Busanga Plains & The Northern Kafue

After a night at the stylish hotel Latitude 15° to refresh from your flight to Lusaka you will have a scheduled flight to Lufupa airstrip in the northern Kafue for the start of an incredible safari experience. From here it is a short boat ride across the river to Musekese Camp where you will spend your first 3 nights on safari. Musekese Camp, run by the highly experienced Phil Jeffery and Tyrone McKeith, has just 4 tents located overlooking a dambo or semi-permanent water that hosts an incredible diversity of game and bird life.

Lions find this a good hunting ground with large herds of puku but rarer wildlife maybe seen too including red river hog and the occasional sitatunga. Elephants are regular visitors and this is an exciting area to sit and watch wildlife but the real thrill is getting out and about on safari with either Phil or Tyrone who will give an in-depth and passionate insight into their rich patch of Kafue National Park, either in an open vehicle or better still on foot for a walking safari through the grasslands and scrun of this bush country.

Travelling north you head next to the incredible Busanga Plains, an outstanding wilderness area, few have experienced, where just two camps are located, Busanga Bush Camp and Shumba, both run by Wilderness Safaris. Each is different but both provide world class game viewing, particularly as the plains dry out later in the season. Then herds of elephant almost 200 strong roam these isolated grasslands, roan antelope, wildebeest, zebra and around 8 - 10,000 red lechwe plus a similar number of puku graze. Early season will see safaris by canoe but as the channels that feed the major rivers of the region dry out vehicles are the best way to cover the ground seeking prides of lions, leopards and occasional cheetah.

With stunning wildlife, enthusiastic and knowledgeable safari guides the only other thing to better the whole safari experience here is to enjoy a balloon safari. Balloon safaris in Kafue National Park take place on the Busanga Plains from late August until the close of the season at the end of October. To fly over this wilderness at sunrise is a privilege and one safari experience you will yearn to repeat. The hospitality of the staff, the cosiness of the tents and the outstanding bush cuisine out on these vast Zambian grasslands combine with the wildlife and wilderness to create one of Africa's very best safari experiences.