Zambia´s fruitbats, waterfalls and parks

[enjoyafricatravel]

Good morning,

happy to join the expedition portal after we had some photo reports in the Overland Journal (Algeria and Chad) - just a quick introduction: My partner and I built up a Nissan Patrol K260 (called the "bumblebee") and left Europe to cross Africa in 2008/9 - at the time it was still possible to cross via the Eastern side, so we took a ferry to Tunisia and then went to Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania etc. all the way down to South Africa. An epic trip, 10 months, 30k miles and lots of experiences! The Patrol is still in Africa even now, 17 years on - we return to this marvelous continent every year for more explorations and more tours...

I wanted to post a few pictures of our "second" latest adventure, overlanding Zambia with one destination we had in mind: Kasanka NP and its 9 millions of fruit bats. An absolutely breathtaking experience to see the sky turn black from all the bats. We did some statistics: With 9 million bats hanging off the trees in Kasanka, it would come to the equivalent of roughly 800 elephants hanging from the trees, that is how much 9 million fruitbats weigh!

Since it was November, in some parts the rains had already started and the tracks got tricky, lots of mud and water puddles - we traveled in a Landcruiser 105 and a VW T3 Syncro, a total of 11 people traveling. It was good fun. Even with a black mamba crossing our path just a few meters ahead of us (we were walking).

Zambia has a high concentration of waterfalls and there was one where we could camp right next to the edge, we felt like in paradise!

Enjoy the pictures.

 

[charlieaarons]

Very nice.
However, I strongly recommend against going into fruit bat caves, particularly in tropical Africa.
Fruit bats are thought to be natural reservoirs and vectors of at least 2 filoviruses: Ebola and Marburg. The latter has a higher case fatality rate than the notorious former.
Human cases have been attributed to tourists “exploring” fruit bat caves.
So stay out of bat caves in tropical Africa.
Observe them out in the open.

 

[enjoyafricatravel]

Very nice.
However, I strongly recommend against going into fruit bat caves, particularly in tropical Africa.
Fruit bats are thought to be natural reservoirs and vectors of at least 2 filoviruses: Ebola and Marburg. The latter has a higher case fatality rate than the notorious former.
Human cases have been attributed to tourists “exploring” fruit bat caves.
So stay out of bat caves in tropical Africa.
Observe them out in the open.

I don´t go into bat caves, there aren´t any. This is a special roosting forest in Kasanka and one can only sit on platforms to watch them.

 

[charlieaarons]

Sorry, I didn’t think you did. I also have seen clouds of bats in the Okavango region.
Just wanted to make sure “the public” knows how risky African bat caves are.

 

[AggieOE]

What a cool experience! We have some bat bridges here but nothing of that magnitude! Do y'all visit mostly the same sites yearly or do something different every year?

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Thank you so much for posting. Looks like a great time.