North West Zambia - A Birders Paradise

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 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.

The Northwest is described as where the Congo meets the Kalahari. It is a mosaic of evergreen forests, Kalahari grasslands, and miombo woodlands, which host at least 40 of Zambia’s indigenous bird species. Several bird species are endemic to Mwinilunga and adjacent parts of nearby Angola and the DRC. Others, like the black-collared bulbul, are typical of the lowland forests and grasslands of Central Africa. (Frank is considering making the black-collared bulbul his logo.) Yet other species are typical of Africa’s montane areas. Birders to Kalwelwa can expect to see most of the Mwinilunga ‘specials’.

Frank’s and Inge’s camp is simple. There are five double and three single tents, each with en suite bucket showers and long-drop toilets. There is the potential and passion to expand both camp and services in the future.

Kalwelwa caters to birders, but there is plenty of unspoiled nature to enjoy if you are not an obsessive bird watcher. Under the tutelage of an excellent bird guide such as Frank, however, it is easy to quickly conform to twitcher mode and to understand why the Northwest is on international birders’ radar.

One of Frank’s favourite birds is the black-bellied seedcracker. I do not see one, nor the Pel’s fishing owl lucky guests see before my visit. But I do have a brief glimpse of the magnificent shining-blue kingfisher and the mobbing of a greater honeyguide by stout cisticolas as it leaves its egg in the nest of little bee-eaters to hatch and raise, a phenomenon in the bird world known as brood parasitism. Nature tourism is not always about big mammals. The honeyguide makes my day.

In Mwinilunga town I stay at 250-hectare Wina wa Nzambi which means the ‘Eye of God’. Wina’s main house, with its two spacious bedrooms and several guest cottages, perches on the rim of this ‘eye’—a sunken caldera and Zambia’s very own miniature Ngorongoro Crater. The half-moon-shaped wooden terrace of the main house overlooks the crater. I have my morning coffee on the terrace and I enjoy a bird’s- eye view of the depression shrouded in early mists. I listen to the guttural calls of turacos. The temperature is surprisingly cool for the month of September, when other parts of Zambia are hot and getting hotter.

Wina’s owner, Daniel Rea, comes from a lengthy line of early missionaries who, inspired by David Livingstone, came to Zambia beginning of the 19th century. Daniel’s great-grandfather first learned about the caldera on a walk through the area for his mission in 1911. Daniel’s father, Charles, built Wina’s main building as the family home. Wina has a large library of books collected over the years by this missionary family on its mission work, Zambia’s history and local culture. These provide hours of fascinating browsing.

The source of the Zambezi River which is both a UNESCO World Heritage and a Zambian National Monument is a short drive from Mwinilunga. Africa’s fourth largest river begins its 2,500-kilometre journey to the Indian Ocean from here. After rising in Zambia, it flows east into Angola before re-entering Zambia. The Zambezi can send five hundred million litres of water per second over Victoria Falls, but its beginnings are not impressive. The small wet patch of seepage reminds me of a broken underground water pipe in my garden. Yet, within a few metres the Zambezi’s trickle becomes a stream. Within a few kilometres, at a spot to where you can walk or drive, the river is wider still and its flow strengthens.

The source is located within a small nature reserve on the DRC’s border with Zambia. The access road to the monument is in fact the border between the two countries. The nature reserve protects an equatorial rainforest and to walk under its canopy to where the Zambezi bubbles out of the earth is well worth the visit.

The Northwest is known for pineapples and Zambezi Gold brand honey, the latter sold in ShopRite and exported to Europe where a London friend buys it at hugely inflated prices. (She swears it is the best.) Zambezi Gold employs local beekeepers who tend traditional hives in the forests around Mwinilunga. I hope to see honey sold by the roadside and score a supply of liquid gold in litre-sized containers, but I am luckier in finding pineapples. Lusaka-based MTT Safaris is happy to arrange your Northwest Zambia itinerary. For international visitors, I advise a fly-in and drive-out combination to save time and the rough roads. Birding at the Jimbe River Basin (at the very tip of Zambia where it borders Angola) can be included in an itinerary. The Northwest sees Zambia’s highest rainfall. At the time of my visit in early September, Mwinilunga had already received its first rains of the rainy season.

www.MTTSafaris.com

leslie@MTTSafaris.com

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