|
|
|
Wildebeest on the floodplain, Liuwa Plain National Park, western Zambia.
|
|
FIVE SAFARIS BEYOND THE FAMILIAR
GO SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT
|
|
There are places in Africa whose names rarely appear on a first safari wish list. Often, that’s part of their appeal. From Zambia’s vast western floodplains to the green highlands of northern Malawi, here are five places we think are worth taking the longer road for.
|
|
|
| 01 Liuwa Plain |
02 Katavi |
03 Matusadona |
04 Nyika Plateau |
05 Caprivi Region |
|
|
| 01 · ZAMBIA |
14°38′S 22°37′E |
LIUWA PLAIN
For horizons that seem to go on forever.
Liuwa is a grassland the size of a small country in Zambia’s far west, and hardly anyone goes. In the rains some 40,000 wildebeest move across it, hyena clans sit at the top of the food chain, and the sky does most of the work. It is not a park for ticking off species. It is a park for space.
|
|
|
WHERE TO STAY
King Lewanika Lodge
The only permanent safari camp in Liuwa Plain. Six raised tented suites face the plain. Drives, walks, and, when the pans fill, canoeing.
|
|
|
|
02 · TANZANIA
KATAVI
For safari without the traffic.
|
|
|
On our last visit we saw one other vehicle a day.
|
Katavi sits in far western Tanzania, a long way from the northern circuit. It is said to receive as many visitors in a year as the Ngorongoro Crater does in a day. Towards the end of the dry season its floodplains shrink to a few pools, and buffalo herds several hundred strong file down to drink, with the lion prides that follow them never far behind.
|
|
|
|
|
WHERE TO STAY
Chada Camp
Six canvas tents on the edge of Chada Plain, bucket showers included. Guiding is the point here: game drives, walks with an armed scout, night drives, and a night or two fly-camping out on the plain. Open mid-June to mid-November.
|
|
|
|
|
03 · ZIMBABWE
MATUSADONA
For seeing safari from the water.
Lake Kariba was made in the 1950s, and the trees drowned with it still stand in the shallows. Behind them rise the Matusadona hills. Much of the game viewing here happens by boat: elephant and buffalo along the shoreline, hippo in the channels, crocodile on the sandbars, and a bird list that keeps growing. Drives and walks fill in the rest.
|
|
|
WHERE TO STAY
Musango Safari Camp
On its own island, a short boat ride from the park. Set up in 1990 by Steve Edwards, the park’s former head warden, and still owner-run. Eight tented chalets, one shared table, and guiding that covers fossils and local history as readily as birds.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
04 · MALAWI
NYIKA PLATEAU
For a safari that doesn’t look like safari.
Rolling montane grassland, pine on the ridgelines, cloud sitting in the valleys below. Nyika is Malawi’s oldest and largest national park, and it feels closer to the Scottish Borders than the Serengeti. Roan, eland and Crawshay’s zebra graze the slopes, over 400 bird species have been recorded, and in the wet season the orchids come out. Bring a jumper.
|
|
|
WHERE TO STAY
Chelinda Lodge
Eight timber-and-stone cabins on the edge of a pine forest, looking out over the plateau. Log fires in the rooms, walking and mountain-biking on quiet tracks, day and night drives. Nothing else in Malawi looks like it.
|
|
|
| 05 · NAMIBIA |
BWABWATA NATIONAL PARK |
CAPRIVI REGION
For Namibia without the desert.
|
|
|
Most people picture Namibia as dunes and gravel plains. The Caprivi, the long finger of land in the far north-east, is the opposite: rivers, reedbeds, floodplain and tall riverine woodland. Elephants move through in large numbers in the dry season, hippo grunt in the channels, and the birding along the Kwando is some of the best in the country. Same passport, different continent.
|
|
|
WHERE TO STAY
Nambwa Tented Lodge
Ten tented suites inside Bwabwata National Park, linked by walkways built high enough for elephants to pass beneath. They do. Game drives, boat trips when the water allows, and a lodge that is a good deal smarter than its surroundings suggest.
|
|
|
WHERE WILL YOU GO NEXT?
These are only five of the places we know well. Tell us what you want from your safari, and one of our specialists can help find the part of Africa that fits.
|
|
|
|
