Judy Koehler

Sep 3, 20224 min read

Old Mondoro Lower Zambezi National Park

Updated: Oct 16, 2022

Old Mondoro is the definition of a Bush Camp. It is rustic and reminds you of an Africa from times past. It is exactly what we wanted, after our luxurious stay at Puku Ridge. You arrive by small plane (operated by Pro Charter) after you fly from Mfuwe back to Lusaka and then board a plane for the airstrip at Jeki!!

Elephants reign supreme at Zambezi National Park and several bulls are constant residents at Old Mondoro. We are given the advice that they could wander by our cottage and to not interfere and stay quiet. We are the guests here and they are the residents. Also, upon arrival a leopard had placed at kill in a tree in the center of camp. We were always picked up and escorted to the main gathering area by vehicle as we not allowed to walk. Here are some pictures of the camp gathering grounds.

Our Bush Chalet

The game drives were structured for one in the morning, return for lunch and then one in the afternoon that would last until after sundown. You stopped in morning for coffee from the Jeep and in the afternoon for sundowners. Dinner was served at 8:00 PM. You could also fish, canoe and take pontoon cruises. We stayed with the game drives and did one afternoon on the pontoon.

There was always plenty of excitement at our Chalet. We faced the lagoon, so we had many visitors. One of the highlights of this safari was a visit from a bull elephant! I could have reached out and touched him! I was resting on the daybed on the porch and up he comes. There is no screening on the porch and the only thing separating us was the small rail. Michael had gone to general quarters and could not get back because the bull wanted to stick around.

View from the front as Michael is trying to get home.

This is the resident Leopard that has the impala in a tree. She was only there until the second day.

Wild Dogs were the talk of Old Mondoro. The BBC was even on-site filming. They were using drones (which are prohibited in the park), but I guess for the right money you can have anything you want. Apparently, the dog pack registered 40 adults in number and then had split. The pack we saw was about 20 and reportedly had a den of puppies in the escarpment of another 20! Everyone was converging on the dogs. At one point there were probably 8 vehicles tracking the dogs. It just seemed to me that this was overload and at some point, was preventing the dogs from organizing for an evening kill. We did see them in the afternoon just lounging around, but by around 6:00 PM it appeared they were trying to organize or head back to the den.

The BBC truck was everywhere

Lions were in abundance from two very old males to a younger group of 4 young males that were hunting as a group. The following morning, we found the same group of 4 lions finishing off the scraps from their buffalo kill. They had probably been feeding on it for 2 or 3 days.

It was very cold in the mornings and evenings through the night (around 48-50 degree). We had hot water bottles when we slept and on the morning game drives. As soon as the sun came up the temperatures would rise to the high 80's during the day. This was true throughout the entire trip.

A bull elephant giving us a little warning about getting too close.

The only Jackel we saw on the entire trip (Side Striped Jackel)

A wonderful matriarchal group of elephants. Notice the babies are always in the middle and surrounded by the adults.

Anxious to get to the water.

Getting a good scratch

Finish off with a good dust bath.

We saw several baboons, but this particular troop had a mother with a baby that was only hours old. She would not let go of the baby.

African Fish Eagle, Helmeted Guinea Fowl and Ground Hornbill

We always had roaming bull elephants making themselves at home in camp.

OH NO!!! We left Mommy

We are all back together again!!

My favorite Kudu with the ever-present Guinea Fowl.

We love the grace of the impala

Largest herd of buffalo we had ever seen.

More elephant outside our porch. They eat the water hyacinths but spit out the roots. We also had crocodiles on the bank.

Pictures from our pontoon boat down the Zambezi River.

The cliffs provide nesting for the Carmine Bee Eater and the Little Bee Eater. They are both migratory birds and were just beginning to show up from Ethiopia. We saw the Pied Kingfisher, the Giant Kingfisher and the most beautiful of all he Malachite Kingfisher.