Reviews of Kasanka (From 7 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

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Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: October

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

2 people found this review helpful.

Millions of bats in Kasanka National Park

Overall rating

4/5

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It was late October and it was raining hard when we made our way to Kasanka National Park. This was good news. We were worried we would have been too early. My aim was to witness the world’s biggest mammal migration and timing was of the utmost importance. After the first rains of the season, up to 12 million straw-colored bats descend on a small forest in Kasanka. They usually arrive late October and by late December they are gone. To witness this incredible spectacle, we climbed an aerial platform giving us a bird’s-eye view over the forest canopy. As the sky turned orange, the bats started chirping. Then we watched for 20 minutes as a solid stream of bats left their daytime roost. We had a similar experience the next morning for which we got up at 3am, waded through thick mud and climbed a different platform in the dark. Out of nowhere, they started streaming in at dawn. A crowned eagle swept in, catching a snack right in front of us. Once the bats had settled down for the day, we visited a hide overlooking a swampy area frequented by sitatunga. These shy creatures with splayed hooves live deep in wetland areas and they are notoriously hard to see. Not here – we saw about ten of them coming out in the open in the space of half an hour. Other wildlife regularly spotted includes crocodiles, hippos, pukus and baboons. This makes a visit to Kasanka a lovely bush experience, even outside bat season.

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Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Winter

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

2 people found this review helpful.

The world’s biggest mammal migration

Overall rating

3/5

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Kasanka is unique in several respects. The only national park in Zambia under private management (an NGO called the Kasanka Trust), it is also the only one anywhere in Africa, if not the entire world, where the main attraction is bats.

The migration of up to 12 million straw-colored fruit bats to a small patch of forest in Kasanka is a seasonal affair dictated by local rainfall patterns. The first wave of arrivals usually takes place in early October, with numbers peaking over November, before the bats dissipate elsewhere towards the end of December.

We timed our visit for late October, by which time it was estimated that around 5 million bats were already in the park. We visited three of the different aerial-viewing platforms that have been erected close to the bat forest, and were privileged to watch countless thousands of these hefty flying mammals (wingspan 75cm) stream out of the canopy at dusk, then return again at dawn. It’s a truly mesmerizing and mind-boggling experience, one punctuated by occasional bouts of raptorial action as various eagles swoop down to catch a bat in flight.

Kasanka is the only place in southern Africa where you can be almost certain of seeing the sitatunga, a semi-aquatic antelope associated with swamp interiors. From a strategically located viewing platform overlooking a swampy stretch of the Kasanka River, we saw at least a dozen sitatungas, including a couple of males, which resemble a larger, shaggier and longer-horned version of the widespread bushbuck.

When it comes to more conventional game viewing, Kasanka supports small populations of leopard, elephant, buffalo and sable antelope, but none of them are easily seen. By contrast, it's an exceptional bird-watching destination. Highlights included my only ever glimpse of the striking Anchieta’s tchagra in the swamp bordering the Kasanka River, as well as lesser jacana on the lake in front of the main lodge, and miombo woodland specials such as Arnot’s chat, pale-billed hornbill and racket-tailed roller.

Overall, Kasanka is a rather specialized park, one that's most likely to appeal to repeat safari-goers and bird-watchers looking for something different, except over mid-October to mid-December, when the phenomenal bat migration is present.

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Stephen Cunliffe –

ZA

Visited: November

Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.

2 people found this review helpful.

A Blizzard of Bats

Overall rating

4/5

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Kasanka is a tiny park in northern Zambia that few people have heard about and even fewer visit. It has some lush river scenery, reasonable general game and a few elephants, as well as excellent birding, but it’s real claim to fame is bats! I also rolled my eyes when I heard this for the first time, but having been to Kasanka during late October and November when around 8 million straw-coloured fruit bats frequent the park, I can honestly say that this is a wildlife spectacle to rival the Mara-Serengeti wildebeest migration. As their numbers swell, the bats pack themselves into a tiny patch of just 10ha of swamp forest, occupying every branch on every tree. And, each dawn and dusk for six weeks, the sky is obscured by millions of bats on the wing, heading off or returning from a night of feeding on the regions prolific fruiting trees. It is an experience that cannot easily be reduced into words, but if you’ve seen the Big Five and want a wildlife experience that will quite literally blow you away, then Kasanka during bat season is the answer.

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Emma Gregg –

UK

Visited: November

Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.

2 people found this review helpful.

