Thursday, Sep 25th, Lafupa Tent Camp, Kafue National Park, Zambia

Greetings!

We just arrived at the Zambian tent camp that will serve as our home for the next three days.  It's located about 90 minutes by small plane from Livingstone Airport on the banks of the Kafue River.  Home to more bird species than all of Europe, this centerpiece to a planned five-country, 108,000 square mile park, will host us for boating, hiking, and driving adventures.

As Pat relaxes in a hot shower in our cabin, i'm sitting on the porch of our cabin overlooking the River, and hearing a hippo call out.  Some of the others have decided to join a nighttime cruise of the riverbanks.  These locations are extremely well-chosen, and combine access to the wild with the pleasures necessary to recover after long days of travel.

This morning, after leaving Zimbabwe, we stopped around lunch for another key feature of OAT - the controversial topic.  Today, we listened to a survivor tell the story of "The Untold Story of the Zimbabwe Genocide".  From 1980 to 1987, our speaker's family village, and many others in the northwestern Zimbabwe districts which are home to the second largest tribe (Ndebele), were ravaged by the current government's effort to consolidate power into a one-party state.  It is estimated that 100,000 were killed before the feuding groups ended the conflict.  Our speaker's presentation was powerful, horrifying, gruesome, personal, and inspiring.

As this was a long traveling day, there were few photos taken, but you can see them by clicking on Thursday, Sep 25th, Lafupa Tent Camp, Kafue National Park, Zambia.