Kasanka National Park

Well we left home at about 8:30am and went to send our emails from Samfya Basic School before heading out to Kasanka National Park. There were the usual people selling their wares and also some children with a huge catfish! It was almost bigger than they were!

We arrived at Kasanka at around mid day. On our way to reception some baboons ran across the road right front of us! Then we checked in at Wasa Lodge and had some lunch then headed out to explore.

First we had to cross the river so Donald drove the car onto a pontoon and off we went.

Katie was the first to spot some Puku which is a type of antelope. They are average in size, red and fast. We also saw some monkeys. We went to Luwombwa (another lodge down the road a little) and went on a boat for a ride up the river to see what we could see! We saw a hippo, a small crocodile, and some water monitors. Donald was also fishing and caught 3 bream fish. Two were small so we put them back but one we are going to have for dinner. On our way back we saw, wart hogs, a common gray duiker, sable antelope and lots and lots of Puku. We also stopped at Fibwe Hide. Fibwe Hide is a place you can go to spot some of the rare sitatunga (another type of antelope – we didn’t see any). Fibwe Hide is up a tree with a look out at the top. Needless to say Gwen who is scared of heights got a little way up and then chickened out! We are having a Brie (BBQ) for dinner with beef and Donald’s fish.

Well the beef ended up being chicken and South African sausage, roast potatoes and pumpkin, boiled beans and carrots, and Donald’s fish! Not what we were expecting but very nice anyway.

Having a warm shower was another unusual time! They came and asked us when we would like our hot water. It was to be at night or not at all! The men arrived with the hot water, climbed up the ladder and poured it into the containers on the roof. Once it was finished it was literally finished – not even a cold one! It was done, all the water gone!

This was the end of our first day!

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all!

Day two at Kasanka, started with our cereal and then off to explore. What would today bring after all the amazing things we saw yesterday. Our first stop was the airstrip and we saw 3 zebras! They were quite far away but at least we got to see them! It is even the first time Donald has seen them in the wild as well. Gosh these darn flies I wish they would go away. Owww that one bit me!! Turns out these flies that bite can also give us sleeping sickness. Let’s pray that we don’t get that. Symptoms won’t show until we are in the UK!

We saw lots and lots of animals they certainly showed how amazing our God is. He made all of these things! We went down this dusty road wondering what was down there. Well there was bush, bush and more bush, not even a puku in sight. It took us the rest of the morning. Finally we found we were back at the pontoon so we crossed the river, parked at a spot we knew we had seen some puku the day before and had lunch. It was a nice picnic lunch the only thing missing was the bluebird chicken chips! Oh well back to the lodge to see if we could find some coffee! At the lodge we got talking to a family who had just been out (in a different direction to us). They had seen hippos and crocodiles... so off we went again in the hunt to see more of the African wild! Wow we saw 4 hippos, 7 crocodiles, and lots of the rare sitatunga antelopes! It was so wonderful. The sitatunga are a lot different to a normal antelope. They are a lot darker and as Katie put it when they run they look like my bunny hopping! They are not graceful at all but there were quite a few and were playing in the water.

Ok back for dinner. Tonight we are supposed to be having sweet and sour pork – we will see!

Well they still told us it was sweet and sour pork but it was more like a beef casserole! Dessert was really sweet so I only had a couple of mouthfuls – Donald ate the rest! All in all a wonderful day! Back for our showers, now where is that hot water man!

So here is a list of the animals we saw:

Antelope:

Puku,Sable, Common Gray Duiter, the rare Sitatunga

Birds:

Saddle Billed Stork, African, Fish Eagle, Bat Hawks, White Egrets, Sacred Ibis and many, many more but we didn’t know their names!

Other Animals:

Water Monitor (3), Wart Hogs (heaps), Lizards, Zebras (3), Hippos (5), Crocodiles (8), Vervet monkeys (heaps), Baboons (heaps), Termites, Ants, Bats, Bream, Flies and Frogs!

Ok Time for bed and it is only 8:30pm, we must have had a hard day as we are all tired.

Thursday Morning- Time to go home.

Well you would think this would be straight forward wouldn’t you. We had our breakfast and Katie went to brush her teeth. In the jug of water (that had a lid on it!) now had a frog in it!! Of course Katie thought it was cute but hey true to form I screamed! Yep just can’t help myself!!!

Ok in the car now. Where is Donald? He is trying to pay the bill but it has been close to an hour that he has been in reception. Now just to add to all our excitement two families who had come to the park decide to have a big arguement - time to move I reckon!

It is now 8am. We are hoping to be back in time to do some emails etc so off we go!

On our way Donald notices that he doesn’t have brakes! The pipe has been leaking brake fluid, oh well we still have the hand brake so we keep going. We can get that fixed in Samfya! Ummmm now we are about 20 minutes away from home yay. Oh oh what now!!!! There seems to be a blockage in the fuel line and the car won’t go anymore. Donald tries to fix it but we have to end up calling Hoggie! We have such a big audience outside the car. Just lots and lots of kids! I decided to take some photos of them. Oh my goodness you should hear the noise when I show them the photos on the camera!!!

Hoggie has arrived with a mechanic yay! There isn’t a fuel blockage it is one of the pumps! Anyway to cut an even longer story short, they get us going and when we get back to Samfya they will fix it all properly! We have no idea how much it is all going to cost! Hopefully not too much but it does sound expensive to me!

Oh well we are now home thank goodness. We have unloaded the car and are ready for the rest of the day, and now Donald is taking the car in. At least while we are in Samfya we don’t actually need a vehicle but next weekend Donald is heading off to the Congo so it will need to be done by then. Oh well everything is in God’s control. At least we were able to make a whole lot of children happy today.

The rest of the week will be school work and ladies study. This weekend the Samfya Board is meeting for the whole of Saturday. Donald will be tied up with them. He will give you his report later.

Bye from Gwen