Luxury bush camps in wild Zambia
Walking safaris create intimate encounters with a wide assortment of wildlife
The hair on the back of my neck stands up as I walk over hyena tracks and side step fresh elephant dung, but real fear grips when we come across lion tracks.
We are on a walking safari, far from the 4x4 Landrover we left behind. Fear and excitement wrestle in the pit of my stomach. Sausage and baobab trees, grow sporadically in the open grassland and I look to them for what might be lurking in their shade.
Our guide Fannuel is leading our group of five, to the river. There is also a Bushcamp staff member with our picnic lunch and a sentry, with an AK-47 rifle swung over his shoulder, bringing up the rear.
We have seen elephants grazing less than 400 metres away, imposing on the landscape; yet quiet, as if they are tip toeing, even as the crunch of the dry grass and twigs under my feet startle me, several times. Earlier we came across; a herd of bachelor kudus, puku, impala, waterbuck and gazelles — all seeking shade from the hot sun.
After close inspection, Fannuel determines the lion tracks are at least a day old — the walking safari continues. Still my heart rate does not return to normal until we are safely back in the Landrover heading to our first bushcamp.
Our small safari group arrived at Mfuwe Lodge the day before, and this was our first morning in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park.
I woke long before my 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to a cacophony of cooing, whistling and chattering birds. But it was the concert of deep grunts that got me out of bed – hippos grazing just meters from my deck.
With a golden sun rising we sipped coffee, and ate breakfast, as we watched a herd of about 20 elephants arrive at the lagoon for their morning drink.
It is no wonder British royalty, Prince Harry chose this romantic land to propose to Meghan Markle, during their three-week African visit in 2017.
Before our first game drive, the night before, Fannuel told us, “Don’t worry the animals are more scared of you than you are of them.”
I hoped he was right; the 4x4 Landrover we were getting into had no doors.
We hadn’t gone far when Fannuel stopped the truck, shut off the engine and pointed into the darkness. It was a few minutes before our untrained eyes spotted the leopard under a tree.
The leopard got up and started walking towards us. It looked sleek and powerful. And it did not look scared. The leopard, looked up at us casually accessing the truck, with its missing doors, before casually walking into the bush and disappearing in the darkness.
Mfuwe Lodge, listed in National Geographic at one of the Unique Lodges of the World, is the reception lodge where all guests stop before heading to any of the six bushcamps operated by The Bushcamp Company.