Both have unique characters and provide unparalleled game viewing and safari activities as safari connoisseur and repeat client Marie, and her friend Elizabeth, experienced on their recent memorable visit to these two rivers.
Part One recounts Marie’s return to the South Luangwa in this…
Tale of Two Rivers
“My love of wildlife began when I was very young, and the majority of the books on my shelf at home related to the natural world. I didn’t realise then that it would be the beginning of a lifelong passion with literally anything and everything that moved in the animal kingdom.
My first ever ‘safari’ was a book my parents bought me when I was four years old with colourful pictures of African animals, mopane woodlands and savannahs, and, even at that early age, this vast and beautiful continent held a magical fascination for me, which has continued throughout my life.
Safari Co. owner, Katharine, has expertly tailored and organized trips to Zambia for my husband and I several times in the past few years, and my recent trip to Zambia, this time with a friend, was no exception. From start to finish, Katharine was always there for us to contact if there were any queries and/or any problems we might encounter, going beyond the call of duty to even make sure we had an additional ‘Meet & Greet’ at Jo’Burg airport before our connecting flight back to Heathrow.
We began with our flight out of Heathrow on Saturday 21st June, stopping briefly in Jo’Burg, then an Airlink flight onto Lusaka where we stayed for one night at the beautiful Ceila Resort & Spa, a place we would thoroughly recommend staying, with beautifully appointed rooms, great food, and friendly, helpful staff, and only fifteen minutes’ drive away from Kenneth Kaunda International Airport.”
“Katharine had recommended Nsefu, South Luangwa National Park’s oldest camp, with its 6 traditional stone rondavels, set overlooking the stunning Luangwa River. The camp is rustic and quite charming but is also fitted and furnished with everything required for comfort, and the food is excellent. Our guide, Daudi, was friendly, helpful and extremely knowledgeable. This is a land where hippos abound, and Thornicroft giraffe move gracefully through the bush and out onto the savannah. Nsefu also has its fair share of lions, and the night before we arrived a pride of two males and six lionesses, one with two cubs, had managed to kill an adult hippo. Stunning sunsets aside, it is also worth mentioning that the ‘sky at night’ was something to behold too!”
“Being a bird enthusiast wherever I happen to be, and particularly on African game drives, during the two days and three nights spent at Nsefu I ticked 52 different bird species off my checklist, but even this barely scraped the surface of the 463 species in the area. Of particular note were birds of prey like Verreaux’s eagle owl, Bateleur and Martial eagles, and many fish eagles.”
“On 24th June, we said farewell to Nsefu and Daudi and made the five-minute boat trip across the Luangwa River to Puku Ridge, where our brilliant guide Andrew was enthusiastically waiting for us on the other side. I hadn’t seen Andrew for three years, and it was wonderful to meet up and spend some time with him again.
We particularly enjoyed the late afternoon/evening drives, and not just for the sundowner! The bush takes on a whole new persona and comes alive with the ‘sounds of the night’ like lions roaring, hyenas ‘whooping’ and nocturnal mammals such as genets, civets, bush-tailed and white-tailed mongoose, all on the lookout for prey. There are birds such as nightjar, water thick knees, owls and many more that all seem to appear out of nowhere as soon as the sun sets. One particular evening, we followed a leopard in search of prey, and a roaring lion establishing his territory, for some distance before they disappeared into the night.
On our third, and last day, at Puku Ridge, Andrew was pleased to find the ‘Chichele Pride’, a group of three young male lions and three lionesses that he has been observing for many years and knew the individuals very well. They hadn’t been around for a few weeks, and he was concerned. On the same drive, we also came across Lucy the leopard with her two year-old cubs, one of which was in a tree feeding with Lucy on an impala. The other cub was lying on the ground, with a hopeful hyena keeping its distance close by waiting for scraps of impala to fall.
As time went on my bird list got larger, with 59 identified species at Puku Ridge.”