Reviews of Liuwa Plain (From 7 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

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Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: November

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

1 person found this review helpful.

Africa’s unknown wildebeest migration

Overall rating

4/5

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For me, it was love at first sight when I arrived at Liuwa Plain. I hadn’t seen anything like it in Zambia. Fresh grassy plains covered in spring flowers stretched out as far as I could see. The sky was filled with dramatic stormy cloud formations. We’d come here at the beginning of the Wet season. The timing was crucial as, contrary to most Zambian parks, you won’t see much wildlife in Liuwa Plain in the Dry season. It comes alive after the first rains, when the new grass sets in motion Africa’s second-biggest wildebeest migration. As in the Serengeti- Mara ecosystem, the grazers attract the predators, but here it’s spotted hyenas, not lions, that rule the plains. We enjoyed watching big clans of these highly sociable animals interacting and hunting. The pups were adorable, of course. Lions are relatively scarce (hence the hyenas don’t scavenge at all), but sightings in the open grassland are quite easy.

Liuwa Plain doesn’t have a huge variety of wildlife. There are no elephants or giraffes, for example. But it’s the quality of the sightings, the remote tranquility and the magnificent setting that makes this place so special for me.

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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.

1 person found this review helpful.

Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration

Overall rating

4/5

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Bush Vibe:

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Birding:

Reminiscent in some respects of the Serengeti, Liuwa Plain protects a vast grassy stretch of the Zambezi floodplain, punctuated by seasonal pans, permanent lakes, fields of wildflowers, and isolated tracts of woodland. The park has a very remote and wild feel: you need to cross a river pontoon to access it, and once there, the deep sandy soil means that high clearance and 4x4 are essential.

The main wildlife highlight of Liuwa is Africa's second-largest wildebeest migration. Nobody seems sure exactly how many wildebeest there are (estimates range from 35,000 to more than 50,000), but if you visit at the right time of year – optimally from late October into January, which is also calving season – you can expect to see herds of several thousand kicking up sand and baaing like disgruntled sheep as they sweep across the plains.

We enjoyed some excellent predator viewing in Liuwa. Lion sightings included one of the most handsome males I have ever encountered, as well as a small pride feeding on a fresh kill. Although Liuwa has something of a reputation for good cheetah sightings, we only saw one individual over the course of our six-day stay, and it was very skittish. We also encountered caracal (once) and side-striped jackal (daily). The park supports around 500 spotted hyenas, and because they are unusually habituated, we were able to spend many hours parked at different hyena dens, enjoying the interaction between these highly sociable carnivores.

The bird watching in Liuwa is absolutely outstanding. It’s the best place in Zambia to see several marsh and grassland species, notably wattled crane, grey crowned crane, secretary bird, Denham’s bustard, rosy-throated longclaw and long-tailed widowbird. The open pans are good for lapwings, plovers, sandpipers and other shorebirds, while flotillas of pelicans forage on the open water, and slaty egret, rufous-bellied heron and greater painted-snipe might be seen in the fringing vegetation. The undoubted avian highlight of Liuwa, however, are the mesmerizing flocks of several thousand near-threatened black-winged pratincole that swarm cloud-like above the plains.

Despite its wilderness feel and high densities of certain species, Liuwa is not much of a Big Five reserve. Leopards and rhinos are absent altogether, elephants are occasional visitors, and we saw buffaloes only once during our visit (admittedly a fabulous sighting of a hundred-strong herd drinking at a pan). Other notable absentees include giraffe and hippo, and while the wildebeest herds are often accompanied by plains zebra and red lechwe, the only other antelopes that could be considered common are the twitchy oribi and gray duiker.

To me, Liuwa Plain was an absolute highlight of Zambia, not least because of the sense of space associated with its wide-open plains and immense skies. But the lack of mammalian variety makes it quite a niche destination, and it’s questionable whether it would be suited to a first-time safari-goer.

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Christopher Clark –

UK

Visited: October/November

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.

Zambia’s Wild West

Overall rating

4/5

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Despite its relative lack of big game, Liuwa Plain National Park is one of my favourites. It’s a paradise for the true bush-lover – even just getting into the park is an adventure that includes negotiating a river on a small and rickety hand-pulled ferry just about big enough for a solitary vehicle.

