Hi Brett
Thanks for contacting me.
Yes the safari went fine (with a few ‘grumbles’ under!) and I met loads of nice people (both camp staff and visitors) and had a great time.
However Kafue was the weak point. I arrived fresh from UK and at 12pm was transferred into an open top Land cruiser for the 2+hour transfer to Musanza. Fortunately I had a broad brimmed hat and sun block handy (and have an Africa hardened skin) but others may be caught out by this and get pretty burnt on the first day. Actually the Land Cruiser was not a Land Cruiser but an Indian Mahindra … and it was falling apart. The din of rubbing metal from the broken floor and rear structures was most unpleasant. Also it soon became apparent that the driver was having to make running repairs with fencing wire to keep bits together. He also said that he vehicle was not as sure-footed as the Land Cruisers and thus went slower and avoided some of the less easy tracks.
I had thought through the planning that Musanza gave me access to the Busanga plain and swamp. However due to the very slow driving conditions it was only possible to reach the first few kms of the plain. The area we had access to was pretty quiet – people I later met who had been further up (in Premier accommodation) said they had seen cheetah and wild dog. All I saw was a load of puku and impala, a few letchwe, a single sable and the rear end of a small group of roan. I was very surprised to see only 3 elephants (all male and separate) plus a couple in the river opposite the camp. Same with lion – three separate males and then a couple of females as we drove out. One attraction for me was the high chance of seeing Leopard at Musanza but this did not happen. However after transferring to Lufupa River Camp I did see one briefly. I must say the driver was very good and clearly a cat man and good tracker and I think I did finally persuade him that cats aren’t everything so that we could get on and look for some birds! Oh yes – and the tsetse flies were pretty distracting.
The sighting of Musanza camp is better than Lufupa as the central area is under a large evergreen tree which attracted a procession of birds whereas at Lufupa it is much more open. Apart from the fact that I was for the most part the only tourist there and had a vehicle/driver to myself right through I could not really see why the charges are significantly higher than Luangwa.
Luangwa was just great. I was hoping to run into some rain there to kick the green season animal and plant activity off but it was only just building up towards this the day I left. Many more animals and in family groups. Plenty of lion, elephants and several leopard sightings by all present. Giraffe and zebra also present. There were more people in the camps and more on the road, but not so as to be an problem – although it was getting pretty dusty.
You may have been contacted towards the end of my stay due to a misunderstanding. Following my delayed flight experience of 2 years ago I had booked to be back in Lusaka the day before my UK flight. I had been asking around as to what I could do on this day and got near total silence on it. Also as you may recall there had been an issue over flight times – a requested an afternoon flight and you confirmed that there was only one early am flight on the day I chose to return to Lusaka. Realising that this was the situation only on Saturdays and that accommodation at Flat Dogs and a flight back on Sunday mid pm were available they added a day for me – This gave me two extra am drives and an extra evening one and avoided hanging around in Lusaka with nothing to do. If you were contacted it was because Flat Dogs did not realise that I had made the hotel booking myself.
Would I go to Kafue again – probably not as it was far less good value for money than Luangwa and the tsetses bad. However if able to reach the Busanga swamp and at a reasonable price I might be tempted that way again.
Thanks once again:
Best wishes:
Andrew
