Kafue National Park

An astounding bush experience marked by spectacular wildlife...like living in an IMAX movie!

Although technically the most rustic of the places we stayed, our camp in Musanza was situated in an idyllic riverbank setting, and was surrounded by mopane (which actually look similar to ironwood trees and were unknown to us, although they are rather common in the area) and checkerwood trees. It ended up surpassing our expectations and was our favorite of all the camps we have visited. The staff were wonderful and the cook was great; the food was superb. There was something amazing about having the opportunity to lounge in collapsable "director's chairs" just outside our tent before high tea in the late afternoon, watching the exotic birds in the tree and vines, reading, or occasionally seeing or hearing hippos splash in the Lufupa river fifty feet away.

Yes, hearing hippos. I had never before thought about hippos making noise, but they actually make a very distinctive (and rather loud) sound that marked our days and nights and that we had never before experienced. It is an expansive and deep laughing sound, as if someone had recorded a guffaw and then played it back --much louder-- at a slower speed. At the risk of dating myself, I would liken it to a 45 rpm record being played back at 33 rpm. The hippos frolic and splash in the water, submerge themselves for a few minutes, then resurface and bellow out HOOOO HAR HAR. (One person in our group posited that they go under the water to share fart jokes, then come back to the surface to laugh over them. If you ever have the chance to hear this sound you will find this explanation strangely.

The beasts splash around in the water, submerge for a minute or two, then surface and call out HOOOOO HAR HAR HAR. (One wag in our tour group suggested that they go underwater to tell fart jokes, then surface to laugh at them. If you ever get to hear this sound you will find that theory strangely conceivable.)

We really wanted to walk that fifty feet and sit on the river bank, but were told to keep a distance of at least ten feet from the water at all times, since that is the striking point of the crocodiles who share the water with the hippos. We did not need to be instructed on this twice.

One of Musanza's afternoon activities was a boat ride up the river that lasted a few hours, in an outboard aluminum skiff that accommodated roughly seven. There was a plethora of birds, and as we meandered up river our boat driver made sure to maneuver around the hippos. You would think since the hippos are fairly large targets that this might be an easy task, however, since they occupy a fair amount of time underwater is more difficult (and more dangerous) than it appears. There were times when he would spot bubbles further down the river and would simply steer us in a compact circle for a few minutes until the underwater hippos had vacated. There was an occasion where he misjudged, and a hippo reared just under the surface about two feet to the left of the rig, causing a huge ripple and provoking a not entirely uncalled for shout from a woman who had the distinction of sitting right at that point of the boat.
Hippos look funny, and their laugh adds to that picture, but they are genuinely dangerous because of their inclination for capsizing boats. They are close to the top of the list of large animals that routinely cause human deaths. (This being around here of course; there are not very many hippo-related casualties in our neighborhood). They are also threatening to each other, with a social structure that features a lot of the alpha-male, "are YOU lookin' at ME?" stuff. A couple miles upstream from our camp on the river bank, we happened upon a severely injured young male hippo limping through the brush and into the river. He had a nasty wound on his left rear flank, which most likely arose from a brush with the wrong adult male.

A stop at the Treetops school was including on our boat trip. This school is where more affluent parents, mostly from the capital Lusaka, send their children for four to five days of seeing the animals, living in the bush, etc. It is basically a summer camp featuring elephants. There was a larger variety of ethnic diversity than we expected (Indian, black, and white), until we were given the explanation behind "affluent": these were al children of the diplomats and other "upper crust" in Lusaka. The school had a classroom and separate, camp-style dorm buildings, and was situated in a clearing close by the riverbank. The setting was dominated by a giant baobab tree, which also merits some discussion.

If you have ever studied French in school then you probably read "The Little Prince," By St. Exupéry, in which case you have already conjured up a mental image of a baobab tree as a vine-draped thing that has roots drooping from all its branches and thus spreads itself over a very wide area. Well, delete that image because St. Exupéry was entirely wrong in confusing a baobab tree with a banyan. A baobab is defined by a very wide trunk and comparatively thin branches - in fact, it looks as if someone chopped off all the branches from a much older tree and they have only been growing back over the past couple years. The trunks are of such great diameter that in old times poorer residents of the village would hollow them out and use the still living tree as a home; in some instances the community would use them as prisons. The baobab at Treetops could probably have served as a small maximum security jail: the tree was roughly 150' high and easily 25'-30' wide at its base. (We have a picture of us standing at the base - it's so big that you have to look two times to see us.)

