Easter Safari at Kasanka

Over the holiday weekend John and I went to Kasanka, a small National Park that is about a 4 hour drive from Mansa. We left on Friday evening by over-night bus. John was kind enough to help 8 Danish students find a mini-bus to catch since they did not book tickets with the large coach bus ahead of time. They assumed that you could just buy a ticket a couple hours before, but since it was the holiday I think the buses were extra full. It was wild trying to board the bus, people were pushing and shoving but we finally were able to assert our way onto the bus. The ride was longer and bumpier than we remembered! But finally we arrived at the park gate. Only the Danes were not there and we wondered what had become of them. We only had to wonder for about 15 minutes and they showed up paying the mini-bus drive a bit extra (there were some communication difficulties so the driver didn't know how far it really was).

At the park we stayed in a nice Chalet and had warm showers but they only charged us the "camping" fee. This was very generous of them. It seemed our fate was linked with the Danes as we did all our game drives/walks/tours with them. This was actually to our benefit as it allowed for group rates which were cheeper. Though they were a bit noisy of a group which was a bummer for the walks since the animals are already skid-dish because of poachers around this park.

We did get to see many birds and many puku (antelope like creature pictured above), a jackal, monkeys, baboons, and crocodiles. It was a very relaxing weekend and we enjoyed sitting around the camp fire in the evenings watching the moonrise or sunrise.

We had a bit of an adventure getting back to Mansa on Monday morning. We had not arranged for transport back so we planned on hitching a ride. We waited out at the gate from 10am-3:30pm before someone picked us up. They agreed to take us to Samfya (about 1 hour away from Mansa). We road with a group of 6 other Zambians, three who were staying in Samfya and 3 who were hitching a ride to some fishing camps before you get to Samfya. I was concerned that we wouldn't find a ride from Samfya to Mansa because it was about 7:00pm and dark by the time we rolled in. Thankfully there was a truck waiting there to go to Mansa and they agreed to take us with them. So we made it to our home at 9:00pm! It seems that in Zambia no matter how far you are going it always takes the whole entire day to travel anywhere! We are thankful for our time away but happy to be "home" again.