Reviews of Musekese Camp

"This camp is very small and ideally located in a big loop in the Kafue river. The rooms are well positioned, with views over the Dambo, providing wildlife sightings at all times.

Full consideration was given to the extra needs of one of us, and very good service was provided thoughtfully and cheerfully throughout our stay.

Food was varied and beautifully cooked, served in locations to maximise the views over the dambo and of the wildlife.

The camp is a true "bush camp", being fully open to animals, so not for the faint-hearted. For 36 hours, a lion pride of lion, lioness and 3 cubs was roaming to and fro very close to the camp, providing excellent sightings and photo-opportunities. Elephants were also frequent visitors through the camp, requiring care at all times and sometimes escorting from tent to Sitenje.

The tree house hide provides excellent views all round and is a perfect place for afternoon siesta. However, it was only possible to use it on one afternoon of our 3 days there as on the first day, lions were resting beneath it and on the third, elephants were eating the tree!

Neither Phil nor Tyrone were in camp during our stay, though this was not a problem as James was an excellent guide and Colo managed the camp superbly.

The area around the camp had suffered a fire shortly before our visit, so zebras and some other herbivores were totally absent. Elephants, lions, hippos, crocodiles and birds were all plentiful. Of the latter, birds of prey, many species of kingfisher, African finfoot and African skimmers were particular highlights.

The new rooms are not all sited under tress so became very hot in the afternoon, with the verandas unusable. Otherwise, the rooms were comfortable and provided all we wanted. Bucket showers are provided when needed and water was plentiful." See all these reviews: 11n in Zambia

"My husband's favourite camp. That said our one and only reservation was the limited lighting in the chalet. A bit of a challenge at night especially on the day of arrival.

Apart from that, the location was excellent as it afforded boat safaris, walking safaris and drives. Unfortunately a recent bushfire had caused some animals to be not as prolific but even so we saw a lot of animals here and no other tourists. Again the night drives were an absolute highlight.

Staff were great including Phil (one of the owners), Kolo (the manager) and James our guide. James was knowledgeable, thorough, and good company.

We saw a number of creatures here that we had not seen before: an enormous python, a terrapin, sable and both a lion and leopard immediately following kills. Also with the lion kill we were fortunate to see the behavior of other members of the pride in fighting over the dead puku. The birdlife here is beautiful." See all these reviews: 16n in Zambia; 5n in Rwanda

"Please see previous comment." See all these reviews: 8n in Zambia

"I had a superb time here. The setting is beautiful. Every day I saw animals and birds spending peaceful time in front of my room.

Elephants are regular visitors to the camp. I was fortunate to have been guided by Tyrone, James, and Ephy. Guinding was excellent. I missed wild dogs but I saw lions, leopards, many antelopes, and many kind of birds.

Camp manager Kolo and all of the staff are super friendly. Food was very tasty and my food preference was well catered for.
I apreciate their family hospitality.

Thank you Tyrone and Musekese team for wonderfu holiday. I will definately go back." See all these reviews: 8n in Zambia

"Musekese is a very interesting bush camp and is only three years old. The setting close to the Kafue River is very beautiful. The owners Tyrone McKeith and Phil Jeffrey are passionate about the Kafue National Park and freely share their very detailed knowledge of this stunning area.

We enjoyed boating on the river, plus walking and drives. Being early in the season the game was very dispersed but if you want to get more detailed information about the flora and fauna of the African bush, alongside hearing about some of the conservation and land management challenges; then this is a good place to come to.

The other staff were all very friendly and helpful, and the accommodation was good and very comfortable. Kolo the camp manager worked hard to ensure that our stay was very comfortable.

The negatives we experienced were two fold:

One was the challenge of being in a high Tsetse fly area, which we did not appreciate before our visit. This may not be a problem for some but unfortunately one of us suffered an allergic reaction to the many bites. We understand that the incidence of Tsetse's should lessen as the season progresses given the trapping in process, our visit was very early in May and the rains were continuing which may account for the high incidence.