We left Musanza (and Zambia) with heavy hearts; it had truly been an Edenic three days and we really bonded with the staff there (it probably didn't hurt that we were the only guests). As seems to be the standard procedure at every camp we have visited, the last night included musical performance by the staff, a lively drum display that had everyone up on their feet.

Kafue National Park - A classic African safari destination

Kafue is Zambia's largest park, and one of the largest in Africa. It encompasses a range of habitats, but is dominated by Miombo woodland and seasonal 'Dambo' Savannah. The wildlife in Kafue remains very prolific. It is extremely good for elephants, and large herds can be seen throughout the year. Other ungulates, including Impala, Eland, Kudu and Puku are also common. Most 'typical' African carnivores (Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Hyena, Wild dog) can be seen in Kafue, although none are particularly common and an element of luck is usually required to spot these. In all, most 'classic' safari species can be seen in Kafue with the exception of Rhinocerous (formerly occured, now extinct) and Giraffe. The birdwatching possibilities in Kafue are excellent, and the Nanzilla plains in the South are one of the few places where the Black-cheeked Lovebird can be observed. Kafue is not a well-visited destination and remains somewhat off the beaten track. Consequently the infrastructure is limited and independent travellers will need to prepare much of what they need for their trip in advance. (Some good accomodation possibilities exist around the parks periphary, although almost nothing is available in the interior). However, the quiet nature of Kafue is also one of its biggest appeals. A visitor can travel large distances without seeing a single other tourist, and will have vast landscapes and abundant African wildlife to themselves. In all, Kafue in something of a challenging safari destination, although will reward adventurous travellers with a classic African landscape which they will be able to enjoy almost entirely to themselves.

Utter remoteness in this vast park yet still close encounters ensued.

I travelled with my family to stay at the Busanga Plains camp, a fly camp of Mukambi. The six hour drive from the lodge to Busanga was a true African experience. Although we had little time to stop and digest the animals (we were on a schedule) and were subjected to the traditional African massage, we saw a vast array of mammals and birds and the drive's length just cemented how remote our camp was.
The bush camp was incredible, from the restaurant terrace several hundred red lechwe could be seen grazing and perhaps a dozen fish eagles screeching, truly a wonder. The tents provided everything we needed, obviously being a temporary camp it was nothing on the main lodge but it was fulfilled our needs perfectly. The food also was fantastic. Waking up first thing in the morning and sitting in the restaurant watching the lechwe in the low mist is a truly magical experience that I would recommend to any animal lover.
The drives were top notch; the Busanga lions are the most beautiful I have seen, with fantastic dark manes. We were lucky to get close to a fresh buffalo kill and watch them interact. We encountered great herds of Roan, wildebeest, zebra and a few bachelor elephants amongst others. For the purists, we did not encounter another vehicle on our trip, a true indication of our remoteness and allowed all these sightings to be personal. Our guide was excellent, very knowledgable and worked tirelessly to track down the species my siblings wanted for their tick-lists.
A great destination.

Kafue : A Truly Wonderful Experience

We recently visited the Kafue National Park in Zambia. Having visited Southern Africa for safaris several times before (South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Botswana) we decided that we wanted to visit somewhere a little bit different and a little bit rawer. It was suggested that we visit Zambia and the Kafue. We were not disappointed.
Kafue has the feel of a park the is yet to be truly discovered. The natural beauty of the country and the low key feel of the park made for a unique visit. There is plenty of wildlife to be seen, cheetahs was a first for us, and the amount of different birdlife on the river is remarkable. There is maybe not the amount of wildlife that we have seen in other countries but there is certainly the diversity to make up for it, plus you can drive all day with your guide and on most days not see another vehicle or boat. You get the impression that some of the wildlife there have never seen a jeep or a boat before too!
We visited three camps and they were all excellent. The standards are very high with regard to guiding and the accommodations. Everything was just.......great.
In summary, a truly wonderful experience and we are now discussing on how can better this for our next visit to Africa. It's not going to be easy.

Kafue is a great national park. I recommend Mukumbi Lodge, where they offer great food, and excellent game drives. My favorite memory of Kafue is driving along the road and running into lion, just lying there on the road.

Potentially One of the Finest National Parks in Africa

I just spent 11 days in Kafue National Park and loved it. In fact I feel that with better overall management it could be and deserves to be one of the finest National Parks in Africa.

