South Luanga in Zambia is not as well known as some of the iconic East African destinations like the Mara and Serengetti or even our own Kruger Park.

In 2017 I was fortunate to visit South Luanga and was very pleasantly surprised. We flew into Lusaka ( just under two hours) and then onto Mfefu airport another 90 odd minutes. After landing we travelled by bus to Flatdogs camp. (Flatdogs are crocodiles if you have not guessed it ).

The Luanga river is a major tributary of the Zambezi joining actually below Kariba Dam. The Luanga river is famous for its long horse shoes that annually overflows roughly between January and June rendering most camps not usable for about six months. In the remaining dry season there are large lagoons of water that nurtures fabulous wild life. There is both a South and North Park.

We were hosted on photographic safari by Ed Selfe who knows the area like the back of his hand. After an early morning game drive at Flatdogs, he picked us up around 12pm and we had a 45 minute game drive to Zikomo Safari Camp in the Nsefu conservancy where we stayed the next seven days. I attach a map of the area below. We spent the next days at the camp that is only open for about six months due to the annual flooding as it is right on the Luanga river.

The bungalows are a good walk from the dining and bar area and in the evenings one do require guides to walk with you back in the dark as the camp is not enclosed and many hippos, lion and others roam freely. One night my wife opened the front door with pride of lions passing by! During the day a couple of elephants came for the maroelas daily around the office area and sometimes restricted movement for guests.

The game viewing was fabulous and variable with good bird life, all signs of a healthy Eco-systems. The only big five missing is the rhino. There are some wild dog but we did not see them neither did we see cheetah. We saw excellent elephant, lion and leopard. There also were some antelope species like the puku not found more south.

We were able to see some great river crossings by elephant and even giraffe. The camp was vert remote which meant we had the place almost to ourselves. With my wife having flu I was on the vehicle with Ed most of the time on our own so we could take our time and almost do what we want. We got out of the vehicle a few times and walked closer for different angles of view. We did that for both leopard and elephant which was a first for me.

A high point was a visit to a nearby hot water spring about an hour’s drive north on the “main road north”. This is a very sandy road with very few cars and actually more bicycles.

This was more savannah landscape with zebra and buffalo but the high point was the colony of crowned crane birds which actually arrived in a huge flock while we were there. A great way to experience one of my favourite and most beautiful birds.