Lilayi Game Park

On Saturday, Justin, Dyad and I went on a little adventure. Justin, who had use of the CDC Volvo, had been having trouble with the battery for a little over a week. For the record, AAA does not service Zambia. Thankfully the Regional Security Office does, but even they were tired of coming to jump Justin’s car. So Friday, the head CDC driver gave Justin a little treat…the weekend with a sweet SUV and two tanks of free gas. I really tried to get him to drive us to Botswana for the day, but instead we settled on a lodge about 10 minutes outside of Lusaka called Lilayi.

Basically, Lilayi is like a small resort/hotel with a lot of land, which means…game drives! We arrived shortly before lunch and had time to check out the grounds around the lodge before heading out. The first picture you see is a hut at the lodge selling a few curios. The second picture is the largest aloe plant that I've ever seen. They have these everywhere, but that's the biggest one yet. It puts the aloe plant I have in my office to shame.

One of the lodge drivers drove up with an open air jeep (complete with three big bench seats where a truck bed should be) to take us around the grounds to look at the animals. It was a beautiful day about 80 degrees with a light breeze. The grounds were beautiful so even without seeing any animals it would have been a really fun day, but...we got to see lots of antelope, warthogs, and giraffes!

The game drive lasted about an hour and we had lunch at the lodge after our return. We all agreed that the only thing that could have made the day better was a hammock and a nap. To see all of the pictures from the day at Lilayi please click here. (username: kateynanna@aol.com password: pictures)

Later that night Carlos, Dyad, Justin and I went out to dinner at Dil the indian restaurant. It was a nice night of conversation and food. It's nice to change up the monatany of being in the hotel with some adventures and new friends.