About the same size as Wales, Kafue National Park is Zambia's largest park and protects a wide variety of different environments on an undulating plateau veined by rivers. At its heart, the main Kafue River is wide, deep and slow, to the obvious pleasure of large numbers of hippo and crocodile. Tall, shady hardwoods overhang its banks, whilst occasional islands are favourite places for elephant and buffalo.

Around the rivers a mosaic of miombo and riverine woodlands is dotted with occasional grassy pans, or dambos. This variety of habitats is perfect for game. Aside from the common species like impala, puku, zebra, blue wildebeest and kudu, Kafue's attractions include rarer antelope like roan, sable, eland, oribi and Defassa waterbuck. Lion, leopard and cheetah thrive, as do growing numbers of Africa's rarest large predators – wild dogs.

One of Kafue's main tributaries, the Lufupa River, enters the park via the Busanga Swamps. During the rains, it floods out over the adjacent Busanga Plains, and when the waters recede around May, they leave behind lush vegetation. This is a magnificent wilderness: flat grassland plains dotted with photogenic 'islands' of wild date palms, sausage trees and fig trees. It attracts huge herds of red lechwe and puku, as well as buffalo, zebra and wildebeest, followed by occasional cheetah and lion (known here for their tree-climbing antics).

The park is bisected in the middle by the Lusaka-Mongu road, and in many ways we can consider the north of Kafue National Park as quite different from the south side.

Northern Kafue

In recent years, there have always been two main operations on the north side of the park: Busanga Trails and African Experience. However, at the end of 2005 both of them sold out their camps to Wilderness Safaris – who run a number of excellent camps in Namibia, Botswana and around the subcontinent.

Lufupa Lodge is now the main base of operations in the centre of the northern half of Kafue. Visiting in 2007 it's clear that the game is as good there as it always had been (we visited Lufupa first in 1995!). In particular, it's record for leopard sightings on night drives is very good, and the boat trips up the river are excellent. The camp itself has been changed a lot, with many additions, and generally sharpened up a lot since Wilderness took it over.

There are three other camp in northern Kafue which haven't been used for a few years now: Kafwala Rapids Camp, Ntemwa Bushcamp and Moshi Bushcamp. All have interesting locations, and all are owned by Wilderness Safaris, but currently none are operating.

Meanwhile, on the north-east boundary, in a secluded spot on beside the Lunga River, Lunga River Lodge has changed relatively little. Its six smart chalets have always been a little more exclusive, and they remain in very good order – and a new outside dining area was added at the start of 2007.

On the Busanga Plains themselves, there are four camps:

Shumba Camp and Kapinga Camp are smart, luxurious places – both built to very similar styles and standards. Both have stylish, spacious rooms which use plenty of glass; they're aiming firmly at the top end of the market here. Shumba is slight larger, and its areas a little more 'square' in shape; Kapinga is smaller and 'rounder'!

Busanga Bushcamp has been a seasonal camp on the Busanga Plains for years, and since 1996 it has been renovated, but its essential small, fairly simple nature hasn't changed a lot. For a comfy camp on the plains with the emphasis firmly on the game-viewing rather than the interior décor, Busanga Bush Camp is a good call.

Musanza Bushcamp is the simplest of the four camps on the Busanga Plains, although even this has quite sizeable walk-in tents. This is used primarily on week-long, guided small group trips, like our Puku Safari.

Southern Kafue

For many years Southern Kafue has been largely ignored. The reality is that the game can is quite patchy, clustered around areas where it has historically been best protected.

These areas have been expanding recently though, especially with the arrival of the excellent new Kaingu Lodge, which stands just south of a long-standing good area for game, Puku Pans. There's now also a promising new camp on the Nanzhila Plains; watch this space for more news.


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