Liuwa Plains
A WILD EXPEDITION INTO REMOTE WESTERN ZAMBIA
Writer: Frank Steenhuisen Photography: Frank Steenhuisen, Gesa Neitzel
T
he beginning of an amazing trip into the wilderness area of Western Zambia came with the completion of our new, unique game-viewing vehicle and our impatient eagerness to try it out. We knew that with such a vehicle its first trip just had to be something different and a challenge to set the benchmark for what it could do. The vehicle was designed to include a number of advantages over that of a normal game-viewer. In this case it was the significant height advantage and serious off-road capabilities, as well as comfort and game-viewing improvements for the passengers that were to be put to the test. We set off on our expedition in November 2017, having carefully planned for our trip to coincide with the annual wildebeest migration which moves over the vast landscape of Liuwa Plain National Park. As it turned out, our timing was near perfect. We were greeted at Kalabo, the closest town to Liuwa Plain, with an impressive show from Mother Nature in the form of a huge thunderstorm – a true downpour. This is exactly what we had expected and is what attracts the big herds of wildebeest to the middle of the park.
We spent four nights in Liuwa Plain, marvelling at the spectacle of the second largest wildebeest migration in Africa, as well as observing the many other interesting creatures that inhabit the area. For instance, we enjoyed fantastic sightings of spotted hyena, something for which the plains are famous. Birding at that time of the year was also incredible as we not only recorded a high species count, but also witnessed flocks of blackwinged pratincoles in their thousands, flying together, a spectacle which even non-birders could appreciate. But our target species for our time in Liuwa was the elusive plains-roaming cheetah, and on our last evening we were lucky enough to track one down as the sun was setting. This was a great end to our last game drive in the area. We could now rest with a sense of accomplishment and prepare for the next leg of the journey which would see us heading east to Kafue National Park.
After a full day’s travel through thick sand, muddy terrain and a number of local villages, we found ourselves with welcome drink in hand, checking into Musekese Camp, a small and intimate bush camp located in the northern sector of Kafue National Park. It didn’t take us long to realize that the guiding standard at Musekese was of the utmost importance, and as camp owners Phil Jeffery and Tyrone McKeith are guides themselves they knew exactly where the focus of a great safari should be – on the guests! From Musekese we set off in two smaller groups in an attempt to cover more ground and work together for sightings, and this paid off well over the next four
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TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
