Kasungu national park

Kasungu national park is about 2 1/2 hours away from Lilongwe, mostly tarmac road, with the last ~55 km dirt. The park encompasses 2500 sq km of natural habitat - one of the owners of the lodge says the most untouched in Malawi. However, due to heavy poaching in the past, and continued poaching today, the animals are few and wary. The Lifupa lodge, where we stayed, is on a little lake, made when a small man made dam was erected. The lake is home to a small pod of hippos, who came out during the day. We watched them, with the babies, eat and sleep on the opposite shore. There are also lots of birds to see. The park has some roads - all in varying degrees of drivability, one lane dirt / dust roads. However, Thomas (the lodge owner) loaned us a map and wished us luck. On our first trip out we saw three warthogs (and got some video) and a small herd of kudu. In the afternoon, we decided to drive to black rock. We did not plan on climbing up the rock, because the car was constantly swarmed with tsetse flies. If we opened a window or door, they came in and began biting us. We saw blue and white 'flags' set on poles throughout the park. These are fly traps. The jar hanging on one end has a chemical that smells like buffalo urine - that attracts the flies, they bite the flag which is impregnated with a poison and they die. Apparently this has really decreased the number of flies. We couldn't really appreciate it by the number on our car (I was wondering if and why our car smelled like buffalo urine!) We were told later that the flies like the cars, but if you get out and run a few yards, they will not follow you, but stay by the car. We drove to black rock, looked around (in the car) and then headed 'home' - when we met a bull elephant on the road. He really didn't want us to pass him. He made a couple of questionable mock charges, then went off the road, followed along parallel and then charged out of the woods towards the car. I got some of that on video, along with his trumpeting! However, he soon gave up the chase, we traveled on, seeing a couple of small herds of elephants (females and young) without incident. On day two we traveled the same route, seeing puku and vervet monkey in the morning, then going back to black rock in the afternoon. We met the bull elephant again (I thought they wandered around????) We got past him - after backing up as fast as we could for yards and yards, then waiting for him to go into the woods, then zooming past him! We went to black rock, looked around, and then headed back. He was waiting for us! And standing in the middle of the road - and began chasing us (they can move pretty fast!). We backed up again, finally found a place we could turn around and took off. He stayed on the road, tearing trees down into the road. We felt we had no choice but to go onward. Our map showed a loop road up ahead, so we kept driving. The sunset was beautiful, but not when you are in the bush and don't know if the elephant is still following you! We finally gave up (a good thing, too, because Thomas later told us that loop road never existed except on paper!) We had to turn around and go back. I don't know enough about elephants to know if they go into the forest to sleep? Do they sleep at night? Do they really 'never forget?' Well, we were lucky - he was gone and we just drove over the trees he had pulled down. We got back late enough that Thomas was beginning to worry about us.... but we were glad to be back at the lodge, and I think we are done with elephants for awhile! **When we get home, I will ask my talented video pro daughter, Mandy, to put together a video and post on YouTube. She has done some for me in the past - if you are interested, search my name on Youtube and then check out the Malawi and Zambia videos. We may get this one posted, too, when she finds time in her hectic schedule!**