Zambia, you blew me away!

Zambia, you are amazing!

You know how much I adore Tanzania. It’s my home country. But a recent trip to Zambia absolutely blew me away. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to fall head over heels for this country but, Zambia, you surprised me!

A Zambian hospitality recap.

My arrival at Latitude 15.

From the moment I landed in Lusaka and was greeted with friendly smiles and efficient service, I knew this trip was going to be special. I enjoyed a quick stay at Latitude 15, a beautifully decorated boutique hotel in Lusaka. It’s a fantastic first stop that allows you to chill in style following your long trek to Zambia and sets the tone for the rest of the trip.

Off to South Luangwa National Park.

Puku Ridge Camp

Puku Ridge Camp was my first introduction to Zambia’s places-to-stay. This place was a dream, with its mix of mopane forest and open plains. Perfect for photographing wildlife without obstruction. From here, I saw large elephant herds, wild dogs, giraffes, and even a pride of lions that had just taken down a hippo. Oh, the smell will linger in my nostrils for a while.

The rooms had all the creature comforts and more. My travel was in September and, boy, does it get hot during the day. When you are taking a break from the early game drive, you do need a little help from your friend the AC.

The crew - very charming. From the many managers to my host, Limbi. I really had some good laughs and was well taken care off.

Now, here’s a tip: Zambia starts its game drives early. Like, 5:30 - 6:00 am early! So, by 10am, you’re done. That means lots of downtime, so make sure you’re prepared with a great read, light packable card or board games, movies or shows on your device, or to catch up on beauty sleep!

Sungani Camp

Next up was Sungani Camp, a family-run lodge that stole my heart. Beautiful location overlooking a large water-hole, delicious food. Photographers, they had the most amazing camera equipment room. They had everything from Nikon to Canon, and even GoPros and gimbals. And two hides, for wildlife and the carmine bee eaters - amazing, I know!

Another thing about Sungani that stands out? They had the most comfortable couches in their rooms – now there’s a Safari essential you didn’t know you needed. After a long day of game drives, a comfy couch is a lifesaver. You can nap, read, or just enjoy the view with a drink in hand.

On to glorious Lower Zambezi National Park.

Anabezi Camp

I had to travel through Winterthorn forest to get here – and, once again, I fell in love. The best part about staying at Anabezi is the access to this magical forest and the wildlife that resides here.

From the wild dog and lion den that are about 15 min away from the camp, to the leopards and elephants that are also minutes away. One morning, in 2 hours, I had packed a punch with my wildlife sighting, I could have happily called it a day, but I didn’t because the sunset boat ride awaited on the mighty Zambezi River.

With a range of activities here, as with most camps in Lower Zambezi, there is always something new to do - from canoeing depending on the water level and an evening cruise on the Zambezi River to fishing, lunch cruises, walking Safaris … always a different perspective to enjoy the area and it’s glorious wildlife.

The camp crew was one of the youngest I have seen - and always ready to help with a smile. The food, the comfortable room, the outdoor shower [indoor showers coming as per the manager]… a good spot for the adventurer.

Chiawa Camp

This place was a revelation! Owner-run, with incredible attention to detail. They even had pop-up mirrors in the bathrooms so you could watch wildlife while brushing your teeth! And the toilet situation? Blissfully private! I love my husband, but when nature calls, you don’t need anyone around to hear you answer it 🤣

Oh, and I tested the couch at Chiawa (of course!), and it was perfect. Plus, they had a unique take on the plunge pool. It’s a tub that you fill with water as needed, and then it drains out to water the surrounding area. No wasted water – a massive value-add in my book.

Shout out to my Safari guides:
As with all the camps mentioned here, amazing Safari guides are a given. From Taps in Anabezi Camp to gentleman Sandy at Sungani Lodge, you are in great hands with experienced guides.

Let’s take you to wild Zambia on your next Journey to Africa Safari.

'I had to keep saying this is real!!!"

John and Gayle Mead reached out to me because our past guest Jill Kulbe had spoken highly of Journey To Africa. My Journey To Africa community - I tell ya; amazing! John and I went back and forth over email, a few phone calls until we landed on an Epic Safari. When I asked shall we confirm, John said, “Let’s go for it!! The plan looks fantastic!!”