I saw lions,elephants,hippos, herds of red lechwe, oribi and bush pigs,sable and roan. I also saw a leopard. The birding was just fantastic.

I stayed at Mukambi Plains and Musekese Camp. I just loved the hosting and thought that the guiding was exceptional in both of them. The wilderness " exceptional".

The reason why I don't rate it even higher is because I feel that Kafue needs better overall management. I am happy that Paul Tudor Jones is really opening up a lodge and that hopefully African Parks will come in and manage it. This is a great park and I really admire the work that Tyrone Mckeith, Phillip Jeffrey, the Van Der Heides, and others are doing to support the local community and conservation.

stunning location, remote, true africa!

I can say, I'm quite an experience Africa Traveller (many safaris over the last 15 years in Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Southafrica, Kenya). With the time my research for places with few tourists, an intact wildlife and a stunning scenery became always more sophisticated and so I decided this time for a safari in Zambia. The Kafue National Park, I stayed in the Busanga plains, have for sure been one of my most exciting safari experiences: in a park as big as the whole region of Tuscany there are merely a few camps (in the part where I stayed there where just 3 of them with a maximum of about 8 guests each). It is hard to meet another car out in the wild, not to speak about situations like in the serengeti, where you can find 25 car around a single lion...
I don't know whether it's ufficially permitted, however, the very experienced drivers go often offroad to take you closer to the animals - surely with few cars in this wast area this is not a problem. And it gives you uncredible photographic opurtunities. We came accross some lions hunting a hippo. We saw many elephants and also rare animals as the serval cat.
Of course also the "simple" luxury of the camp, the great food, the stunning location (elephants visit our tent many times, antilopes are grazing always in front of the camp in the great swamp area, added something to the feeling of "out of Africa". A highlight of course was the balloon flight.
The only real disturbing thing in the Kafue are the Tsetse flies. They where the first animal greeting us as soon as our plane landed and the pilot opened the window. That is when I got my first bite, many others followed. The area around the airstrip is worse, the guides know that and avoid it. But also in other places tsetse can be found (I never saw one in the camp). If I ever plan to return to Kafue I will prepare very well with even better safari cloths then those I already had and some really good repellent (but I'm not sure if it exists - autan and others do not help).

Kafue National Park, Birderwatchers Paradise, Big-game galore

Recently we spent 3 nights out of a 12 night safari at a camp along the Kafue River on the northern edge of the Kafue National Park. During the days we both boated along the Kafue River and drove into the park in Land Cruisers. The bird life along the river was amazing. I was able to identify with the help of the local guide over 70 bird species - Bee-eaters, Hornbills, Barbets, Africa Finfoot, Eagles, Geese, Herons, etc. Too numerous to list them all. The big game species were also very special. Along with Elephants, Wildebeest, Bushbucks, Red Lechwe, Warthog and other big game species, we also saw unique species not seen elsewhere on our travels. Such as Puku, Yellow Baboon, Velvet Monkey and Grey Defassa Waterbuck. While traveling in boats we had close encounters with Hippos and Crocs. On after dark drives we saw genet and serval's. As we were there in early June there were no bugs, and no rain. A perfect time and place to experience all that Africa has to offer.

A safari to see wild wildlife. Unlike some safaris the animals arent used to a human presence

Kafue is a huge park, we adventured only in South Kafue. It is an amazing safari for wild adventure feeling. Located in Zambia and more difficult to access than other big parks it gets few tourist. Kafue used to have a problem with poaching so it was known even by locals to not animals, this is starting to change. Kafue contrast to Chobe in that the animals take notice of you and some times flee, or in the case of one elephant get defensive. On the other hand Chobe felt like a zoo, yeah you see lots of animals but most dont even give you a second glance as you join the line of land rovers circling the water front.

We drove our on 4x4 and the roads were well maintained. In fact since we came from Kalomo the parks roads were better maintained those to get there. If you need to be babbied then this is probably not the safari for you. The lodge we stayed at provided everything we needed, beer, water and fire wood. They did have other accomidations but I can't comment on those as we camped.

Highlights were seeing two lion cubs that were less than 2 months old and seeing no other safari vehicles. In the three days we were in the park I think we passed 3 vehicles, and two of them were together.

Nice and remote park. You are free to do what you want.Problem: pouching, wildlife often poor and shy.