ZAMAG Tours and Safaris – Agricultural Tour Operators and Ground Handlers

Our visit to South Luangwa National Park by Lisa Maclean June 2020

A few of the Zamag Team had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia for a few days this week. It was great to be back in the bush and we basically had the Park to ourselves.  The Park had lots of rain this year so the Luangwa River was higher than normal for June and the surrounding lagoons were full of water with lots of birdlife, basking crocodiles and large pods of hippo.

We had sightings of four of the Big Five – Lion, Leopard, Elephant and a large herd of Buffalo.  On one of our night drives we were very lucky to witness a pride of seven lions and one cub walking down the road towards our game vehicle.  They call this the Mfuwe Pride as they have taken up residence around the Mfuwe Lodge area.  They were totally oblivious to us as they ambled passed the game vehicle in single file.  It was an incredible experience to get so close to them.  Within the next 30 minutes we had seen a female leopard followed closely by a hyena who was tracking the leopards every move in the hopes of snatching her kill from her.

We visited one of the salt pans in the area where a large flock of Crowned Cranes are resident to that area.

Another highlight of our stay was a walking safari through the bush.  This is the best way to get really close to nature as one misses out on so much from a game vehicle.  There is nothing better than being on the ground and learning about all the different animal tracks, scats and animal droppings.  It is also very exhilarating as one never knows what is lying around the next corner.

Other animals we encountered were giraffe, warthog, water buck, zebra, a monitor lizard crossing the road, impala, bushbuck, a wide variety of bird species, including the Lilian’s Lovebirds.

We are so blessed to be able to visit our Parks during the Covid 19.