Inlet of Dubai Creek,
Jaddaf Waterfront,
Dubai.
Pinnon Lodge on the Kafue River, Zambia
4th
- 8th July 2023
Timothy,
Priscilla & Kartiki
Gonsalves
In this essay, we describe Pinnon Lodge and its immediate surroundings. Safaris into the Kafue National Park by boat and Land Cruiser, and the South Luangwa National Park are described in other essays.
We landed in Lusaka on Tuesday 4th July evening, flying on Emirates from Bangalore via Dubai. We spent the night in Wild Dog Lodge on the outskirts of Lusaka. It is a rustic place with a large compound and very friendly staff. The approach road is unpaved, and continues to some villages. The compound has an electric fence on top of a 6' wall, for security.
After tea and a short rest, we ventured out further along the approach road. We were on the outskirts of Lusaka. Part of the area was being converted into large mansions for the super rich. The rest sheltered a working class community. The landscape had the long horizons with scattered trees described and pictured in literature and films.
On Wednesday morning at 9 am we headed west with driver-guide Alex in a Toyota Land Cruiser. All cars and vans in Zambia are Toyotas and Land Cruisers are favoured by lodges and safaris. After wending out way through parts of Lusaka, the suburbs quickly gave way to fields and open savanna with occasional villages. The highway was almost arrow straight with little traffic.
Houses along the highway are simple, brick and mud, with zinc or thatch roofs. While the highway was excellent, most other roads are unpaved. A few people use cars and buses, most use private vans that serve for public transport. Many walk. Unlike in India, there are very few 2-wheelers. Zambia seems to be about 20 years behind India in rural development. However, it is remarkably clean. People clean not only their home but also the entire road in front of their homes. The standard of living is quite basic, but the people were very friendly and appeared happy with their lives. As in so many places, the women wore colourful, traditional outfits with distinctive head wraps, and most preferred natural hair styles.
We stopped in Mumbwa for coffee and a snack, and fuel for the car. A sizeable town with a mosque, several petrol bunks, etc. After Mumbwa, the savanna gave way to scrub forest. About 1 pm, we came to a wooden sign directing us left for 10 km down a dirt road to Pinnon Lodge. The road wound through bush and shrubs with antelopes and guinea fowl grazng by the wayside. We reached at about 2 pm, to a warm welcome from the staff and a hot lunch.
Situated on the left bank of the Kafue in the Mumbwa Game Management Area (GMA), Pinnon has a main building with an open dining hall and cabins for kitchen and staff. There are three tent-cabins situated 50-100m away each overlooking the river. The lodge is fully solar-powered. Hot water for bathing is heated in wood-fired boilers.
The cabins are comfortable and quiet. In the evenings, wild animals are free to roam, so we were warned not to leave the cabin without an escort. A group of hippos, mostly females with a calf and one male, were resident in the river about 50m from our cabin. The grunting of hippos was a constant chorus, day and night.
One day we chose to walk in the bush near Pinnon. Martin, a veteran guide accompanied us with a .401 rifle and a pair of binoculars. Martin's father worked in the wildlife department so he spent his childhood in the Kafue National Park across the Kafue river. The walk started along the dirt road to the highway. The undergrowth was recently burnt so there was no danger of surprising an animal. We saw termite mounds made of clay hard as cement. They also quite resembled cement as the dirt is predominantly grey, so the termite mounds are also grey. Ant lions dig ant traps, then lie in wait at the bottom for ants to fall in.
After a kilometer, we headed back through the scrub bush. The soil was hard and cracked, rough going. Trails through the bush are made by hippos and elephants, though we did not encounter any. We came across an elephant footprint, and elephant dung scattered by monkeys looking for undigested seeds and vegetation. Near the lodge, we saw a herd of impalas in the savanna grass. Outside the lodge is a large sausage tree (Kigelia africana), named for the distinctive fruit that hang vertically downwards. Though the fruit is not edible, village women grind it into a medicine.
Most meals were bland English food, a legacy of the colonial past, or perhaps to cater to the mainly Western tourists. On request, the cook gladly produced a hearty Zambian lunch. This consisted of sheema, boiled cabbage and beef stew, followed by Zambian fritters with a dusting of sugar.
The evening safari finished by 6:30 pm. A bonfire outside the dining area warded off the chill as we enjoyed the intense colours of the African sunset over the Kafue River.
In
this essay, we have described Pinnon Lodge and its immediate
surroundings. Safaris into the Kafue National Park by boat and
Land Cruiser, and the South Luangwa National Park are described in
other essays.
© 2023 Timothy, Priscilla
& Kartiki Gonsalves