Over the past three mornings, we enjoyed many of the trees in bloom: some subtle, some showy, in color, size and scent. But, no lionesses this morning. Our last morning at McBrides’ we took a relatively short walk to track the three lionesses, but it was largely a botanical walk – no carnivores in sight. We settled our bill and pointed our land rover east, headed out of the Kafue for the cross-country drive to South Luangwa National Park.

Downtown Mumbwa

Heading into Mumbwa

Grain depot

Typical bike load

Since we had not been driving for the past few days, our plan was to blow past the black marketers in Mumbwa and fuel up in Lusaka. Our next stop was Pioneer Camp, just east of Lusaka.

The drive out did not seem to take as much time as the drive in, and we were soon on the pavement of the Great East Road.