Kafue National Park

Kafue National Park is a large park (about the size of Massachusetts!) that is about 4 hours west of Lusaka. I had the recent opportunity to spend a lovely weekend there at the campground of a lodge (Mukambi Safari Lodge) where I stayed two years ago with family members. It was a wonderful retreat.

My friend and I camped alongside the Kafue river (see picture) and listened to the sounds of hippos and lions at night. On Saturday morning we slept in a bit and then did our own short game drive. We didn’t see too much (maybe we didn’t get up early enough) except for lots of puku (a common antelope, shown here) and few interesting birds. After a restful afternoon of reading and watching the river, we decided to splurge on a game drive with the lodge guides. The game viewing was also a bit slow, as evidenced by the very well educated guide taking the time to stop and explain puku habitat and biology (they have relatively large hooves, so they don’t sink in when grazing on wet ground), but we did also see waterbucks and warthogs. After watching a lovely sunset, the night drive should have been an opportunity for us to see the lions we were hearing, but no such luck. After a valiant effort, the guides were heading us back to the boat launch (to cross the river to the lodge) and then right by the boat launch we saw two leopards in the bushes! One rather close photo is shown here.

The next day we asked one of the lodge owners to show us the new school they were building. All safari lodges have a village associated with it, where the staff and their relatives live. With a staff of about 40 and all their families, there is a large group of people that are being supported indirectly by Mukambi. The lodge owners seem to be taking this responsibility quite seriously, which was nice to see. In addition to providing electricity and drinking water for the inhabitants, the lodge also pays for the teachers at the local community school, currently running out of a tent. Luckily, they were able to find a sponsor to build a building for the school (shown here). When construction is finished, they will have two nice classrooms (one for older elementary and one for younger) and an office for the head teacher they hope to hire. The community has also asked that adult education and literacy courses be held in the afternoons and evenings!