We knew that we wanted to take Joe and April on a safari game drive during their visit, so we had decided with them prior to their arrival that we would head to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia and do some game drives. This is the same place that we went to while my mom and sister visited back in September.
However, this time we decided to do things a little differently. Last time we stayed at a lovely private home located on the protected game reserve and we self drove in the park. This time we stayed at a lodge located in the protected game reserve and went on guided tours. Also this time was in December and during rainy season. This meant two things: 1) it was a lot greener than just a few months earlier; 2) it was a lot hotter than back in September (the heat will come into play later in this tale!).
The lodge was nice and both of our families had private chalets that were pretty nice for standards this side of the world. The meals were catered and not too bad (unless you don't eat fish...ask Joe about it!). There was a nice pool that served as a great place to cool down and the property was located right on the bank of the Luangwa river, so the hippos came right up on the property at night! We saw them up close and heard them munching on the grass one evening too.
Our first full day there we spent a total of 8 hours out on game drives. We had a blast and saw tons of animals. Joseph even spotted a male lion about 45 mins into the drive. One of the neatest things about the whole experience is that we were in a open air vehicle and got super close to all the wildlife, so we were able to hear and experience it all up close and personal. Now I will admit, Joseph and I never completely thought we were crazy taking our 23 month old and 3 month old out on the drives, but when we were just a few yards away from a grown male lion and a pack of elephants...I may have been doing some praying for their little mouths to stay quiet! And praise the Lord, they did!
We did two 4 hour game drives--one in the morning and one evening/night drive. The night drive was something we were unable to do back in September because you're not allowed to be in the park past 6pm as a self drive vehicle but you can be in the park past dark on the guided game drives. On the night drive we were able to park next to the river and get out enjoy the sunset over the Luangwa River while watching 100's of hippos go about their everyday lives right below us. We were also able to see a leopard, which can be very elusive and difficult to spot. I was so excited to see one because we were unable to sport one back in September.
At the end of the first day we were all exhausted. We were so impressed with how Hudson sat on his bottom without any restraint for a total of 8 hours that day. He literally said "hi and bye" to every animal we came in contact with.
When we got back to the lodge they had dinner ready for us, so we ate and then quickly got the boys to bed. Then grandma graciously sat in our room listening out for the kiddos so Joseph and I could go for a swim and cool off. Little did I know that the hottest and most miserable night of my life thus far was just around the corner.
Now we are very accustomed to power outages here in Africa. It's called load shedding, where power to certain parts of the city or country are turned off for a period of time to help spread the limited amount of electricity around. Well this is the case in Zambia just as well as Malawi. I don't mind it as much during the day because I can be fairly certain I will at least have a fan at night, and that day was no exception. The power had been off in the morning and early afternoon so I was not worried about it being off that night. The power went of at 10:00pm, just moments after we turned of the lights. When that glorious fan went off, I wanted to cry. It was so hot, and Joseph, the baby and I were all sharing a double bed, so our body heat also made it stifling, especially under the mosquito net where there is no breeze. I remember praying that the power would come back on quickly, but the minutes turned into hours and there was still no power. I couldn't sleep because I was worrying about my babies over heating. Grayson just wanted to nurse all night because he was hot and sweating. I was sweating and felt like I did not have one more drop of breast milk to give him. Plus with no power, I could hear EVERYTHING! The hippos munching the grass outside my window, the night guards walking the property, Joseph's intermittent snores, Hudson's tossing and turning. It was so defeating laying there just waiting for the morning to come.
Well, it did come as sure as the sun rises, and we got up and went to our early breakfast so we could go on our game drive for that morning. We left and there was no electricity, but I wasn't worried at that point. It had been off for over 8 hours, so I was confident it would be on when we returned.
So we had another lovely drive, the boys did so well again. We were able to see some hyenas up close and have our morning tea under a big baobab tree. It was great! We also were super close to a giraffe and Hudson loved it, as well as all of the adults!
When we got back to the lodge the power was still out. At this point it had been out for over 12 hours. It probably is starting to sound like I'm a big baby and I can't "rough it ". Well let me tell you when you sleep under a net with no breeze in 100 plus degrees with so much humidity it is suffocating, I will let you decide if I'm a big baby or not! When we returned the owner of the lodge found us and told us that the country of Zambia was experiencing a nationwide blackout. All they knew at that point was that Lusaka, the capital, had power restored. But there was no indication as to when our part of Zambia would have it restored.
Well, when we went back to our chalet, I nearly lost it. I can take a lot but the thought of going through another sleepless night worrying about my babies overheating, I just wasn't sure I could do it. So after lunch Joseph and I talked with his parents and came to the decision that we would leave the lodge a day early and head back for Malawi. This meant missing out on our last game drive, but we all decided that although it would be disappointing to not do the drive, we just couldn't bear the thought of one more night of restless sleep for everyone. So we settled up our bill and hit the road. Of course right as we were leaving the power came back on...AWA (Africa wins again, as we say!) but we all decided we made the right decision as there was no guarantee that it would stay on.
Overall, it was a great trip. The animals and once in a lifetime experiences totally made up for the ridiculous heat and no sleep.