Liuwa has become known for the second largest wildebeest migration in Africa, which usually begins in October or November. The seemingly endless plains make for a striking backdrop to this spectacle, and all those wildebeest calves are a little like a walking buffet for the park’s hyena and lion.

The camps here are as basic and remote as you’ll find anywhere, but there’s lots of peace and quiet and authentic bush charm. An added point of interest in Liuwa is the scattering of small villages, and the inhabitants who continue to practice their traditional subsistence farming, within the park boundaries. When I was last here, the local villagers were the only other people we saw in 4 days inside the park – and not a single other vehicle.

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Stephen Cunliffe –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

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

8 people found this review helpful.

Migration Mania

Overall rating

4/5

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Liuwa Plain in western Zambia is the answer for safari goers who’ve dreamt of seeing tens of thousands of wildebeest migrating across the wide-open plains without another vehicle or person in sight. If you’ve ever sat in the Masai Mara surrounded by minibuses and tried to imagine what the incredible spectacle was like fifty years earlier, before the tourist hordes arrived, then Liuwa is the place for you. But migrating wildebeest and zebra aren’t the only reason to visit the true wilderness of Liuwa, huge clans of hyaena, cheetah and lion roam the savanna and surrounding woodlands, preying on the sick and the weak. The plains are in fact a giant wetland – inaccessible during the rains but teeming with water birds, colourful flowers and wildlife thereafter. Liuwa is my recommendation for tourists wanting to experience great wildlife-viewing in one of Africa’s wildest wilderness areas.

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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.

1 person found this review helpful.

Gorgeous but remote park in Zambia’s wild west

Overall rating

4/5

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Tucked away in one of Zambia’s remotest corners, close to the Angolan border, Liuwa Plain attracts few tourists, but that’s not for lack of interest. Those hardy travellers that make the trek can expect to enjoy the thrill of a true wilderness experience. Get the timing right, and you can see almost as many wildebeest on the move here as you would in the Serengeti at the height of the migration. Their numbers peak in November and December. Other significan t species are gradually being introduced.

Another good reason to time things carefully is that road access to the park is via the Barotse floodplain – tough going in the dry season, with yawning potholes, and impossible after rain. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t enjoy long, bumpy journeys by 4WD.

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Anthony Ham –

AU

Visited: October

Anthony is a photographer and writer for travel magazines and Lonely Planet, including the guides to Kenya and Botswana & Namibia.

Liuwa Plain: Zambia’s Wild West

Overall rating

3/5

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Out in the far west of Zambia, far from the well-worn safari trails of Kafue and Luangwa, Liuwa Plain is a fascinating work in progress. Overseen by African Parks and part of a project to bring back the wildlife populations devastated by decades of poaching and mismanagement, Liuwa Plain is an experiment that deserves to succeed. There are numerous villages within the park boundaries – part of a plan to build strong wildlife populations that benefit local communities – but these rarely disturb the sense that this is wild country, home to vast plains of Serengeti-like grasslands. There are several accommodation options from which to launch expeditions in search of the abundant hyena and wildebeest populations (Liuwa Plain hosts one of Africa’s least-known wildebeest migrations). But the stars are the lions of Liuwa – Lady Liuwa, a lioness who was the only surviving lion in the area for almost a decade, is something of an international celebrity and seeing her remains one of my all-time safari highlights. She has since died but several lions have been brought in from elsewhere and are reproducing successfully. The park is inaccessible in the wet season but fabulous at other times.

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Sue Watt –

UK

Visited: May

Sue is an award-winning writer who specializes in African travel and conservation. She writes for national newspapers, magazines, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet.

Africa’s second wildebeest migration and a famous lioness

Overall rating

3/5

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Liuwa is a remote, raw park that few tourists see. It’s a place of endless grasslands, vivid blue pools strewn with lilies, and thousands upon thousands of wildebeest that migrate across the plains following the floods. In fact, this is the second largest wildebeest migration in Africa and it feeds a staggering 700 hyenas that live in and around the park. Here, they’re not scavengers but predators and I learnt a new respect for them watching their family groups hunting, feeding, playing and socializing together. Liuwa is also home to the world’s loneliest lioness, Lady, who survived here on her own for nine years until conservation organization African Parks brought in some younger lions to breed and keep her company. Lady is very special – seeing her with her new pride was one of the highlights of my visit. We also spent a fascinating afternoon with researchers from the Zambian Carnivore Program learning about their work and I’d highly recommend this to anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of this magical place.

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