To me, the Kafue National Park in Zambia is the ideal safari destination if I want to experience wild Africa. The park is almost the size of Wales; therefore there are no queues to view animals. In fact, you might drive a whole day and only see one or two other vehicles. In Kafue I find true solitude.
Kafue has a huge variety of antelope (sitatunga, klipspringer, puku, bushbuck, oribi, steenbok, grysbok, duiker, reedbuck, waterbuck, lechwe, kudu, impala, sable, roan and eland) that roam the grasslands and the plains. Kafue boasts one of the highest populations of wild dog and other predators include lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. On top of this I saw herds of elephant, zebra, hippopotamus, crocodile, buffalo, etc. The only big animals that you won't find in the park are rhino and giraffe. With close to 500 species listed, Kafue is a bird lover's paradise.
The Kafue River is the lifeline of the park as it runs along and through the park for approximately 250 kilometres. All camps are situated close to the Kafue or Lufupa (a tributary of the Kafue) Rivers, which means that you can view animals right from your patio and hear the hippos, lions, hyenas, jackals and all the small creatures of the night while lying in your tent. During the rainy season big parts of the park are inaccessible, so the best time of the year to go is between April and November. During the dry season the animals flock to the river to drink.
None of the lodges in the park are fenced, which means they regularly have the wild animals passing through the grounds. Fellow travellers told me that they heard a kill literally a few hundred metres from the camp two nights before I arrived.
The park has a diverse landscape and vegetation. The central and southern parts have dense Miombo and Mopane Woodlands, while Busanga in the north and Nanzhila in the far south are open plains. Busanga Plains is a grass plain during the dry season and flooded during the rainy season. Lodges in Busanga rebuild their tented camps every year in May/June and only operate them between July and October.
Along the Kafue and Lufupa Rivers, Riparian Forest provides welcome shade to humans and animals alike. Teak Forests are found in the drier southern section of the park.
The Itezhi-Tezhi Dam in the southern section of the park offers a whole different experience. With its dead tree stumps and abundance of life around the lake it reminds me of Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe, obviously just on a much smaller scale.
All of the lodges and camps in the Kafue National Park are run by private operators under concession from ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authorities). There are three lodges in the surrounding GMA (Game Management Area) that are outside the official border of the park, but offer virtually the same bush experience.
There are a number of lodges to choose from, but Mukambi offers a really good deal. Mukambi Safari Lodge is situated in the GMA on the bank of the Kafue River in the central part of the park while Mukambi Plains Lodge is a tented camp on the Busanga Plains inside the park. Both are upmarket lodges that offer their guests just the best in terms of luxury and wildlife. The staff is friendly, efficient and extremely knowledgeable. They spoiled us with excellent service, sundowner cruises, game drives and guided walks in the park.
When I go on a game drive, I don't only look for the trophy animals. I smell the bush; enjoy driving under the Milky Way and seeing the small creatures of the night like servats, owls, spring hare and jackal.
Mukambi offers a choice of safaris. You can either just stay at Mukambi Safari Lodge or combine it with Mukambi Plains Camp. The ideal one-week African safari getaway is a five-night package deal to stay at both the lodge and the camp.
The lodge on the plains consists of a tented camp that is annually rebuilt after the rainy season on a huge termite hill under a magnificent fig tree. Here you can choose to be an armchair traveller who sits on the deck and watches the animals go by, or you can go for a game drive or a guided walk.
SAA offers regular flights from all major cities to Lusaka. The park is only 270km from Lusaka on an excellent tar road. Charter flights from Lusaka to the Kafue also available.
For more, go to www.mukambi.com
