Visiting the Machile IBA which is the stronghold of the lovely little Black-cheeked  Lovebird was one of the highlights of our trip.  Although it seems to be about 130-ish kms from Livingstone and therefore an easy commute, it is anything but easy.  This is not a trip you want to DIY as it involves convoluted little back roads with no signposts.  Thankfully Chiinga from Savannah Southern Safaris and his driver, Ken know how to get out there although even they had to stop and think about a  couple of the forks in the road!

Part 1 will cover the journey to get to Machile IBA.

We were picked up at Fawlty Towers very early, like around 3 or 3:30 am.  The road is in terrible condition and it took around 3 hours to get to the place where we picked up Brian  who was assisting in the conservation project.  This is where we stopped for breakfast.

Just because we were eating breakfast doesn’t mean we stop birding!

Kingfisher

Common Scimitarbill

Heading back down the road to Machile IBA, the roads are basically like these:

Some king of family memorial iirc.

We passed several tiny villages and houses.

Chiinga was standing in the back of the truck and banged the roof to get the driver to stop so I could take photos.  We did see quite a few birds along the way but my photos didn’t turn out so well.  I got better shots on the way back though, so patience!