Chisamba

Into the wilderness.....sort of....

A great man once wrote (with a bit of paraphrasing);  all work and no play makes Tim a dull boy. So, I decided after a good week of work to get away and, thinking that a remote hotel would be the perfect choice, I booked myself into the extremely pleasant Protea Hotel in Chisamba, which is about 40km

Protea Hotel, Chisamba. My room was towards the end
on the right

north of Lusaka and sits in its own private game reserve of 2,500 acres. As you can see from the photos, the hotel has continued my theme of "African travel for the soft of hand" and it would be a stretch to make any claims of adventure. 

To say I was a bit excited would be an understatement as witnessed by the fact that I booked myself on the first game drive on the Saturday. It was an early start but I was rewarded by being the only person on the drive. It was actually just as well I was on my own as I was in my African Adventure wardrobe of Aussie hat and khaki cargoes. I think I looked quite the explorer but judging by the guide's eye rolling and sighs of despair when I turned up, this may not have been the case.

The drive was fascinating and educational. As it turns out, not every small antelope-type creature in Africa is a 

The names's Courtney. Ryder Courtney.

springbok, so, using it as my default answer every time the guide asked "Do you know what sort of animal that is?" wasn't the route to success. Coincidentally, he quite soon stopped asking me to name the animals and just told me what they were.  Even then I did struggle as the reserve has numerous types - kudus, elands etc - and if there had been a test at the end I would have failed.

The animals are free to roam around and there is a lake in the middle of the reserve where they come to drink. You can walk around the lake on your own but you need to approach the animals very silently as they are quite easily spooked and do tend to run off.

I was especially pleased to see zebras. Not just because they made me think of the 1984 classic Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, but also because I couldn't think whether I have ever seen a zebra in real life before. 

The reserve also has four lions on site (three lionesses and one male lion). It was possible to get reasonably close to them and they truly are majestic creatures. I could have spent the whole weekend just watching the lions as there is something about them. Anyway, this experience helped me decide to do a "Walking with Lions and Cheetahs" safari in Livingstone next weekend, which, I hope, is not as dangerous as it

sounds.

The hotel itself was very comfortable. I had my first Zambian beer - a Mosi premium lager. which claims to be "As mighty as the Mosi-Oa-Tunya" (using the local name for the Victoria Falls). The bottle promised "Thunderous refreshment" and after a solid day proving my extensive ignorance of African fauna it was very welcome.

Gratuitous picture of Wendy

As the most popular part of my last post was the picture of Paris, I thought I'd go one better and

include a picture of the beautiful Wendy in this one. Wendy is fully behind me with this adventure and is staying at home as our little boy needs his mother, but we are WhatsApping and swapping pictures every day which helps close the distance.

That's all for this post.  There is certainly more inane babble inside me so I'll send something out in due course.