From Zambia’s Victoria Falls to Serengeti and Selous, and more in-between in Tanzania, if you too can make this happen, this Safari is one for the memory books.

Their Epic Safari stories as per Gayle …

“ You asked how our first Safari was …. I had no idea what I really would feel once I saw the “wild” up personal from what we see on TV. Wow, it truly was amazing and I had to keep saying “this is real”!!!!

You asked what were some of our favorite things we saw …

At Victoria Falls, we LOVED Tongabezi. Our room right on the river, the hippos burping and beeping right there, the evenings that our personal valet would arrange for us (always a surprise); always a beautiful table with candlelight, always romantic; the sundowner cruises (loved the first night so much, we went all three nights). Saw so many animals on the cruise and then the island for sundowners and watching the beautiful Sunsets! John loved swimming in Devil’s Pool over Victoria Falls (I was not that brave) but we both did a Microlite Flight over Victoria Falls in the afternoon and loved that! One morning we went to the National Park close by and walked in with our guide and park ranger to see the White Rhino. That was fascinating.

October 9th … Livingstone to Lusaka and then finding out our next flight was canceled and then Nick (ground crew) came to share that you were making new arrangements for flights …. Mefi, you were amazing to get all those changes done for us and as it turned out better for us since we arrived at 12:30 rather than 3:00 the next morning. Rivertree Country Inn was a lovely place to rest before being picked up the next day.

Ali, our guide for the next 6 days, was WONDERFUL!!! He and John loved to share good jokes and fun stories as we spent time together :) We loved Tarangire … saw so many animals on our drive through the park to our camp. So enjoyed Kuro Tarangire camp. Our tent was so nice and really enjoyed the bucket showers :) It was fun to experience that “flavor” and then get better as the camps went on….and I do mean, just got better and better. Evenings were fun there with the cocktails around the fire outside before dinner. We enjoyed sitting with others for dinner. Met some very interesting people.

Our Night Game Drive in Tarangire was amazing seeing 4 plus 2 lions on a kill. We saw it right before and then backed up and the kill had happened but we saw them enjoying the meal. Four lions who made the kill were apparently from a pride that this was not their territory so they ate but the other two whose territory it was came running in to chase them off and we saw a “cat fight”. Wow!

Every morning (we always went out at 6:00 with breakfast out and loved a full game drive all morning. Saw amazing animals and birds all over and UP CLOSE. So enjoyed our drive to Ngorongoro Crater. We drove through Lake Manyara National Park and was amazed at the Tropical terrain there, beautiful, and so many animals on the side of the road and in the marsh area. Once again, WOW! Then, once we got around the rim of the crater and off-road heading to our camp, we were wondering where Ali could possibly be taking us :) Amazing camp! Loved the fireplaces in the evening before and during dinner. You are right about the winds at night …. earplugs did work great. They are going to build permanent structures in place of the tents which will help with the wind. Ali had us meet him at 5:45 the next morning and we were FIRST into the crater! Going down into the crater, this glorious male lion was sitting so proud looking all over … what a greeting :) Amazing day and loved our breakfast on this beautiful pond with hippo, eagles, beautiful birds. Later that day, we walked with a Maasai man and park ranger to his village. What a delight and the people were so interesting and delightful to meet. Not sure I could handle their diet, however!!!!!

We were sad the next morning saying “goodbye” to Ali at the airport. Got tickled at the little airport but that wasn’t the best of it once we kept getting into smaller and smaller airports along the way :) Yes, Ali made our first 6 days there wonderful!!!!