The second challenge was the duration of the road transfer which in reality is a 7 hour transfer not 5. The length of the transfer relates to the manic traffic in Lusaka and the fact that the latter portion of the drive is on a very rough bush road. The roughness of the road may have been compounded by the on-going late rains and could therefore be better later in the season. If it were possible to fly to the airstrip near to the camp this would certainly be our recommendation. We felt that this arduous road transfer meant that in essence we lost two full days out of our holiday time." See all these reviews: 13n in Zambia

"PLEASE SEE PREVIOUS FEEDBACK [Ed: See below]" See all these reviews: 10n in Zambia

"Extremely good camp and the knowledge of the owners/guides was probably the best we have ever experienced in all of our travels.

The staff are friendly and will do anything to make your stay memorable. The food was superb and plentiful.

The accommodation was very spacious and looked out onto an area where there were always animals grazing." See all these reviews: 10n in Zambia

"The drive into Musekese is daunting. Once you turn off the tarmac road there seems to just forest with no signs of any wildlife except for the millions of tetse flies clinging to the outside of the (thankfully) closed vehicle. However as you get nearer camp the scenery opens up and the tetse traps start to take effect. The camp itself is lovely by an open area with a lagoon which still had water and so had a constant flow of animals and birds coming down to drink. It is a small bush camp but the rooms are very comfortable and the staff are friendly and helpful.

There was plenty of evidence (tracks) of all the carnivores around lion, leopard, wild dogs and cheetah but unfortunately despite the best efforts of Tyrone they proved largely elusive - although we did have a lioness precede us into camp one night temporarily clearing everyone out of the car-park, and we did get a brief sighting of a magnificent leopard who was waiting near the boat docking site on our transfer out on the last morning. Possibly as a result of all this activity the other game was a bit quiet and skittish but we did see some unusual things like a clawless otter, a very relaxed wild cat, and a bush pig. It is also an excellent place to see birds -finfoot, blackbacked barbet, Schawlow' s turaco, nightjars and many others.

We spent most evenings on the river which was lovely as a change from driving. One evening a large group of nearly 30 elephants crossed the river just in front of us as we had our sundowners and another evening we saw two malachite kingfishers doing a display dance to each other in the most amazing evening light.

Phil and Tyrone have built a lovely camp with top quality staff and guides. They are entertaining hosts who are very committed to the business of conservation and I hope ther long term plans for rhino are successful making Musekese and even more attractive place to visit." See all these reviews: 15n in Zambia

"I think Expert Africa needs to revisit the camp as their write up is clearly woefully out of date. The location is truly great, overlooking a lagoon which is fed annually from the Kafue and which still had lots of water, hence game and will do so into the dry months. The tents/habitents, are set along the tree line, each with a view across the lagoon to the tree line that is the river bank. Sunsets are spectacular! Occasionally we could hear boats on the river, sometimes a loud one, driven by some person who clearly does not know the park rules about speed on the river, or who could care less, but, that is something that Musekese cannot control, it is a park issue.

Game viewing on the lagoon plain was wonderful and for birders it must be a paradise, as we identified 128 species of birds without going out of our way to see birds. Elephants are regular visitors to the area as were lions. As the dryer months come there will likely be more game as the more remote pools dry up and the game moves towards the river for water." See all these reviews: 11n in Zambia

"We loved Musekese Camp. We spent a fantastic day with Tyrone and his team.

In the morning we did a walking safari with Tyrone who is an excellent guide. We enjoyed the pristine nature surrounding us; everything was so unspoilt and beautiful, the big trees, the bush, the more open terrain, and of course the big, beautiful river. We saw a lot of birds and antelopes, baboons and warthogs.

The afternoon we spent on the river, again enjoying the birds in addition to the hippoes and crocodiles. Then the marvellous sunset + sundowner on the Kafue. Tyrone is very knowledgeable and taught us so much about everything we saw.

The atmosphere at Musekese is pleasant and relaxed. We were only sorry that we lost a day there because of our delayed flight from Oslo to Amsterdam. But one day at Musekese is better than no day!" See all these reviews: 7n in Zambia; 1n in South Africa