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Expedition Luangwa
This is an extract from John and Mike Coppinger's latest expedition on
Zambia's Luangwa River.
"We had an excellent trip to the source of the Luangwa. The river has such a dramatic beginning, rising high in the Mafinga mountains (over 7,000 ft asl) and is a beautiful crystal clear stream which runs through tropical forest. The very beginning is hard to determine but judging from the detailed maps we had, we were certainly within 2 kms of this point. It was very difficult, forested country to negotiate and we are still nursing some festering scratches from the hike.
"We saw lots of Moloney's Monkeys, heard baboons and saw signs of Klipspringer, but apart from that there didn't appear to be much wildlife about.
"The nearest habitation is a village called Mpangala, which is about twenty
kilometres from the source. The people were incredibly hospitable and friendly. The schoolmaster asked us to address his excited pupils and when asked how many of them had seen a white person before, only a quarter of them raised their hands!
"The river runs out of the Mafingas into a relatively flat valley and soon takes on the character of the Luangwa as we all know it.
"We put in our canoes about forty-five kilometres from the source - this was done with some trepidation. Not even the nearby villagers could enlighten us as to the nature of the river downstream - would there be rapids not negotiable in our Canadian canoes? What about hippos and crocodiles?
"We were aware of a few sobering facts: a Frenchman named Maurice Patry had attempted a section of the river in 1952 but had aborted near the Lufila confluence (North Luangwa National Park) after a crocodile attack on his canvas canoe. In May/June 1999 a team of Germans had launched a home made raft at Mpande (100kms from the source) but their raft was irreparably damaged by a crocodile attack at Chief Tembwe, not even 100kms downstream! In 1994 we had canoed from Marula Puku (North Luangwa National Park) to the Luangwa/Zambezi confluence and we had sustained a serious croc attack on the Mwaleshi river - fortunately we had a fibreglass repair kit and were able to proceed.
"The first five or six days were idyllic - the area was sparsely populated, the weather perfect and the river very beautiful with dense reed beds and a stunning backdrop of the Makutu mountains to the east and the Mafinga mountains to the west. However, despite some interesting little rapids on the first few days which nearly resulted in capsizing some of us, our progress was slow and we found we had to paddle continuously for up to 7 hours a day to realise an average of 50kms per day which we needed to achieve. The few hippos that we encountered were very well behaved and we treated one another with mutual respect. We saw signs of crocodiles but they remained out of sight.
"On day seven we were violently aroused from our paddling routine and growing
sense of security. We had reached North Luangwa National Park and the crocodile numbers had increased dramatically.
"I was in the lead canoe with Isaac Banda when a large croc rushed us from the side. I was unarmed at the time but Isaac had a rifle and I shouted to him to shoot. However the croc submerged before he could raise his rifle. A few minutes later a huge croc (I assume the same beast) latched on to the stern of the last canoe, its jaws just inches from my brother Mike's backside. It then released its grip and raised its gaping jaws by his side, seemingly poised to attack. Mike leaped forward and flattened himself on the kit which was tied in the middle of the canoe. Fortunately, it submerged and was not seen again. However, this changed our outlook on life dramatically and the remaining 200kms to paddle took on almost insurmountable proportions!
"We had a further six croc incidents over the next few days, although none actually followed through with an attack. They were kept at bay with warning shots and banging on the canoes. All the incidents took place in the vicinity of the North Park and I have long mused over such aggressive behaviour at this time of year. All crocs involved were enormous and evidently males, hence I suspect that it could be linked to territorial behaviour. We have learnt over the years that bright colours (particularly yellow and red) seem to attract them so these are to be avoided.
"We reached Tafika after 10 days of paddling, having covered 500 river kilometres. After our 1994 expedition we became the first and only people to have canoed the entire length of the Luangwa, 1100 river
kilometres. Good luck to the next fools, we won't be joining them!
"Best wishes
"John, Carol, the girls and Bryan"
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