safari/zambia/luangwa.html

Obituary: Norman Carr

Norman Carr is a name inextricably linked to the Luangwa Vally, this obituary can be read in its original form following the link at the end of the article.

Norman Carr shot his 50th elephant on his 20th birthday when he was a government elephant control officer in Northern Rhodesia. It was a dangerous but necessary job, for the local tribes depended on what they grew and, if marauding elephants destroyed the crops, the villagers faced hunger and real hardship. Carr was one of four such officers in the country. Of the other three, one died of drink, one after being mauled by a lion and the tombstone of the third reads "Killed by his 350th elephant".

Like the children of many British parents working in the colonies, Carr was sent to England to be educated when he was just six years old. He didn't see his beloved Africa or his parents again until he was 17, when he worked briefly in his father's tobacco business in Blantyre, Nyasaland, before taking the first opportunity offered to get out into the bush. He was appointed to the Game and Tsetse Department of Northern Rhodesia in 1935, as an elephant control officer.

A formidable hunter, Carr was slight of stature, but he was tough and intrepid. "You don't really know a country until you've walked it," he declared as he set out to cover Rhodesia on foot, walking alone for months with just a few tea-bags and some quinine in his knapsack. He lived off the land as he went, gathering the knowledge which would later enable him to set up National Parks for the Rhodesian government and personally train the rangers and wardens.

After serving as an officer with the King's African Rifles in North Africa during the Second World War, Carr returned to Rhodesia with a new idea - perhaps it would be possible for villagers to make money out of protecting, rather than killing, elephants and other animals. He realised that, to make such a scheme work, the people on the land would have to benefit directly.

He spoke to Paramount Chief Nsefu in the Northern Province, who was mystified as to why people would want to pay to watch animals but was willing to try the experiment. In 1950, having built six simple rondevaals (mud huts) for overnight shelter, Carr brought the first visitors from Chipeta, a town 100 miles away.

They shot with cameras instead of rifles and during the first year paid the chief and his council the then substantial sum of pounds 100 for the privilege. Eco-tourism in Africa was born.

The first National Park Carr established was Kafue, where he became warden. Matching the example being set by Joy and George Adamson, he rehabilitated back into the wild lion cubs whose mother had been shot.

Although the cubs learnt to kill and live off their hunting, the experiment was perhaps not altogether successful. When Northern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zambia in 1964, Carr had no difficulty in deciding to stay on: he remembered with distress his early banishment to a country with very little sunshine or space.

Not that Zambia was without its frustration. "Bureaucracy thrives and there is no word for maintenance in any of the local languages. But if I get fed up," he said, "I just remember Regent Street with all its noise and pollution. That calms me down."

Carr wrote several books, all illustrating his love and knowledge of Zambia. The first three, Return to the Wild (1962), The White Impala (1969) and Valley of the Elephants (1972) were published in the UK and the last, Kakuli was published last year in Zimbabwe. Kakuli is the affectionate name by which the locals called him - it means "Old Buffalo".

His success in setting up the National Parks was in part due to the good relationship Carr developed with the Rhodesian and later the Zambian government. He had befriended Kenneth Kaunda and introduced him to the richness of the country's wildlife before he became president in 1964.

Kaunda had a small lodge in the Luangwa Valley and continued to visit Carr regularly. Prince Andrew, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands were also visitors. The Luangwa Valley National Park, which Carr established and worked in from 1960, is rich in game and it was there, after he retired from the Game Department, that he chose to live and set up Kapani, his own tourist camp just outside the park gates, situated by an oxbow lagoon.

During the day the birdlife on the water is a never-ending fascination. At night, elephants, lions and giraffes often visit the camp and the dawn chorus is always aided by the raucous honking of hippos.

He also had a small camp deep in the bush for serious walkers. There the huts were so flimsy that when you lay in bed you could hear the lions breathing as they padded around exploring the human smells.

At the camp one Christmas morning, Carr took out a family on foot while the cook prepared dinner. They stumbled on a lioness with cubs and had to beat a hasty retreat up a tree while she paced angrily below. They were trapped for hours until a rescue party found them.

He received a card every year thereafter from the family "in remembrance of the most exciting Christmas we have ever spent". Going out on safari with Norman Carr was always an exciting adventure. His vast knowledge and experience meant he could sense in advance what was going on so he might take you in the evening to where 50 elephant were fording the river to seek better feeding ground; the babies completely submerged held their trunks aloft like snorkels.

