 I had a five-hour red-eye flight from Seattle to Washington DC and then a five-hour layover in Dulles airport. I arrived at 5:00 AM and spent two hours walking the entire airport: all four concourses, up and down, eager to find the very first coffee shop to open.
Somehow I talked my way into upgrading to business class for the flight to Ethiopia. Amen. Having not slept a wink, I could not imagine sitting upright wedged between two strangers for 14 hours. I’d have rather run another marathon. (And the first one was not pretty.) Ethiopian Airlines business class is called “Cloud Nine,” and for good reason: A continuous flow of champagne and a smorgasbord of traditional Ethiopian tasties interrupted only by blissful supine sleep.
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AuthorJennifer Williams MD, from Olympia, Washington is working and traveling in Africa. Archives
October 2019
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Our next destination was South Luangwa National Park in Zambia
When we arrived at our lodge the first thing we were told is not to walk around the campus without a guide. This kind seemed extreme. But sure enough each morning we awoke to new friends: the first morning there were two hippos right outside our front door and the second morning a family of elephants traipsed right across the yard. |
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Our first evening safari — Everything but the lioness and cubs
14. AND THE LEOPARDS. The South Luangwa is best known for its leopard population. Our first leopard casually strolled around the Land Rover, not more than 4 feet away. Our most leopardly leopard was perched on a branch in an Acacia tree, just above his 1/2 eaten impala. The hyenas circled the base of the tree hoping for scraps to fall
- Elephants- maybe one in ten without one or both tusks. Cause is both congenital and poaching. But of course poaching elephants with the biggest healthiest tusks alters the gene pool and begins to favor elephants without tusks.
- Giraffes, mostly living. We saw a freshly killed giraffe and awaited the lions to return for dinner but the smell became too overwhelming and we moved on.
- African buffalo, (the ones with the horns that look like a curled mustache)
- Hippopotami, wading, yawning, wallowing, and bellowing.
- Impala and puku are small ungulates (leopard snacks)
- Zebra--this species has only pure black and white stripes. (Some have brown patches and “shadow stripes”)
- Vervet monkeys
- Yellow baboons
- Male lion-probably an adolescent
- Spotted genet (cat family, nocturnal, spotted body like a leopard and long bushy ringed tail. Size of a Maine coon cat. Omnivorous. )
- White tailed mongoose
14. AND THE LEOPARDS. The South Luangwa is best known for its leopard population. Our first leopard casually strolled around the Land Rover, not more than 4 feet away. Our most leopardly leopard was perched on a branch in an Acacia tree, just above his 1/2 eaten impala. The hyenas circled the base of the tree hoping for scraps to fall
