South Luangwa NP, Zambia - the place of leopards

Luangwa river in the dry.

Zambia had been on our mind ever since we moved to Malawi. Unfortunately for us the COVID pandemic had put a stop to any travel internationally so we had been spending most of our time traveling in-country, but finally the pandemic was starting to lessen and we decided to take a chance and head to South Luangwa in Zambia.

South Luangwa is known for its high density of leopards as well as its packs of wild dogs, so that was our target for this trip.  Having not seen leopards in quite a while because Liwonde doesn't have them, we were especially looking forward to catching some good sightings of this spotted cat. 

Traveling internationally is a bit more complicated now than before the pandemic, including having a COVID test before we left Malawi and before we got back into Malawi. The Thursday before we were to leave we headed to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital to do  our COVID tests.  The testing process is reasonably straightforward but for an awkward payment system where you get a number and stand in a queue but the numbers don’t necessarily follow a sequence and there appeared to be multiples of the same numbers. Obtaining the results appears by the far the most complex part of this where you need to front up at the laboratory with paper work or alternatively delegate to someone else. If you are on a flight the results are emailed but otherwise you need to pick it up in person. There is also a reasonably complicated process of obtaining your COVID certificate which required visiting the District Health Office and a lot of patience and some luck. 

We was still not sure of how long it would take us to cross the border but we knew it was going to take at least eight hours of driving so Saturday morning we were up at 4 to make sure we could get on the road by 5:30. In Malawi the sun has already risen by 5 so we didn't have to worry about driving in the dark. And luckily we did decide to leave that early because the border crossing took a lot longer than we anticipated. - a whole  2 and 1/2 hours! 

We made good time to the Mchinji border after stopping briefly in Dedza and Lilongwe, Getting there around lunch time only to be told that because it was lunch time no one could help us, a really curious thing considering that the board is open 24/7! Finally after lunch we had movement but the delays continued, this time it turned out it was actually a printer error and they couldn't get some document printed so it was up to the IT department to get it fixed, which took about 45 minutes! And that was the easy border!

The Malawian border is where you need to enter vehicle details in the all important logbook and apply for a temporary export permit (TEP) for which you need to obtain a police clearance certificate in advance at  Lilongwe or Blantyre. The TEP doubles as your gate pass to leave Malawi and needs to be surrendered on return and exchanged for a gate pass on re-entry to Malawi so keep this paper work safe. 

And so it took another hour and a half to pay for all the various fees on the Zambian side which include third party insurance and local council taxes (both payable in Zambian Kwacha) and a carbon tax (payable in US Dollars). Luckily the Visa processing was a lot more straightforward and finally we managed to get out into the Zambian side about two and a half hours after we arrived from the Malawi side.  And not 2 km down the road there is a military checkpoint to make sure that you have your insurance and other paperwork!

Interestingly plenty of Malawians and Zambians cross the border for what appears to be routine errands (such as shopping!) without having to show passports, COVID certificates or paying any of the fees applicable to tourists. The main town on the Zambian side, Chitapa is well serviced with a Shoprite and other amenities. 

The Luangwa River is an easy 2 hour drive from Chitapa on a sealed but potholed road with very little traffic. The gateway to the park is a tiny town of Mfuwe of which the main feature is the international airport. The Luangwa river is actually 25 KMS from Mfuwe and there is a small village with basic village style shops. Even getting a tyre changed is the old fashioned manual way and don’t expect to buy anything but the basics such as local fruit and veg. There are up to 50 lodges dotted up and down the river bordering the national park. 

Last catch - fisherman share the river with wildlife.

There is only one bridge over the Luangwa river, at the park office and entrance to the park. Some of the lodges are said to have causeway access which we couldn’t verify but did note lodges parking their game drive vehicles on the park side of the river and ferrying guests for game drives and so avoiding the long drive over the bridge. There are only 2 camps that accommodate self campers, Croc River and Wildlife Camp. Wildlife camp is by far the better set up with the campsite set away from the main lodge. There are animals including lions, elephant, leopard and buffalo wandering around the lodgers requiring caution despite being on the other side of the national park. 

So thanks to the delay at the border it was actually almost dark by the time we finally reached Mfuwe. This is the town that is just outside the South Luangwa National Park and it is where we were going to be staying for the next 7 days. Most of the lodges are actually outside the park but luckily they straddle the Luangwa river so the location is really awesome which is what we found when we drove into our campsite for the night at Wildlife camp.

Hard to beat the view from Campsite #6, Wildlife Camp.

It is probably one of the prettiest campsites we have ever stayed at. We got there just as the sun was going down and we were able to sit right on the banks of the river watching the hippos and the pukus grazing.  There are a number of campsites at Wildlife camp and in our opinion the campsite that we were able to get was the best - No 7- thanks to us booking in advance.  There are 4 campsites that are right on the river edge and then about five or six others set further back.  These campsites have electrical power points, a boma and light so it  is much more luxurious than we are used to! 

We hadn't been sure about the diesel situation seeing as how there is only one petrol station nearby and we had been warned that it could run out of fuel, so we first needed to get 2 jerry cans of diesel which went into our little beach tent that we had erected, along with our jerry can of water.   That would stay there for our trip, freeing up space in the back of our bakkie.  

Since we had already prepared dinner, it was just an easy case of making chicken rolls rather than trying to cook. And we quickly realized any cooking was going to be a mission since it was swelteringly hot in South Luangwa. Just putting up the roof tent left us in a bath of sweat! Still, it was great to finally be in South Luangwa and we cracked open a beer against  a hippo chorus backdrop full of excitement about what the next week would bring. 

And just as a welcome, we heard a leopard sawing near our campsite.  We were told later that there were actually 2 leopards spotted walking around in the night near the lodge bar!  That’s a real exciting promise for our trip!

Camp site comes with a small boma, light, electric point and braai spot.