Day 5, July 29: Kafue National Park

At 5:30 AM outside Mukambi Safari Lodge it was 11°C (52°F). We were all bundled up to an extent for the boat crossing of the Kafue River, and boarding the elevated, open Land-Rovers for the drive, but it rapidly became clear as we started moving that it was indeed very cold out. Fortunately the lodge had supplied each of us with a fur-lined poncho, which covered all but our faces. If you reached for binoculars, your hands froze up pretty quickly, though. The sky was crystal clear, though the smell and haze from burning wood-smoke were eye-watering and throat-hurting. Still, wildlife...

This was the first day I was out, and I was still getting used to my big 200 - 800 mm telephoto, so the phots are not as good as they will subsequently be. Still, there they are....

An impala

A spotted hyena.

A kudu, with an oxpecker grooming him.

Bennett's woodpecker.

A part of little bee-eaters. Pure cuteness. 

A pretty greater blue-eared starling.

An African grey hornbill. Better photos later...

Black-collared barbets

And a great shot of the ubiquitous gray go-away bird.

One of my bucket list birds, the hoopoe (African subspecies).

Another bee-eater, the swallow-tailed...

Red-breasted swallows

Smith's bush squirrel

A male Arnot's chat.

The ever-weird white-crested helmetshrike

And its cousin, Retz's helmetshrike

The gorgeous, or gaudy, lilac-breasted roller

Miombo scrub-robin

A male puku

White-fronted bee-eaters.

A female yellow bishop. Tough ID (lots of females in this family look the same, but another crappier photo picks up the yellow in her shoulder.

Rattling cisticola

A female puku.

And finally, returning after dark, the savannah hare.