But the Luangwa Valley is still a wild land with ever-present dangers and Carr never underestimated them nor was he too proud to beat a retreat. Alarm at the devastation caused in Africa by poachers prompted Carr to set up the Rhino Trust in 1970 which later passed into the care of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

After he was appointed MBE for his life's work, Carr suggested the conservation award should really have gone to the tsetse fly. In areas from which the fly had been banished, cattle are brought in to graze and people take over. Where the tsetse fly continues to flourish so does wildlife.

Carr was determined that tourism should not corrupt the local villagers and although he gladly took visitors right into the poorest areas, he would never allow tipping. However he encouraged donations for the local school which he sponsored, paying for uniforms, books and sports equipment.

Twice a month he took parties of school children into the park to show them their heritage and teach them the names of the animals so they no longer called them all "inama" which means "meat". It is to this Kapani School Fund that donations in memory of Norman Carr are being directed.

Norman Joseph Carr, conservationist: born Chinde, Portuguese East Africa 19 July 1912; married 1940 Barbara Lennon (one son, two daughters); died Johannesburg 1 April 1997.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970520/ai_n14110579

Obscure joys of a blue square

Wild Notebook: it's gratifying when you make a minuscule contribution to bird science

Time to celebrate my contribution to science. The long-awaited work The Birds of Zambia is with us after all but 40 years in the making, and it is a triumph. What's more, I am part of it. You can find me in the acknowledgements: “Many friends and colleagues have added to knowledge ... too numerous to name all here.” That's me. Too numerous to name, but there.

Take page 382. The meat of this book is in 750 maps of Zambia, each one representing the distribution of a species of bird. The entry for cloud cisticola includes a map with a light sprinkling of small blue squares. Each blue square represents a place where the cloud cisticola has been recorded. One square is hundreds of miles from the rest. Rum, eh? The squares are 30 by 30 nautical miles. There are seven blue squares for cloud cisticola on the Angola border: the rogue square covers a tributary to the Zambezi much farther south. The text points this out and adds that the observation was made by Stjernstedt in 2003.

What it doesn't say is that I bought Stjernstedt's petrol, in circumstances it would be indiscreet to reveal. It doesn't say that I bought the J&B whisky; it doesn't say that I bought the Mosi (the local beer). It doesn't say that I was there, giving the aforementioned Stjernstedt the benefit of my knowledge, experience, culinary skills and beer.

This was a demented expedition in which we got triumphantly lost, survived my campfire cooking, drank the whisky in the clamminess of the night and still made the plane home. Baron Robert Stjernstedt, for it was he, is an old friend, a proper ornithologist and genius at song and call. He also runs a business called Birding With Bob.

Background

He picked out the amazingly unexpected call of the cloud cisticola, singing from a cloud just as it should, rather in the manner of a skylark. We recorded its voice and after some hours we got a clear view for a field description. We drove on, camped, sipped, having pushed back the frontiers of human knowledge by a full micron.

There are other birds in this book that I can boast about. Bob and I made another expedition, this time to North-Western Province. We made 39 new records on that trip, including the gorgeous Narina's trogon, named by the 18th-century naturalist François Le Vaillant for his lovely Khoi Khoi mistress.

I, and I alone, can claim our record for African broadbill. I heard its whirring wing-flicking noise when I was lying in a tent feeling like death; as expedition cook I had inhaled too much camping gas, largely because Bob had neglected to pack a shifting spanner. I recall the beauty of the rosy-breasted long-claw, the gorgeous song of Bocage's robin, the mundanity of tree pipit, the subtlety of Laura's warbler, for which Bob's lovely daughter is named.

I have made other atlas records with Bob in other places across Zambia, memorably at the time we drove up - just - the escarpment of the Luangwa Valley. We celebrated by drinking Mosi at a temperature at which it is perfectly acceptable to serve coffee.

This book contains years of work by great and dedicated observers, and it is a joy and privilege to be associated, even in so tiny a way, with so fine a venture. The glory of being too numerous to mention will be for ever mine: along with the memory of sodden singing, wringing wet forest mornings and fire-lit, whisky-lit forest evenings.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_barnes/article3463387.ece