The most wonderful time of the year! South Luangwa-A close call in the game park, twice! And further north of Malawi

Granny and Grampa came to visit again and we popped to the lake for the day before our trip to Zambia to take the car out of the Country. The water was perfectly clear and calm.

Our local Santa! Lily reckoned his beard wasn't real because she could see the strings.

Setting off on our 370km trip to the beautiful South Luangwa in Zambia. We left at 5am hoping to get there in good time. Unfortunately we got a guy called Patrick at the border and I think he was hoping for some financial motivation to speed things up because it took us 4 hours to pay for road tax!

Everything else was smooth and him taking 4 hours to do something that usually takes 10 minutes was utterly ridiculous! A slight damper on our experience, but we eventually made it to our campsite 11 hours later!

The problem with corruption in these places is that bribes become an expectation. The Malawian side was very efficient and there were QR codes to rate the service. I think Patrick appreciated that I wasn't rating him!

Our beautiful spot on the river.

We headed off on our first game drive and had an amazing leopard sighting. Unfortunately the car we were in started cutting out- not exactly what you want in an open game vehicle with a crying baby! The local guide we had used also happened to not have brought a phone with him.

We made it to the sunset spot in spurts and sputters, with my blood pressure higher than I'd have preferred. Fortunately another group had come to the same spot and their guide figured out that we had run out of fuel. We waited for someone to bring a jerry can and then were on our way. After night fall we saw another leopard. I was still a bit unnerved and happy to make it home safely!

The next morning we went for our second game drive, and our guide had very thoughtfully changed vehicles for our peace of mind.

We set off and enjoyed the beautiful fresh morning air, far more at ease in the day light with Joel on board. After about an hour we stopped to watch some Zebra grazing. We heard an alarm call ahead and our guide said he thought the lions were in the area.

He tried to start the car and nothing happened. Not even a click!

SERIOUSLY???

Our Guide once again hadn't brought a phone, I was the only one with airtime and my phone only had 5% battery. We sent out an SOS message to the vendors at the market who had arranged the game drive in the hopes that they would respond, but they called wanting to discuss how much we would pay for them to rescue us! I had no words at that point!

Even the vultures started to circle haha.

Our Guide told us he could walk to a nearby camp. What of the lions? He insisted he would be fine and off he ran. He came back less than 20 minutes later to say that there was no longer a camp there. We tried push starting with no luck. It was getting hotter and we were being attacked by horse flies.

We waited for over an hour until we saw another vehicle coming along the road- hooray! As they got closer, we recognized the driver...it was the same tourists who had helped us the previous evening. They didn't even try to hide their laughter when they saw that it was us AGAIN!

Needless to say, we decided to forego our third drive and just enjoy the elephants from the safety of our camp!

NB- don't use the local guides and their unreliable cars in future.

On our 12 year anniversary, we decided to go for a self drive and the bush was just indescribably beautiful! The beauty of that park takes my breath away.

Romans 1 vs 20 says "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Just thinking about the intricate design of one leaf or one beetle and how long it has taken us to study those to try and figure them out- it displays the magnitude of God so simply. The Bible is similar, you can look at the overview of the whole story the Bible tells us or you can break it down verse by verse and try to understand it better. It seems intimidating but that's perhaps because we complicate things or compare ourselves and feel we could never understand it as clearly as someone else, instead of simply asking God to reveal the truth to us.

I am happy to enjoy the bush with my limited understanding of photosynthesis and homeostasis and just acknowledge that God is perfect and His ways and designs are perfect because I can't possibly study every aspect of nature down to the function of each cell or mitochondria!

We went for one final evening game drive on our anniversary and wow! We saw lions, then moved on to a beautiful spot to enjoy some sundowners (far from the lions!), and then finally ended with a night drive home during which we saw a leopard. We couldn't have asked for better! AND we didn't break down!

After 5 lovely nights of camping at Croc Valley, we found an even more beautiful spot- Wildlife Camp- deeper in the bush, to spend a couple of nights before leaving. We opted for the glamping sites to make packing up simpler.

We had stunning views from our front verandah, with plenty of elephants around. There was also a hide just behind the camp where the elephants would come to drink.

Elephants walking through the campsite.

We found this perfect basket for Joel at the local market! It was a lifesaver and even fits onto his pram.

Lily painted us a cushion cover at a community initiative place.

We had incredible African thunderstorms almost every day that we were at Wildlife Camp.

Our plan had been to leave on Christmas Eve, but we had nothing to rush back for, and when they mentioned Chrismas Eve carols in the bush and a Christmas lunch on Christmas day, we changed our plans. It was incredibly beautiful.

On Christmas day we were sitting on our verandah drinking our morning coffee. As I was scanning the river with my mom's binoculars, I spotted a pack of wild dogs hunting a buck. I couldn't believe my eyes! We jumped into the car and went to find them for a closer look. What an amazing Christmas morning adventure we will never forget.

Yummy Christmas lunch. Joel Mc Swipe Hands managed to get some ice cream into his mouth before I could stop him.

In the evening, the wild dogs were still around and so we watched them preparing for another hunt as the sun set.

After a 9 hour drive home, with a smoother border experience, we returned home safely. The next morning, we had Christmas for the kids. Granny made Lou a camo outfit that has been a hot favourite! Sweet boy. He turned his Christmas bakkie into a game viewing vehicle with his Lego adaptions- such a little engineer, just like his dad.

Enjoying a swim in the lake on a rough day.

Carrots from our garden.

Movie night.

New Year's eve braai.

We headed up further north for a couple of nights to explore because we still had 10 days left of holiday and G&G had headed back to Blantyre. We spent a night at Mushroom Farm, it was a bit wet and rainy for 3 young kids so we headed down the Mountain to the lake and found a tropical paradise called La Rondavelle that suited us better!

It was the most beautiful beach and we will definitely be back! We ended up leaving with 10 quails...and when we stopped to buy food, they had day old chicks we couldn't resist so we got 6 of those too.