Day 1
You leave Lusaka early in the morning for the road transfer to Lower Zambezi. You will meet our boat on the Zambezi River in the late morning, for the boat cruise to camp. This could be your first wildlife encounter as the animals, especially elephants, come down to the river to drink throughout the day. Lunch will be served in camp on arrival, after which you'll have some time to relax and soak up the safari atmosphere. In the mid afternoon you set off on your first game drive into the park where you'll experience the African wild in all its glory. As the sun begins to set over the river, you will pause to sip sundowners and watch the diurnal world fall asleep and the nocturnal world awake. Once the sun has set you set off on a night drive where you may see porcupine, civit, leopard and lion amongst other things. The drive then brings you back to camp in time for dinner. After dinner you can relax and chat around the fire, or simply enjoy an early night!
Day 2
Day two is all about the beautiful Lower Zambezi National Park. You wake before dawn and enjoy some tea or coffee as the sun rises. Once everyone is ready, you embark upon your fist all-day safari drive. Around 9.30am when the stomach begins to rumble, you will stop for a welcome breakfast and a great view of the river. Following breakfast you continue deeper into the park, stopping regularly to admire the breathtaking landscapes and rich wildlife of the Lower Zambezi Valley. At midday you stop in a shady spot for a picnic lunch, and a chance to discuss in all the sightings of your morning drive. After lunch and a couple of hours' rest, you begin the afternoon/evening drive. Sunset is the time to reflect on the day’s game viewing so far as you sip your drink of choice watching the sun set over the river. After sundowners and the world is in darkness, it is then time to night drive your way back to camp where dinner will be served.
Day 3
Departing camp early in the morning, you take a leisurely game drive upstream to the embarkation point for your river safari. Here you climb into your canoe and paddle your way slowly back to camp during the morning. Seeing an elephant from the vantage point of a canoe is an incredible experience! Your qualified guide will always be close at hand and will know the best places to venture to in order to get the best experience possible. After an hour or so of paddling down the slow moving waters of the Zambezi you will stop off at an island within the river and have breakfast, stretch your legs and relax. After breakfast you continue to slowly head downstream, stopping for any photo opportunities and wildlife encounters, finally bringing you back to camp in time for lunch. After lunch and a little relaxing it is time to head out on a relaxed afternoon drive into the park followed by sundowners and a night drive. Dinner is served in camp around the usual time of 8.30pm.
Day 4
The final day of your Lower Zambezi safari starts in the early morning. After tea, coffee and biscuits, your guide will escort you, along with an armed scout, into the bush on foot. Here your guide will tell you about all the things you can’t see from a vehicle like animals spore, droppings, tracks and hiding places. Your guide will also get you as close as possible to the wildlife in a safe manner and without disturbing the animals. After a few hours of seeing the wildlife in the most natural way possible you will have a picnic breakfast after which you will be met by the safari vehicle. In the late morning you are driven back to camp where you can relax and/or do some fishing for the mighty tiger fish. Lunch is served at midday, after which you pack your bags and begin your boat cruise back upstream where you will meet your transfer vehicle, and be driven back to Lusaka (+/-2hrs). Accommodation in is Lusaka required.
Day 5
You wake up early and are driven to Lusaka airport where you catch the flight to Mfuwe in the Luangwa Valley. Your South Luangwa Safari starts mid-morning as you are collected from the airport and transferred to our beautiful campsite located within the surrounds of Wildlife Camp. Game viewing begins an hour before reaching camp as we drive through the heart of Lupande Game Management Area, so eyes peeled! After a quick briefing and a short while to settle into the camp, you’ll have a lazy lunch before heading off on the first game drive. You leave camp as soon as everybody is ready to get ahead of the 16:00 rush, allowing for both an afternoon and night drive rolled into one. The early departure gives a head start on the other lodges and means you can enjoy sundowners at one of the beautiful oxbow lagoons in an area that few other vehicles reach on their drives. Driving through the park after dark offers excellent chances of seeing leopard, lion, honey badgers and all the other nocturnal surprises this amazing park is waiting to reveal. You’ll arrive back at camp between 20:00 and 20:30 for a delicious home cooked dinner.
Day 6
It’s an early wake up call in preparation for the morning drive. Enjoy a light breakfast, served with coffee or tea before setting off for the second foray into the national park. During the drive there are excellent chances of sighting elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and zebra. You return to camp at around 11:00 in time for a welcome brunch. The early afternoon is yours to enjoy at your leisure; perhaps you fancy a snooze, a swim in the Wildlife Camp pool, or just the opportunity to swap stories and photographs at the bar. In the cool of the early afternoon we’ll eat lunch and then it’s time to leave camp on foot with an experienced walking guide and armed escort scout for the walking safari. While you walk the guide will explain the art of tracking and all about the varied fauna and flora of the valley, all the while keeping eyes and ears open for the big game that frequent the area. You arrive back at camp in time for sundowners followed by a delicious dinner. The evening is spent around the campfire, looking at the stars and discussing the adventures so far.
Day 7
After an early start and a light breakfast at the camp, you set off on your second all-day safari adventure, heading towards more northerly sections of the park. Following a welcome breakfast break in the vicinity of the Tena Crossing, you continue your game drive north, and lunchtime finds you at Fish Eagle Lagoon which is home to several pods of (very vocal!) hippo. The heat of midday is spent relaxing in the shade of a grove of sausage trees, perhaps catching forty winks in the process. In the afternoon the journey continues through the ebony groves and lagoons of the northern section of the park. This is wild area and always carries the anticipation of sighting rare game such as wild dog or eland en route to the sundowner spot. After sunset the night drive begins, with excellent opportunities to spot shy nocturnal animals such as genets, civets, bush babies and maybe even the diminutive Sharpe’s Ghrysbok. The adventure ends back at camp in time for a welcome BBQ dinner, drinks and a warming campfire. This is a long but hugely rewarding day, and you might fancy an early night on your return!
Day 8
The final breakfast is a scrumptious affair, with a big fry up at the Kakumbi Salt Pan. Although you should keep a sharp lookout for all the usual game, this is a particularly special day for the birders. The route passes through the hauntingly beautiful Cathedral Mopane Forests, so besides elephant and giraffe, eyes will be peeled for the specialised woodland birds, such as racket-tailed rollers and white helmet shrikes. The salt pan itself attracts a host of water birds, and large flocks of the majestic crowned cranes are a virtual certainty. Finally it’s back to camp to get ready for the transfer to the airport, but there will be some time to catch up on your safari journal or simply relax by the pool before you depart.
* Overnight accommodation in Lusaka is not included in the safari price.
Itineraries are subject to the availability of the various activities. It may be necessary for us to shuffle itineraries around, but we will do our very best to ensure that you don’t miss out on anything!
