10 Secrets - Lower Zambezi National Park

Writer: Grant Cumings – conservationist, professional safari guide, pioneer safari operator in the Lower Zambezi National Park and owner of Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro

Photography: Scott Ramsey

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The incredible, uncrowded landscapes and habitats make for diverse photographic opportunities and a wide choice of game-viewing activities

This park, by virtue of its variety – the wide, deep Zambezi River with its islands and floodplains, spectacular inland woodlands and grasslands and then the escarpment – makes for infinite combinations to enhance an ever-changing and often quite private safari. Perhaps this is why Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro enjoy so many repeat guests, some of whom stay for weeks at a time – every year!

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The Lower Zambezi National Park is one of the world's best protected wildlife sanctuaries

It is the world’s first carbon neutral national park, and Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro are not only the world’s first carbon neutral safari camps but also the largest supporters of Conservation Lower Zambezi, which facilitates all the conservation activity here. By visiting these camps, guests are not only participating in one of the best safaris money can buy but are also contributing to the longterm protection of the precious wildlife, habitats and surrounding communities of the Lower Zambezi National Park.

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A variety of safari camps and lodges to suit every budget and taste

All safari camps and lodges in the Lower Zambezi National Park provide excellent accommodation, hospitality and location. To benefit fully from your Lower Zambezi safari we recommend you visit both the western and the eastern sectors of the park as they differ from a habitat, landscape and wildlife perspective, providing a diversity of adventure opportunities. With this in mind, there is no better combination than Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro, both owned by the Cumings family and offering contrasting but complementary multi-award- winning ‘Best in Africa’ safari experiences.

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The safari guides of the Lower Zambezi National Park are some of the best in the business

Safari guides require lengthy practical assignments and strict theoretical examinations with high pass marks in order to qualify. Aside from being able to conduct the usual game drives and walking safaris, many guides are also qualified in canoeing, boating and ‘catch and release’ angling so there is nowhere else where the skills and qualifications required to be a safari guide are higher. It should come as no surprise then that Chiawa Camp’s guiding team has been voted by the world’s top Africa safari specialists as the‘Best Guiding Team in Africa’ not once, but twice!

Lower Zambezi 5

My favourite thing about the Lower Zambezi National Park is its complete ability to allow one to switch off from the ‘real world’… to sit back and relax and watch the world pass by, as the constant flow of the Zambezi River is a soothing reminder that Mother Nature can still awe and inspire. The park is situated across the Zambezi River from Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe, with very limited light pollution, making the night skies here some of the biggest and most amazing to observe anywhere in Africa.

Writer: Andrea Gilmour – Sausage Tree Camp and Potato Bush Camp

Photography: Sausage Tree Camp

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Variety of activities

With a selection of both land- and water-based activities to choose from, including day and night game drives, walking safaris, canoeing, boat cruises and fishing, guests are spoilt for choice when looking to explore all that the Lower Zambezi National Park has to offer.

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Wildlife

With some of the best wildlife viewing in Zambia, the Lower Zambezi National Park boasts over 400 species of birds, 120 species of mammals and 50 species of fish. From big to small and everything in between, guests can enjoy watching elephants amble past their rooms, take on the mighty tiger fish or fall asleep to the sounds of lion, hyena and hippo which form part of the evening ‘bush choir’.

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Limited number of camps and visitors

With only six safari lodges located within the boundary of the Lower Zambezi National Park, visitor numbers are kept low so it is easy for guests to feel as if they have the park to themselves. And each safari lodge gives guests a true bush experience, with lavish attention to detail and all the creature comforts of home and more.

Writer: Luke Evans – operator, Tusk & Mane Safaris

Photography: Tusk & Mane

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The new Tusk & Mane Safaris fly camping experience is a special and unique way to experience the Lower Zambezi. It is an active adventure that takes guests through some of the wildest, most rugged and scenically beautiful corners of the national park. Two fly camp sites are on untouched islands in the heart of the park’s prime game-viewing area, a mere 30-minute drive from Jeki Airfield. To reach the third site, you follow ancient elephant trails into the foothills of the escarpment to a rare permanent water source at Kalingala Springs.

Each safari can be fully customised to suit your desires, fitness and adventure levels

Travel between camps is either by foot, canoe, boat or game drive. The pace is set by you, and is punctuated by plenty of stops along the way to discover, learn and marvel at the infinite natural phenomena you may chance upon. And at the day’s end, creature comforts await: a cosy bed, warm bucket showers, and a hearty meal around the campfire as you gaze up at the stars.

Tusk & Mane’s ‘back to basics’ approach to fly camping, where a tent, a meal and a fire is really all you need to experience the magic of this truly magnificent national park seems a great idea. TL Z