Arrived at Serengeti National Park; Jairo was our Guide and again what a delightful, wonderful man. Had a great time with him even though I called him a “crazy man” a couple of times when he would spot “something” and race there and sure enough, to our surprise, we were always amazed at the animal he had spotted. Cheetah on a boulder, lion, leopard with cubs. Our first full day, Jairo and other guides were seeing “build up” across the river of Wildebeest…a couple times looked like they were going to cross and then they would stop and run back. The rest of the guides were starting to tell their couples that it was time to go back to camp for lunch. Jairo knew we were just loving everything we could see and do so he said “you okay with a late lunch?” We said, of course!!! So, we headed back to another area on the river that he had heard there were more Wildebeest coming together. We sat and watched and it was looking good, then he said “we are going to move on down some more, I heard there are even more” … bingo!!!! He planted us right up front, and Mefi, we WATCHED in amazement as some 5,000 (yes, I said Jairo said it had to be at least 5,000) Wildebeest cross. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about how amazing it was!!!! WELL, when we got back to camp NOT CARING that we did not have lunch at all, the others were rather jealous … chuckle. Jairo said he was not very popular with the other guides that evening :) WE LOVED IT!!!! Jairo was there for us and we loved it.

Our camp, Lamai, was FABULOUS! What a setting, the food was fabulous, everything about it. Loved Katie. Her husband, Patrick, happened to be there too. Both of them work for Nomad. We were so impressed as we learned how Nomad promotes [Journey To Africa note - we love working with partners who help the community] from inside the camps so the people can work up to better jobs. Everyone was wonderful.

The Hot Air Balloon was great. The perfect park for seeing the animals. The rest of the Game Drives were all great seeing leopard with 2 cubs, 3 lions with 5 cubs …. learned that Wartbogs are called “the Serengeti Express” and Hippos are “Big Water Sausage” and Cheetahs call the Impala’s with the “M” on their butts “McDonald’s Cheetah Burgers”.

On our flight to Ruaha, we met a cute young couple and the young guy knew a friend of ours, had gone to school with our friend’s son!!! Small world.

Arrived Ruaha … ONCE AGAIN, our guide, Habibu, was amazing. Such a sweet man and SO FULL OF KNOWLEDGE. Ikuka, we must say, Mefi, was the BEST OF ALL!!! Location, room, everything about it was FABULOUS!!!! Thank you ! Love Jake and Lilly, the managers, so fun and helpful in all ways.

Habibu, took us all over … sat right next to a lion, leopard, mating lions (whew) and great sundowners with beautiful sunsets. One morning we did a 3 1/2 hour walking safari with a beautiful breakfast after the walk in a beautiful setting.

Flew to Selous (what??) where is the airport. Saw the runway, flew over in case any animals were on the runway, then land and see the sign on the tree “Coastal”. We loved it. Hussan, our guide, was a sweet young man and so fun. I told him he looked just like Tiger Woods :) The Manager, Melissa, was adorable. Hoping she will come visit us :) Love the camp [Journey To Africa note - Sand Rivers Selous], however, because of the rains, it was humid, hot and buggy. We learned that we could not take showers in the evening after dark because once the lights were on, all the bugs came in since it is totally open air. Solved that with showers in the afternoon.

We had a couple wonderful Game-Drives, but then John got sick one day so we rested most of that day which Hussan felt awful about and we told him he was doing a wonderful job and it could not be helped. We did get another Game-Drive in and a morning cruise to the Gorge which was great.

Our last Game Drive, we got to see Wild Dogs which was the only animal we had not seen. They had 3 cute pups playing around. We probably would say that by the time we got to Selous, we were so tired from playing so much, it may have been a bit long for us. However, we say that, and then say, we would not want to have missed it either for that park is so different from the others. Perhaps 3 days, rather than 4 in 3 of the camps, might have helped for making it a bit shorter….if we were recommending it to someone else (our age, perhaps). [Journey To Africa note - John and Gayle are healthy and fit in their 70s]

Sorry, that I went on and on, Mefi, but as you can see, we LOVED THE TRIP SO MUCH and THANK YOU for all your work putting it together. “

John and Gayle, sharing my love of Safaris was pure pleasure. Thank you for trusting me totally in planning your Safari - I enjoyed sharing my amazing corner of Earth. Asante for sharing your ‘journey’ while you were on the ground - made me feel part of your Safari. Our chat, especially after your Safari made my heart swell.

Your turn to experience the magic that is a Safari? Let’s chat.