Road trips through the bush

As well as the 'hard work' involved with filming and editing wildlife videos in the African bush, there's also plenty of chances for adventure. Mike (manager of Zungulila bush camp out here) has finally finished fixing his old Landrover, and Zillah (manager of Chamilandu bush camp) was out of camp for a few days, so a bunch of us packed a cool box full of drinks and treats and headed off for an afternoon drive in the bush. Given that the Landrover has been wrought with mechanical issues, none of us were sure we'd make it there.... or back, but without any technical hitches we had the most fantastic drive.

We stopped the old Landrover at a spot called Chicheli Hill, a beautiful vantage point over the valley, and enjoyed cold beers in front of (yet another) incredible Zambian sunset. As I've possibly overdone it with sunset pics, I thought I'd show you instead the beautiful 2 seater convertible Landrover that the 6 of us piled in for the ride - she's called Patricia.

Just a selection of the wares available at our 'bush-bar'.

Riding on the back of the old rickety Landrover, over miles of rocks and pot holes, was mildly painful on the bum, but nothing makes me feel more alive than riding on the back of an open truck getting pelted by dust and insects.
This was taken on one of my recent morning filming trips; the guides have named this huge male lion Shakka, as in Shakka Zulu, due to the fact that he's come into the Mfuwe area to push out the current male of the Mfuwe pride. He's a big old boy, and compared to the fairly large female lionesses that we see more regularly, he looks massive.

Outside my room is a small yard of trees, which as well as harbouring snakes, are home to some pretty cool tree frogs. This one is a grey tree frog or foam nest frog, and he sat pretty happily whilst I snapped away.

These crowned cranes flew over in formation one night last week. These birds (the national bird of Uganda in fact) make an almighty racked as they swoop past; to describe it i would say it sounds a bit like a cockney saying 'aaawriiight aaawriiight aaawriiight'.