This month’s feature is on South Luangwa National
Park, Zambia
South Luangwa National Park, in eastern Zambia in
the valley of the Luangwa River, is a world-renowned wildlife sanctuary of
unspoiled beauty. It is so unspoilt and natural that it has been described as what
some of Africa’s other most famous parks looked like 50 years ago. Amongst many
others, South Luangwa is a favourite place of best-selling novelist, Wilbur
Smith. The Luangwa Valley is “off the beaten track” and a natural barrier to
human migration and transport as no roads pass through it, a factor that has
helped to conserve the wildlife and the precious solitude – the two major
attractions that draw guests to the area.
Founded as a game reserve in 1938 and proclaimed a
national park in 1972, the 9,050 sq. km South Luangwa Park offers visitors an
array of small tented and thatched bush camps and lodges from rustic to
luxurious, all-exclusive style.
The majority of the accommodation in the area is
intimate tented or thatched camps catering from 6-12 guests, although one very
worthy exception is Mfuwe Lodge. This camp consists of 18 thatched chalets and
is set in a prolific game-rich area inside the Park, five minutes from the main
gate.
Mfuwe is situated under a canopy of ebony and
mahogany, it features an extraordinary occurrence every November when elephants
regularly wander through the lobby, lured by a nearby wild mango tree as shown
below.
Mfuwe International Airport is located just outside
the park and most visitors arrive on scheduled flights (1hr 10min) from Zambian
capital Lusaka. Lodges collect guests from the airport in safari vehicles. South Luangwa is also a popular add-on
destination from Livingstone after visitors have been to Victoria Falls, though
the scheduled flight to Mfuwe is via Lusaka.
Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (LUN)
is the major gateway for international visitors and airlines such as Emirates
(from Dubai), British Airways (from London), South African Airways (from
Johannesburg), KLM (from Amsterdam) and Kenya Airways (from Nairobi).
Leading airlines offering scheduled flights are
Pro-Flight (www.proflight-zambia.com), who operate Jetstream aircraft. Their
fleet consists of two 29-seaters and three 18-seaters. Flights from Lusaka are
currently on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The concentration of wildlife that lives around the
Luangwa River, at the tail-end of the continent’s Rift Valley, is amongst the
highest in Africa. The Luangwa, flanked by a spectacular escarpment, flows
through the heart of the park on its way to the Zambezi River.
The park is famous for large herds of elephant and
buffalo and the river supports big populations of hippos and crocodiles. It’s a
wild and beautiful place and it is also usual for visitors to enjoy good
sightings of leopard, lion, zebra, African wild dogs and two species unique to
this area – Cookson’s wildebeest and Thornicroft’s giraffe. It’s a birding
paradise with over 400 species recorded.
With no roads, the Luangwa is an excellent walking
experience and night drives are also permitted, offering the best chance to
spot a leopard. In the “green season” when the Luangwa is in full flow, boat
trips on the river are a must.
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