Pre season

May 2012

David finally heads up to Chibembe in the South Luangwa after spending days packing the truck to perfection.  When we were buying the truck online, and waiting for it's arrival, we built it up in our minds to the extent that we thought we could fit loads of kit on it.  In reality we would have needed Mary Poppins bag to get everything from town to the bush.  Hence it took days to pack the lorry.

I stayed in town for a week while David started clearing camp.  I was expecting to get to camp and spend a week training our staff to make and break the tented camp.  When I arrived there were about 100 men building a bush camp.  David was heading to Indaba in Durban.  Myself and Jake had a week to build a bush camp which normally would take a month.

Back on our Blog

After a season on the road in the bush, with no internet coms, we are back on our blog.  Expect a summary of our season and regular updates from now on...

ZDS Kafue photo shoot with Patrick Bentley

A lot of agents and friends are asking us what our mobile safari camps will look like for our launch in 2012.  After a great trip to the Kafue with photographer Patrick Bentley (http://www.patrickbentley.com/ or http://www.livingluangwa.com/), we will soon have a selection of photos on our website which will give everyone an idea of what to expect from a Zambian Dawn Safari.

Patrick's photos show off a typical Zambian Dawn Safari camp beautifully and highlight some of the great game that can be found in the Kafue.  As we were having sundowners on the Lafupa River, Patrick got this great shot of a hippo snorting directly in front of us.

While we were on the Lafupa river and Busanga Plains we saw some great game.  Our game diary went as follows:

Monday 08 August.  Arrived at Treetops Schools Camp on the banks of the Lafupa river which was to be our base camp for the weeks recce and photo shoot.

Tuesday 09 August.  Recce of the Moshi area to look for a potential camp site.  Got mock charged by a single young bull elephant, but saw him off!  Then just down the road we came across a lioness on a puku kill with her half grown cubs.  She had literally just killed it and gone for a drink of water.  We carried on and saw plenty of wattled cranes and then the distinct brown feathering of a Pel's fishing owl right out in the open daylight.  We identified a sight in the late morning and started setting up camp.  Patrick needed the camp set up for the afternoon light.  From 1600 hrs onwards it was photo shoot time - hard work I can tell you!

Wednesday 10 August.  Patrick and I (David) went to the Busanga Plains to recce a Busanga camp site.  We set off before dawn and Patrick got some great shots of the sun rise and the morning sun colouring the plains grass beautifully.  We stopped on a raised termite mound for our morning tea with a wonderful vista across the plains.  A camp was identified and due to the vast number of aardvark holes in the glade, we decided to call it 'Aardvark Camp'.  Patrick pointed out that the sandy soils and vast amounts of termite mounds made for an ant bear's paradise!  On the way back we came across thirty elephants on the plains.  As we went off road to bump around them to get the sun on the correct side they all suddenly charged us and we had to make a bumpy dash to freedom.  Again, Patrick got some great shots of the elephants literally over his shoulder.  I was scared of hitting a termite mound or aardvark hole in my newly painted Land Rover game viewer!  We got back to camp for a late lunch, a siesta and then out for sundowners at croc corner.  Sure enough, the huge croc who lives here was out sunning himself.  This is where Patrick got his snorting hippo shot.

Thursday 11 August.  We went back to the camp and I did some video and then packed up.  Patrick went back to Lusaka and Una, Ciara and I stayed on.  We went our for an afternoon game drive and saw a Tawny eagle on Francolin kill in a tree.  The two massive Lappett Faced Vultures on the ground alerted us to their presence.  We had sun downers on one of the Moshi lagoons and kept driving into clumps of hippos lying up in the treeline along the Moshi dambos.

Friday 12 August.  I went out for an early morning game drive and came across two male cheetah walking through the miombo woodland and then further down the road I came across five wild dog.  Quite an amazing morning.  No photos I'm afraid, but I will post the videos on You Tube.

Saturday 13 August.  We drove back to Lusaka out via the Labunga pontoon and the hot springs.  Another amazing sight which I will have to tell you about another time. 

Yours,

Dave

RE: ZDS at Indaba

Introducing Zambian Dawn Safaris for the 2012 Season Hello, RE: INTRODUCTION & POSSIBLY MEETING AT INDABA 2011 (STAND SADC C005) I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Zambian Dawn Safaris,  a new safari operator in Zambia.  Zambian Dawn Safaris will provide classic tented mobile safaris through the remote wilderness of the northern Kafue National Park and southern reaches of the South Luangwa National Park starting in 2012.  Zambian Dawn Safaris will be able to take international guests into the wildlife rich, but under developed parts of Zambia's prime National Parks where there are currently few or no other tour operators.  That's the beauty of being mobile.  We will be the first mid to high end country wide mobile tour operator in Zambia.  Our six night safaris will start on the Saturday of each week and end on the Friday throughout the Zambian 'dry' season from the last week in April 2012 through to the first week in November 2012 .  These safaris will be $600 per person per night (pppn) all inclusive except transport (Rack Rate $600/ Nett rate $480) .  If guests choose to use Zambian Dawn Safaris road transfers from the capital Lusaka, the nightly rate will be $625 pppn all inclusive.  Otherwise, we'll organise the clients charter flight on their behalf to the nearest bush strip.  We are also able to put bespoke safaris together throughout Zambia for six to fourteen night safaris on a guests or agents specific requests. Who are we?  We are an owner operated company with myself as the Managing Director and my wife Una as the other Director.  I worked for many years for Robin and Jo Pope at all of their main camps including Tena Tena, Nsefu and Nkwali.  If you require a reference from Jo Pope, please let me know and I will pass on her e-mail. Please note our unique selling points as follows: ZDS is an owner operated safari operation.  David and Una Bowden are directly involved in the guiding and catering on safari. Multi-destination safaris in truly remote wildlife rich ‘wilderness’ areas; the northern Kafue and the lower Luangwa.  Classic tented safaris; just how they used to be. The only upmarket fly camping tour operator in Zambia. Provides the ultimate safari activity mix: day and night drives, walking, canoeing and boating. Set safari dates; Sunday to Saturday.  Allows guests to get from the ‘west’ to the bush and back again within weekly parameters or combine their adventurous mobile safari with other options in Zambia such as the Victoria Falls, the traditional Luangwa safari or the Lower Zambezi. No more than six clients; small and personal.  Pay for four and the safari is exclusively yours. Family groups with children older than seven welcome and the safari will be family exclusive. The capability to experience so much in so little time (e.g. from the Kafue River through to the vast Busanga Plains as per the Kafue mobile). I will be at Indaba in May 2011 and it would be great to meet you.  Please e-mail me at this address and we will arrange a meeting at Indaba so I can tell you more about Zambian Dawn Safaris.  For more information please visit our web site at www.zambiandawnsafaris.com  and see the attached Power Point presentation. Looking forward to hearing from you, Yours sincerely, David Bowden Managing Director

ZDS at Indaba May 2011

Zambian Dawn Safaris (ZDS) is pleased to announce that its website has gone live at http://www.zambiandawnsafaris.com/ .  David and Una will also be at the world travel market at Indaba, Durban in May 2011.  Our stand will be at SADC 025, so please come and visit, it would be great to meet you and tell you all about our classic tented mobile safaris.

ZDS registered for 2011

Zambian Dawn Safaris is proud to announce that it registered as a company in December 2010.  David and Una Bowden are the owner operators of this exclusive mobile company; the first to focus purely on high end mobile safaris in Zambia.  We relish the challenge and look forward to launching our pre-safaris in 2011 and our main launch in the safari season of 2012.