I caught up with Dennis and asked him about his one month trip to Zambia, particularly the Kafue National Park leg of the tour.
| Which company did you use for your Kafue safari? |
I booked directly with the Mukambi Lodge. There was a Dutch couple Robin & Edward that were running it.
And how did you get to hear about them?I found an e-mail address for them in the Bradt travel guide and so I e-mailed them... and I was probably the first Canadian they'd had visit there. They're a Dutch couple and they said all their traffic came from Europe - Holland and Germany were the biggest source of people coming in.
How did you get to the Kafue lodge?I just took a local bus out of Lusaka and someone met me at "Hook Bridge". I didn't know where that was, I just asked people on the bus to let me off at Hook Bridge, and there was a fellow there waiting for me, just like they said he would be, and he took me to Mukambi Lodge and I was there for maybe 20 minutes to half an hour before I was gone, out to the Busanga Plains camp.
| What were your impressions of the Kafue Zambia Busenga plains camp? |
They have a luxurious camp set up, more of the typical camps like what we see on TV, with the floor and the really fancy tent and a real bed in it. They even had showers, the bucket showers, with hot water, a flush toilet and that sort of stuff.
There you also had cutlery, and crystal glasses and you're up in the middle of nowhere and they had a chef and a baker, it's just sort of unbelievable. I was the only guest there so I had some pretty preferential treatment.
And they set this camp up every year, he said. Because part of the deal is they have to totally dismantle it when the rains come because they get 4 feet of water in there. So it was an awesome experience.
| What was the weather like? |
It was mostly sunny and dry. I don't think we had a day of rain. I was in Zambia for a month and I never saw any rain at all. So I guess July is the time to go. This year I'm going in May to see something a little different, the green.
One thing I was surprised with was how cold it got at night in those places. You know from Canada, you look at Africa and you think it's steaming hot but it really did cool down in the evenings.
| Were you satisfied with the amount and type of wildlife you saw? |
In Kafue Zambia, I couldn't count it. It wasn't like National Geographic like you see on TV and the Serengeti, but I saw everything. Like wildebeest, roan, eland, puku and every kind of animal. If you just stood there in one spot you could see everything, because it's flat too and there aren't many trees. So you could just turn in a circle and see 6 or 7 different animals.
And then of course they took me out on a night drive as well. We went walking there too, in the morning. There was actually more animals in Kafue Zambia than there was in the Lower Zambezi National Park, I thought.
What would you say your wildlife spotting highlight was?I did see lions on this Kafue Zambia trip. That must be the highlight, them taking me to see a lion. They were very intent that we had to see them in various locations.
| Safari Location: | Kafue National Park |
| Safari Company Used: | Mukambi Lodge |
| Duration: | 3 days in July |
| Traveller Details: | Dennis Mitschke, Canada |
| Rates & Availability: | Plan your own safari. Make a Kafue Zambia enquiry |
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