6 am start, pack up and our driving ambition is to get phone signal after 4 days of none, the kids are anxious to touch base with friends. Maddalena lost signal on a cliff-hanger of a conversation with the boyfriend, Arabella was mid flow in a conversation about spotting Hippos on a group chat, now she's thinking her friends may think she's been eaten by one and Luca just desperate to download a new game as I've been told boys don't keep in touch as much as girls.
On the road at 7am we continue on the Spinal road which is the main 4wd track through the park, we spot nothing of interest. We branch onto the Shishamba Loop in hope of lions, we then continue on some other off shoots into Chumba where Maz starts to follow Tracks 4 Africa but there are none showing on the app but loads of sand roads for us to navigate in front of us. We stumble into a small village with loads of school age kids, we seem to be driving through the school grounds past small homes looking for a route out. This is the first civilisation we have seen since entering Kafue other than park rangers and we still have not seen another car. The kids are dead embarrassed on how out of place our vehicle looks, we end up asking for directions to be told there is no through route so we back track and head to the airstrip for another attempt of a through route, but again couldn't see a road through. We decide to head to Hook Bridge on a more known route.

At the Gate entrance whilst Maz completed the formalities of paper work for entering the Northern section of Kafue for three more days in the National Park, I brewed up some coffee and the kids dived into snacks and spent the limited time here communicating with friends back home......but only for a short time as signal was lost as soon as we entered the park.

On route we see a hippo pod and a huge one on dry land nothing else. We arrive at Mapunga midday and are greeted to a large tin of smoking elephant pooh hanging on a post. Nobody on site to advise so I suggest walking round the car with the smoking elephant pooh to get rid of the

Tsetse flies, Maz looks at me funny and carries on driving into reception where the guy clarifies it is for the Tsetse flies you just need to drive through as opposed to walking it round the car.
The reception guy sprays the car with DOOM and tells us we have a 4am start to get to Bushunga Plains in time for sunrise. Can you imagine Arabellas reaction......
We set up camp, hot shower, evening drive and again see nothing more than puku and red liechin deer. Alarm set for 3.30am we go to bed early.

3.30 alarm goes off and we try to rally the troops, Arabella is the slowest as usual at getting ready. We dress for cold and into the open safari truck, wrapping ourselves in blankets in preparation for the 2.5 HR drive to Bushunga Plains. The driver puts his foot down, it must be around 5C outside and feels like below zero with the wind chill, the kids cover themselves with blankets with Arabella describing the situation as hell, but eventually the sun rises and the temperature starts to rise too. As the red sun starts to appear over the horizon the driver stops the vehicle and observes an eland barking, he goes on to tell us that he is warning the group of imminent danger, the puka in the area also start whistling, normally the eyes would be fixed on the car but they are looking to the right, we head off road to where the eland are looking and find a brightly coloured leopard, which soon takes off, unfortunately it's over too quickly and I don't even get the chance to take a photo but the colours we so different from other leopards we have seen previously. We carry on and just short of Busanga we stop for breakfast and a pee stop behind a baoboa tree that is safely checked by the guide before we are allowed to go. As we get out for breakfast we notice an elephant poo bucket tied to the back of the vehicle, John the guide explains that there are no Tsetse flies in Bushunga Plains and the Pooh will be lit for the journey on the way home.
Arabella refuses to exit the vehicle for a pee stop at breakfast remaining wrapped in blankets looking rightly pissed off, one of the guides comes to her with a hot cup of coffee and a breakfast box. I think it is such a lovely photo opportunity, but as I try to take it Arabella sticks up the birdie to me, man she's grumpy! Actually it ends up being a gorgeous photo showing true feelings!

