ON SAFARI- In the Valley of the Leopards

Welcome back to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. This area is known as the Valley of the Leopards and it did not disappoint. In this video we arrive to a new camp, Muamba, and it ends up being my absolute favourite. We saved the best for last. Let's jump straight in. Today we arrived at Muamba camp and I think it's going to be one of my favourite camps. There's a lot of wildlife. I just had some elephants walk in front of my room. I can see four or five squirrels playing around and these squirrels are very unique because they're tree squirrels but they're social and they live in family groups. Usually tree squirrels are solitary. I've got a lovely room and there are these wonderful big sliding doors. There's an outside bathroom and I showered whilst watching vervet monkeys in the trees. We're going to go on a safari drive and it seems like everyone's target is to find another leopard. We haven't seen one since our first camp so fingers crossed. Rhian did see a honey badger so that would be epic. We have three days here and I'm very excited to see what wildlife we can find. Muamba bush camp is really special because it has a watering hole and this means there is always wildlife moving through. There are so many vervet monkeys who are constantly trying to steal my toilet paper. After we settled in and had a good rest it was time for our morning drive. We managed just a few shots when we found this stunning leopard. This is a young adult female and she was in the most beautiful position with these bright red leaves behind her and in gorgeous golden light. After a few minutes of cleaning and posing for us she was on the move and walked straight to us. There's nothing quite like locking eyes with a big cat. I think this is one of the most stunning wild animals I've ever seen. I love how the legs are just spread. I know. They're so cute. We've just had an amazing encounter with a female leopard. We got her walking, we got her licking, we got her sprainting. I think we're all very happy. See leaves falling but did you take some photos or are you mostly doing video? Mostly videos. Yeah. Get some photos but not really. Very difficult when it's a leopard. What are you doing? That was so good. Great. The cherry on top for this trip I think. The strawberry on the cake. Strawberry on the cake. Don't worry Mateus, I've got your back. I am very happy. Muwamba had surprised us with a bush lunch where we ate and watched elephants. This morning we had the most insane encounter with a female leopard. When we first spotted the female leopard she was sitting on the bank of a dry stream so we could drive into the lower area and basically shoot almost eye level and there were some lovely red leaves behind her and it complemented her colorations so much. We've been lucky again and again on this trip. The wild dogs play fighting, the lions with the cubs. It's just been incredible. I'm not sure if this is the general safari experience or whether we have been insanely lucky. And yesterday we actually saw a honey badger so I'm hoping that before we go I can get at least one clip or photo. Oh there's a squirrel. Also last night the hyenas were making contact calls between us and they must have been very close and it was amazing to hear them communicate. It was like a... If I could describe it, if I didn't know what it was, I would say it was a werewolf. Really cool sound. I need to change, pack my camera and we're going to have afternoon tea and go on our afternoon drive. I think my last dream encounter would be a nice shot of a honey badger or wild dog puppies. Spoiler, one of those dreams does come true. This video is sponsored by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform I use to run my photography website. Squarespace has beautiful templates that are perfect for photographers and it's incredibly easy to create stunning galleries and portfolios. I also use it to promote my photography workshops and keep everything updated in one place. Head to squarespace.com slash dannyconnorwild to save 10% off a new purchase of a website or a domain. We headed out in the afternoon. Yes, perfect. Oh mate, are you serious? Squirrel doesn't like it. Whilst we watched this handsome lion catch some z's, we headed to where a leopard had been sighted. Can we stop here? He was huge and had a very big belly. Um, can we go back? Yeah, more, more, more. Yeah, that's, that's good. Thank you. Oh, that's really good. It's taken me until now to realise that the guides are very happy to put you in the position you think is best. Some guides are actually delighted for you to voice where it is best to put the jeep and this allowed us to get many angles of the leopard. He was quite sleepy with his full belly. We headed back to the sub-adult male lion who had now woken up. It was after sunset so the light wasn't the best but I loved the blades of grass all around him. We headed off to find some dinner and just as we arrived back to Moamba, a hyena was running around trying to steal torches. We had a great drive. We first found a male leopard and he had just eaten an impala so he was full and fat, very warm and not really looking at us but I got a few shots and then we found a lion who was very relaxed and then as soon as the sun went down he started to wake up. He was yawning, he was licking himself and he suddenly went into hunting mode and sadly it was a failed hunt. There was an impala that he was stalking but one made an alarm call and then the hunt was over and he walked away and I got some shots with the car lights and the torches which were quite interesting. I'm ready for dinner and probably an early night and then a ferocious, very cute honey badger made his evening appearance. The next morning Hannah and I headed out and the rest of the group stayed back. You might think that's odd. Well, I mentioned earlier that Muamba has a watering hole and there's actually a photography hide right in front of it. I spent my last day in Zambia in the hide on my own and let's just say it was nerve-wracking but absolutely incredible. You'll have to wait and see. Zambia has really exceeded all my expectations. And I'm so grateful to Dusty Boots Travel for inviting me on this trip. You can find out more about Dusty Boots in the description. After photographing bee eaters and hornbills, we found a big group of zebras. They're more nervous than I expected so this encounter was really nice. And then we found these little Pumba babies. Oh my gosh! We've just stopped off for some coffee and muffins and we've had a really lovely morning, very successful. We had a slender mongoose who was very relaxed and he was scurrying around and the light was really nice and just now we had some elephants cross the river. But the unexpected highlight was baby warthogs. There were two, they were tiny and they were very cute. With all the animals here, the mothers like to be between us and the baby but we got some very nice clear shots of baby zebra. So a very successful morning. By the late morning, the light is very harsh and it's quite difficult to find nice compositions. We headed back to camp for lunch and you know lunch is ready when you can hear the drums. To add to the list of why I love Mwamba camp, almost all of the food was vegetarian and all the fruits and vegetables are grown locally. The vervet monkeys are really amusing. One had a runoff with part of my shampoo. Showering under this massive fig tree is very special and somewhere there was an upset squirrel. In the afternoon, we spotted this very unique white baboon baby. Something I didn't expect to enjoy so much on this trip was actually being with other content creators. Hannah, Mark and Mateusz are all online wildlife photographers or content creators and even though we do something very similar, each person has a very different way of working and it was fascinating to see everyone work and get different ideas. In general, I really love doing photography with other people and that's why I enjoy my group workshops so much. It's always fun to share the experience. Sunset was spent with noisy hippos and after our sundowner drinks, we went to look for nocturnal wildlife when suddenly we heard impalas making alarm calls and then four young lions were right in front of us with an impala. Safaris are crazy, you never know what you might find. In my next Zambia video, I sit in a hide alone when some lions visit. I thought they were going to get in the hide. See you in the next video.