After our fantastic game drive this morning, we return to Wildlife Camp for an extended afternoon siesta that includes lounging by the pool.

Around 4pm we pile into the safari vehicles and head back into South Luangwa National Park for our evening game drive. It’s still daylight when we start out, but by around 5:30 the sun will begin to set and the second half of our drive will take place in the dark. Perhaps we will at last spot a leopard? There’s an extra guide on deck who will operate a giant spotlight so that we can seek out creatures foraging for food.

Speaking of foraging for food, as we re-enter the park we spot a fisherman below checking his nets in a dugout canoe:

A family of giraffes mill about, grazing on trees.

Hippos in the red swamp:

Can you spot the croc?

Baby elephant among impalas:

Warthogs often kneel to reach the ground because their snouts are short.

More bird spotting — the African Hoopoe.

We hop out of the vehicle to enjoy sundowners courtesy of Wildlife Camp. The two major ciders here — which seem to be even more popular than beer — are Savanna and Hunter’s. We all consume our fair share over the course of this overland trip.

It’s incredibly peaceful to sip cider and watch the sunset while animals scamper off in the distance. Take me back!

At the start of this tour, our group split into two vehicles. We all REALLY want to see a leopard since those are among the hardest animals to spot. And guess what? When we run into the other group they reveal that they’ve seen four in the previous two hours. FOUR?! The rest of us get jealous and — though this is not fair — we put pressure on our driver to deliver a leopard sighting. The poor guy probably wishes we hadn’t run into the other group mid-drive because now he’s gotta try to make us happy by spotting the hardest-to-find creature in the park… after dark, no less.

Lions!

Hippos!

I think this is an African civet:

A jackrabbit:

Hyena:

I think this creature partially sticking out of the bush is a serval, which is a kind of Africa cat:

I wish I could properly capture the stars overhead, but our vehicle is too shaky to get a nighttime shot of the sky. It’s breathtaking to witness the expanse of the Milky Way stretching over African plains in person.

I THINK I SEE A LEOPARD…!!

Yes — there are two young leopards hanging out near this tree as their mother is off hunting for food.

Our driver maneuvers the vehicle so we can get a better look at these young guys. They stare back inquisitively.

Right after I snap the above photo these leopards scuttle off into the bushes.

Here are four photos that I did NOT take, but my friend Klaus from Germany did — this is what the other group encountered before sunset. How cool that they saw multiple adult leopards in close proximity!

While I wish we’d seen more of these sleek, stealthy creatures, I’m just grateful that we had a close-up leopard sighting at the very end of our safari. I’m sure our driver exhaled a big sigh of relief for making good on our (perhaps unfair) demands to see one!

I visited Zambia on a 30-day Nairobi to Joburg tour with Nomad Tours. They discounted my tour in exchange for blogging and photography; opinions are my own.