Bats galore and a laidback atmosphere

Overall rating

4/5

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If I could rate this park for uniqueness, I’d give it top marks. Kasanka is not a classic safari destination – you rarely see elephants, lions or other large, charismatic animals here. But every year, in November and December, one small patch of forest within the park hosts a fascinating natural phenomenon: the temporary residence of an enormous gathering of straw-colored fruit bats, numbering several million.

Watching clouds of bats leave the colony to feed at sunset is pretty impressive, but that’s nothing compared to the thrill of climbing into a treetop hide at dawn to see them return. To do this, you have to set off from your rudimentary accommodation while it’s still dark and trudge along muddy paths, but I think it’s well worth the trouble.

Visit Kasanka at other times of the year and there will be antelopes and birds to watch, but if you have any interest in small mammals you’ll find yourself wishing you’d come during the bat season.

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Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: October

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

1 person found this review helpful.

Off the beaten track park famous for sitatunga and the astonishing bat migration

Overall rating

3/5

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This remote park won’t appeal for safari-goers expecting to see loads of plains game, but will certainly tick boxes for those seeking unusual species, good birding, and peaceful undisturbed bush. I really enjoyed a two-night stay here at rustic Wasa Lodge, where there were only another couple of guests and the friendly staff from the Kasanka Trust. Dinner was taken on the deck with views over the reed beds in a mosaic of watery channels, which quite delightfully proved to be great for spotting fish eagles, hippo, puku and sitatunga; the latter being a curious semi-aquatic antelope with a hunched back and splayed hooves, which I’ve rarely seen in other parks simply because of their normal shyness. Kasanka is also famous for its straw-coloured fruit bat migration – considered one of Africa’s largest mammal migrations. The density of millions is at its highest in November and December, but on my visit in early October I saw many hundreds of thousands starting to gather. Our guide led us up a rickety step ladder to a hide in the tree canopy, from where it was a marvellous sight watching these chirping creatures sweeping from the branches and across the vast orange sky at sunset.

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Christopher Clark –

UK

Visited: October

Christopher is a British travel writer and has contributed to various Fodor's guidebooks and a range of travel magazines.

1 person found this review helpful.

Home of the world’s biggest mammal migration

Overall rating

3/5

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Kasanka is one of the smallest parks in Zambia and if you’re in search of big game you are in the wrong place. While some staff at reception might try to tell you otherwise, my experience tells me you almost certainly won’t see any of the Big 5 here. You will, however, see some hippos, crocodiles and a few interesting antelope species, including the very rare and notoriously shy semi-aquatic situtunga.

The birdlife is more impressive, with more than 400 species found in the park. And it’s a pretty and tranquil park too, punctuated by swamplands, lagoons, rivers and dense forests. There are just 2 lodges in the park, and 3 basic but picturesque campsites, so you certainly won’t see a lot of traffic about the place.

But Kasanka’s primary draw card is the astonishing annual fruit bat migration that occurs roughly between late October and December. Somewhere between 5 and 10 million bats visit occupy a tiny 10 hectare area of the park and at sunrise and sunset you can watch them covering the skyline from one of the park’s tree hides. This is a truly strange and wonderful experience.

I visited the park in peak bat season and even then we shared the tree hide with just one other couple and had the campsite entirely to ourselves.

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Nana Luckham –

UK

Visited: Multiple times

Nana is a travel writer and author of multiple guidebooks, including the Lonely Planet guides to Africa, Zambia & Malawi and South Africa.

1 person found this review helpful.

Wilderness Without the Crowds

Overall rating

3/5

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Tiny Kasanka is one of Zambia’s least known parks; there are just two lodges and four basic campsites here and it receives few tourists. First things first, this isn’t the place to come for big game – you won’t find lion here. What makes it special is the chance to experience the wilderness atmosphere with hardy another human being in sight.

Kasanka is famous for its swampland, and in particular for the situtanga, a shy, semi-aquatic antelope. Gliding down the forest-shrouded Luwombwa River in a canoe, you’ll see crocodile, hippo, otters and rare blue monkeys. If you’re lucky, you may spot one of the small number of elephant.

Birders love it here. There are more than 400 species, including a diverse and visible range of water birds, and in November and December five million fruit bats visit the area, blanketing the skies. It’s the largest such gathering anywhere in the world.

When I last went to Kasanka we were the only visitors in the park and had the rustic Pontoon campsite, overlooking hippo and crocodile filled lake, completely to ourselves. A highlight was getting up early in the morning to visit Fibwe Hide. A 20 metre climb up a ladder took me to a wooden platform at the top of an old mahogany tree from where I watched the endless swamps spread out below me come slowly to life with the dawn.