Zambia: Amazing animals and action that make for great stories and memories

Hi Jamie,

In Zambia we saw some amazing sights, many for the first time in all our safaris in Africa. We saw: leopards pulling their kills into trees (twice); 10 lions eating a still breathing baby elephant they had taken down maybe 15 minutes before; a pack of 16 wild dogs chasing down and killing and devouring (in 10 minutes) an impala; a leopard hunting at night and failing to take down a large kudu; 2 lions eating a maggot-infested dead hippo while keeping vultures and hyenas away; 3 cheetahs lying in the shade; giraffes mating (it took 4 tries); male elephants headbutting; and a lion walking next to our vehicle and roaring.

We also saw some great animals on the night game drives, including an eagle owl with its guinea fowl kill, bushbabies, genets, civets, and elephant tree shrews. We’re still looking for aardvarks and pangolins.

Amazing animals and action that make for great stories and memories.

Nearly all of what we saw happened at Lower Zambezi and Northern Kafue. We loved Lower Zambezi, the setting, the animals and action, the camp and guide. The warm staff at Potato Bush Csmp made our stay there truly special! We also found Northern Kafue to be outstanding, again all of the above. And Chisa Busanga is truly a gem of a site. We thought both Green Safaris camps were superb. 

And I should add the logistics for the trip overall, as usual, have been perfect from the first pickup to the last drop off.

South Luangwa and North Luangwa, I’m sorry to say, were both disappointing. This is where we probably had the highest expectations. (We really didn’t know much at all about Lower Zambezi and Northern Kafue.) We did enjoy very much the Remote Safaris camps at Tafika and Takwela. The camps were beautiful and felt right for African safaris. The staff were all friendly and helpful. We enjoyed meeting and chatting with John and Carol and Bryan Jackson and I think they enjoyed meeting some old timers like Denise and me, who have our own stories of 45 years in and out of Africa.

Our guide at Tafika had been there less than one year. He was not the one of the seasoned guides you had mentioned. He was good, not excellent. Our guide in Takwela was outstanding.

The primary reason to go on safari is to see animals and for much of the 6 days we spent in those two parks we hardly saw any animals, at all. In fact, out of 6 game drives in South Luangwa, on 2 game drives we literally saw no animals (including no impala, puku, baboons, and hippos). And in North Luangwa we saw no animals on 2 game drives and both walking safaris.

We know on walking safaris the guides work hard to keep you away from elephants and other potentially dangerous animals, but the two walks we did were super quiet.

So there were long stretches in the vehicles and on foot where nothing was visible or happening. It was a long six days in Luangwa, and not what we expected. 

I know that must disappoint you as much as us. But we certainly don’t fault you. We wonder if it is the season, climate change, the drought, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time that resulted in such limited game viewing. Maybe just bad luck. But we did meet people who saw lots of animals in South Luangwa, only in the central and southern parts of the park. Nevertheless it was tedious to spend so many days and hours driving around these parks only to see so little.

So just a bit of feedback in thinking about Luangwa as a destination.

Most importantly, the amazing animal viewings in Lower Zambezi and Northern Kafue and a bit in Tafika were truly extraordinary and we’re thrilled to have been there.

We are excited to be heading to Madagascar for something totally new and different for us.

More soonest.

Cheers Richard and Denise