ZAMBIA | NORTH WEST ZAMBIA
NORTHWEST ZAMBIA – A Birding Paradise [ WRITER: Leslie Nevison ]
[ PHOTO: Frank Willems, Mama Tembo Tours Zambia ]
‘Off the beaten path’ is a relative and overused concept on our well-trodden planet. But Northwest Zambia, pressed into a corner between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola, is truly remote. Unless you charter a plane to Mwinilunga, its commercial centre, or shorten the two-day road journey (and that is rushing it) by taking a scheduled flight to Solwezi and driving from there, the Northwest deserves its honestto-Betsy, off the beaten path status. Such travel experiences are increasingly rare to find. I follow a 2,500-kilometre circular route to the Northwest which starts and ends in Lusaka. On the way to Mwinilunga, I pass through the Zambian Copperbelt cities of Ndola, Chingola and Solwezi. The worst potholes lie between Solwezi and Mwinilunga, but the scenery grows more interesting which makes up for the need to navigate slowly or destroy the vehicle’s suspension. Enormous termite mounds appear, some of them as high as two-story buildings. Ingenious landowners use the higher ones as their water tank stands. On the way back, my route passes south of Solwezi to Kasempa town to the Lunga-Luswishi Game
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TRAVEL & LEISURE | Jan - April 2022
Management Area, a buffer zone of Kafue National Park, and from there to Mumbwa, Chisamba, and finally Lusaka. I am tempted to include West Lunga National Park, only 150 kilometres north of Kafue National Park, but it deserves more in-depth exploration than I can devote to it on this particular journey. Although the Northwest has long appealed to me as an outpost, more recently I have promised to pay a site visit to Kalwelwa Bush Camp. It is operated by Dutch ornithologist and ecologist Frank Willems and his wife Inge Akerbom and located an hour’s drive north of Mwinilunga on Chief Kanyama’s land.
