South Luangwa National Park

Savannas & PlainsEastern,Zambia

A Zambian rift valley run by one wandering river, its oxbow lagoons holding leopards at some of the highest densities in southern Africa.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Oct

The crescendo: the river shrinks to sandbars and leopards, lion prides and elephants pack onto the last lagoons, while thousands of carmine bee-eaters burrow the clay banks scarlet. Days climb into the high 30s°C before the first storms.

Year-round Leopards at some of Africa's highest densities, big prides, elephants and hippo-packed river bends hold the valley every month, with the endemic Thornicroft's giraffe; the water is what changes: the flood, birds and camps.

South Luangwa National Park is a rift valley in the Eastern Province of Zambia run by one wandering river, the Luangwa, whose shifting course leaves oxbow lagoons across the floodplain, holding leopards at some of the highest densities in southern Africa, and it is the valley that invented the walking safari, with an armed scout leading, a guide reading the ground and the visitors in single file, the way Norman Carr first took guests out in the 1950s. The river drops in the dry season from May to October to sandbars and pools, and the game packs onto the last lagoons, elephants, buffalo and the lion prides at their most concentrated, while the hippo pods pile onto the sandbars and into what water is left, dozens of animals wedged into a single bend, grunting and shoving, looked down on from the cut banks; the night drives with a red-filtered spotlight, allowed here as in few parks, are the best chance of watching a leopard hunt or move through the trees, and the walks cover little distance and notice everything, tracks, dung, a leopard's kill hoisted into a sausage tree. Carr hand-reared two orphaned lion cubs before he made his name and taught them to hunt so they could go back to the wild. From mid-August thousands of southern carmine bee-eaters arrive and burrow nest tunnels into the exposed clay banks of the river, colonies that run for hundreds of metres and glow scarlet, sat under from a boat or the bank with the chicks fed into November. The rains push the river to its brim and flood the valley, when the ebony groves stand in water, the lagoons fill, yellow-billed storks pack a breeding colony in the Nsefu sector and boats reach ground no vehicle can, the emerald season that most camps close for. A family of elephants files through the reception of a lodge near Mfuwe each year to reach a mango tree, since the elephants had the path first. South Luangwa is a valley that a river keeps redrawing, and it is walked rather than driven.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Walk in the first hour of light — the morning walk leaves camp at sunrise, in groups of six or so, while the sand still holds every track the night wrote on it.
Let the river do the work — park above a cut bank and wait, rather than chasing sightings; everything in the valley comes down to the water eventually.
Mfuwe is the way in — the airstrip and the park's main gate sit here, and camps deeper in the park can be cut off entirely once the rains soften the tracks.
Hippos, not cats, are the danger in camp — they graze the banks after dark, so never put yourself between one and the water, and take the escort offered to your tent.

Things to do

1
Track leopards by spotlight after dark
South Luangwa holds one of Africa's densest leopard populations, and night drives with a red-filtered spotlight are the best chance of watching one hunt or move through the trees. By day the prides here have grown up around open cars and pay them no attention, so you end up a few metres from lions at rest. The same drives turn up Thornicroft's giraffe, the valley's own subspecies, gathering at waterholes in the low light of early morning and late afternoon.
2
Look down on the hippo pods from a cut bank
As the dry season shrinks the Luangwa, pods pile onto the sandbars and into what water is left — dozens of animals wedged into a single bend, grunting and shoving. The high banks make a natural grandstand, with crocodiles hauled out a few metres away.
3
Walk the valley that invented the walking safari
An armed scout leads, a guide reads the ground, and you follow in single file — the way Norman Carr first took guests out in the 1950s. You cover little distance and notice everything: tracks, dung, a leopard's kill hoisted into a sausage tree.
4
Sit under the carmine bee-eater colony
From September, thousands of southern carmine bee-eaters tunnel nest holes into the exposed clay banks of the river. Photographic hides are set at the water's edge below the colony, where the birds stream past in a scarlet blur to feed their young.

Watch

Nearby

303 km