Onwards to the plains, it's bizarre to enter the vast open space similar to the Serengeti with no vehicles onsite, totally having the place almost to ourselves. Straight off the bat we see herds of wildebeest and Burchell zebra which are black white and brown striped, thousands of Puku and Red Letchin as far as the eye can see. We pass Hippos and spot an elephant in the distance but our guide is on the lookout for Lions. Passing a safari vehicle the drivers talk in local tongue and we get wind of a lonely lioness walking not far from a watering hole, we proceed not even 10 minutes and find her she's been foot deep in mud and now on route somewhere. Our guide notices she has been suckling cubs so cautiously from a distance we track her across the plain. She very wary stopping observing and eventually heads into a bushy mound where we can no longer see her. The guide tells us before she disappeared into the bush her behaviour was very much like she had cubs in the bush that were only weeks old.
This is confirmed when John points out a track of an animal being dragged into the bush where the lion is. It just shows you how careful and unassuming a bush can be, you just don't know what is lurking.

We then get wind of two lionesses with 3 cubs and head over a not as easy route trying not to get bogged down in the river area. When we finally make it we sit an observe for 20 minutes watching them just resting in the midday sun. There are 2 lionesses' (sisters), 3 cubs 1 male with the main just starting to grow. He asks Luca which is the male and Luca points out the correct cub, the guide then clarify it is correct males have a larger head.

We then head to the northern part of Bushunga near the flood plains to have lunch. The truck does figures of 8 through the bush checking surrounds for tracks or any sign of cats. Parked up a very colonial scene emerges; table chairs and they fire up the BBQ to cook Boers and burgers.
Whilst consuming lunch it's mad to think that Bushunga Plains is only accessible 5 months of the year and the rest of the time at least is under 1 metre of water. All of the animals having to leave for higher ground, Bushunga is 350 sq Km.

We have a great chat with John the guide who has driven these tracks for 41 years. Fascinating the perception he believes of how Europeans perceive Africa as war torn, unsafe and poverty stricken. While the reality is Zambia couldn't be further away from this. People need to remember that Africa is not a country but a Continent. John then relayed the parallel of not visiting Europe because there is a war in Ukraine.

After lunch we start the long journey back observing smoke in the distance asking if the is attentional fire. The guide explains many years ago when the government decided to make Kafue a National park they had to move locals from the Bushunga Plains, but they protested that it was their homeland and livelihood to hunt and fish the plains. They struck a deal with the government, moving off the plains settling in the surrounding area on the condition they we're allowed to fish 3 months a year. Now is the season for this, the crazy thing is they sleep under the stars against the elements and dangers of lions etc they only build wooden tepee's to make out their area and fish the hell out of it then dry smoke the fish on racks so they have a supply for the year ahead, if they are caught with any game meat they are fined a huge sums.

On exciting the plains we stopped briefly to light the elephant pooh so the smoke woofed through the truck but the funny thing was it was positioned right behind Maddalena who kept getting overwhelming smells when driving.
All tired out it was an uneventful 2.5 hours drive back. We only saw some elephants cross the road with young, they seemed very aggressive so we didn't stop to observe. But saying that you don't want to stop because of the Tsetse flies even though the elephant pooh works brilliantly keeping them away.
Glad we ordered dinner as we got back 7pm dark, straight for food then all in bed well early shattered.

Next day we have a relaxing day, we decided to do a safari drive early in the morning, lucky we did as we spotted a leopard (our 3rd in Kafue) crossing the road just ahead, we manage to stay with it for a while but in then runs off into the bush. Back at camp the kids go about doing their own things, it is so nice just having time to yourself and finding space alone to just sit in piece, write, read or watch the world go by. It's a really hot day you just cant be out in the sun, lucky for us we have a very shady spot. We do have to be mindful when we have down days that the food in the freezer and fridge keeps cools, lucky we have solar panels and make sure that position the truck in a place where the panels can get enough sun - not hard really. Maz spends the day reading having bought a couple of books from home that he wanted to ready before going to Angola and I also have a book called The Dunedin Star about a shipwreck on the Skelton Coast I must finish. Luca has been on the hunt looking for his sling shot from home and we luckily find it and just in time for the Baboons coming into camp in the afternoon - I'm cooking food and have stuff all out on the table so Luca becomes the guard firing stones at any that get too close as they are naughty and will not fear racing in a grabbing stuff. We have proof as the day before Maz left the Cam on and when we were out all day they were snooping around camp site and looking for anything left lying about.