The most outstanding safari destination in the world.
We travelled to South Luangwa National Park in August. We'd only been on safari once before - at a private reserve in South Africa. We'd asked our travel agency for the best safari experience and they said South Luangwa was it... and we can't disagree.
We stayed in two bush camps: Nsolo, a Norman Carr camp, and Lion Camp. Both were great! Staff couldn't do enough for us, the game drives were amazing and the guides' knowledge was encyclopaedic! Nsolo was smaller, more personal and more luxurious; Lion Camp was bigger but in a more rich area of the national park. However, if you're going for 5 star luxury - don't go to South Luangwa - this place is all abut the game, which is wonderful!
Let's face it, if you;re looking at South Luangwa, you're after great game sightings. It will not disappoint. A co-traveller has safaried across Africa for the last 20 years and said he'd never, ever experienced anything like South Luangwa; at a later stop, Sindebezi Island near Livingstone, we were speaking to a traveller who'd just been on a two week walking and river safari in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia (south) who, on hearing what we'd seen, said "Well, that's it - you can't go on safari again as nothing will compare to that". That's how great South Luangwa is.
I can't tell you everything we saw - the list would be far too long - but here's heavily edited highlights:
On our first night (Nsolo), we were sitting around the campfire after a delicious dinner when a staff member noticed some lions. Immediately, the truck was started up and we piled in. Barely two minutes later, we were sat watching a lion and lioness enjoying the moonlight... literally 3 metres from our bed! Suddenly, the armed guard who escorts you to and from your accommodation during the dark didn't seem overly cautious.
During the night, we had the best worst-night's-sleep ever. The sounds of the bush woke us delightfully often, including the resident hippo pod which lives right next to the camp and come out at night to graze around the edge of the camp.
My wife is a sucker for animal babies, so seeing hyena cubs, only a few weeks old, was amazing.
At Lion Camp, we saw, obviously, many sightings of the two prides which live nearby, including finding them lazing on the road just waking up after a night's feed. We sat in the middle of the pride, feeling like we were a little part of it rather than just observers. My lion highlight was seeing the full pride in a stand off with some painted dogs. Another was seeing a lioness move her 5 day old cubs from one nest to another: they were so young, their eyes were not open yet, and the tenderness with which she moved them in those huge, powerful jaws was stunning.
If you love elephants, you'll love South Luangwa. It seems like they're around every corner - and they're not afraid to let you know when you;re too close. We were mock-charged three times... but we never felt unsafe.
One thing we'd hoped for was seeing a leopard. We were not to be disappointed! Over 5 days at Lion Camp, we had 7 - seven - sightings, from glimpses in the night to sitting watching two different leopards in trees during the day. At one point, we were so close I asked the guide if it was purring - it wasn't: it was growling at us! We moved of sharpish. Another night sighting was wonderful - we'd seen the leopard at a distance and our guide swung the car round, went through undergrowth trying to second guess where it would head, and we were rewarded with it coming out of the undergrowth just to our side and making its way across the front of the car so close that, when in front, you couldn't see it over the bonnet.
For birders, which we are not, South Luangwa is wonderful. Some fellow travellers were birders and we caught a bit of the bug from their enthusiasm. Bee eaters and violet breasted rollers were my favourites, but the various eagles and vultures are spectacular in their size. We were even treated to a long, uninterrupted sight of Pel's fishing owl - something we appreciated but not fully until it was explained to us that this rarity is similar to seeing to a leopard.
Overall, if you love wildlife, if you love safari and if you want the greatest experience you've ever had, book for South Luangwa today.