Isolating on the Busanga Plains

KAFUE NATIONAL PARK: OCTOBER 2020

[PHOTO’S: Mama Tembo Tours, Jeffery & McKeith Safaris ] [ WRITER: Leslie Nevison ]

I glance in the rear-view mirror in time to see lightning strike the ground behind the vehicle in an enormous explosion of sparks. The thunder is deafening. The earth beneath us shudders from the shockwave and I am thankful that we sit on four rubber tyres.

We are on the Busanga Plains of Kafue National Park, sheltering from the first big storm of the rainy season. We have managed to erect the tent and arrange camp before the storm begins. The car becomes the best place for the safari tradition of sundowner drinks — sundowners are a daily rite — whether there is a sunset or not is immaterial. When the rain eases enough to dash from the vehicle to the tent, we opt for an early sleep. Rain drums on the canvas over our heads. In the morning, the sky is a clear blue, although it is now pouring insects, winged, soft and hard-shelled bugs of every size and shape. Never let insects put you off an African safari, although there are many of them during the rainy season. Insects are crucial players in a healthy ecosystem.

In the far north of Zambia’s Kafue National Park, Busanga is the floodplain of the Lufupa River, submerged for many months of the year and dotted with islands of wild date palms, fig trees, papyrus beds, lily-covered lagoons and woodlands. Herds of red lechwe leaping across swampy channels are Busanga’s most iconic sight, another is Busanga’s muscular black-maned lion. Cheetah, leopard, wild dog, Cape buffalo, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, blue wildebeest, defassa waterbuck, puku, roan, sable, sitatunga antelope, side-striped jackals, spotted hyena and elephant also inhabit Busanga’s plains. Crowned and wattled cranes, the largest on the continent, are regulars. Busanga is, without question, among Africa’s most under-visited and unique wildlife destinations.

What you don’t see in Busanga is people. Its remoteness is one challenge for potential visitors, but access has become easier in recent years. There is a 4x4 track along the western boundary of the park which enables a circular dry-season driving route for those who want to go by road. We have entered through Kafue National Park’s Chunga Gate at Hook Bridge and intend exiting through Tatayoyo Gate where the western boundary road meets the Great West Road. In a typical season, Staravia Air Charters fly to Busanga’s airstrip from both Lusaka and Livingstone. Busanga has had to compete for visitors’ time and budgets against better known Zambian national parks such as South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi, but please understand that Busanga is as special as other Zambian highlights. If each one of Busanga’s five accommodation options, which sleep a maximum of ten guests, is full every night, it means that less than sixty people enjoy its 13,679 square kilometres at any one time. This is especially relevant in this time of Covid.

Small and remote lodges and camps make social distancing simpler in ways that city accommodation and large resorts cannot. In that regard Busanga is among Zambia’s most socially distanced of destinations!

During a non-Covid affected season, the closest do-it-yourself camping site is several hours drive from the Busanga Plains. Selfdrivers undertake day trips. The silver lining in 2020’s Covid clouds is that Zambian domestic tourism has received a boost. We will camp for the next five days at Jeffery and McKeith Safaris bush camp at Busanga called Ntemwa. In the absence of international travellers, Ntemwa is open to residents. We bring tents and food. Flush loos, bucket showers and running water are provided. It is easy to picture what Ntemwa looks like when prepared for international clientele. Cushions and comfy seats, placed strategically for sunset viewing, would ordinarily be strewn under an expansive Bedouin-style tent. Now we open our own camp chairs to take advantage of the stretch tent’s shade. To be honest, it is fun having Ntemwa to ourselves. Yet, I perfectly understand how postponing a 2020 African safari feels. Safaris have a profound and positive effect on one’s mental wellness, a state of mind which benefits Africa as well. While you have the time of your life, your tourism dollars provide jobs and support wildlife conservation and community initiatives.

Not only has Ntemwa welcomed us as campers. Nearby Kasonso Camp (opened in 2019 by Northern Kafue Safaris which also operate Kafue River Lodge and Kikuji Camp) has offered us one of the best guides in Busanga and the Kafue, Ferrison Muleka, for two days. Ferrison and I have bonded previously over a shared pangolin sighting in the Kafue. Here is more advice: by all means, self-drive to your destination but leave the game drives to the expertise of the guides whose vocations are their local wilderness. In Busanga’s case too, game drive trails are not marked which makes the services of a guide a wise decision.

We see a great deal with Ferrison, a dominant male lion known as Scarface mating with a lioness, lion cubs, cheetah and (my favourite) a herd of 80-strong thirsty elephants emerging from the cool of the Kapinga Forest to march in single file to the river one late afternoon.

Three months after the Busanga safari, the present remains as unprecedented as ever and the future as uncertain. Every day brings a complicated mix of good and bad news. The image of the enormous herd of elephants remains with us. It is sustenance. On that day it felt as though the pandemic did not exist and that we had already welcomed the return of the future.