A bateleur eagle, circling half a mile away from the scene of carnage, was all
the clue that Jacob needed. From a Land Cruiser on a plain beside the
Luangwa River we were watching a hyena eat the remains of an impala that it
had stolen from a flock of vultures when our guide noticed the other bird
and wondered if there had been a second kill.
Half an hour later, having crossed the bed of a dried-up river, we rolled off
the track in a place that looked like any other. “There,” said Jacob,
pointing at a bush. “And there,” pointing at the bush opposite. Under one
was the carcass of a water buffalo. Under the other – barely a yard away –
were two huge full-maned lions, looking at us without curiosity.
The detection of the lions was as exciting as seeing them. It was the family’s
third morning with Jacob Shawa, the guide attached to the South Luangwa
House, next to the South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia. Each
morning at breakfast time he appeared at the House – itself a fantasy bush
mansion formed from more than a dozen giant upright tree-trunks, and looking
like a cross between a gigantic rondavel and termites’ nest – and took us
off into the bush to see whatever there was to see.
Actually, we could see plenty if we just stayed put. Inside the house, tiny,
coloured frogs would appear, sitting stoically as though made of painted
stone, on the edges of picture frames and the tops of mirrors. The English
housekeeper, Ellie, told us that one guest had picked a frog up while taking
a shower, thinking it was the soap. The frog survived.
Outside, from around the plunge pool or the deck where we had breakfast and
lunch, we overlooked a water hole, where every day elephants, giraffes,
warthogs and baboons would come down to drink or wallow, yards away from
where we were sitting. In the evening we went on a night drive, once
surprising some hippos in the shallows – one ran across, bellowing and
alarmed, looking like a fat boy being chased by a shark.
South Luangwa is now one of Africa’s best game parks, and one of the least
crowded, its tourism having been carefully developed by a handful of mostly
small, local companies, of which the operators of South Luangwa House, Robin
Pope Safaris, is perhaps the most famous.
You reach it by flying, via Lusaka, to the small airport at Mfuwe, and then
driving along the one tarmac road, past houses and schools, cyclists and
waving children, past the Hard Day’s Grocery and Bottle Store and Connie’s
Beer Nest, to the Luangwa River.
After our stay at the house we explored the rest of the park from two isolated
spots operated by The Bush-camp Company. From Kapamba and Kuyenda, both
reached by long drives during which we saw leopards, lions and crocodiles,
we saw the variety of terrains in the park, from areas that looked like the
New Forest with elephants, to sandscapes laid down by last year's floods.
With Fanwell, our new guide, we left the safety of the Land Cruiser and went
walking, inspecting the porcupine tracks, the lion poo, the amazing water
vine, the spear grass that corkscrews itself into the ground, the groundnuts
inside the elephant dung. We examined the baobabs and wondered at the
sausage tree, its pendulous fruits like hanging salamis in an arboreal
delicatessen.
Eve, our ten-year old, loved this. But for me it was the birds: the flap,
flap, glide of the hornbills, the treetop eagles, the lilac-breasted roller
and the fabulous carmine bee-eater. Fanwell, like all the guides in the
valley, had passed exams at the end of three years’ training. He knew every
call of every species, it seemed.
“That’s a tropical bulbul shrike,” he’d say, without looking.
The holiday had begun on the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls, near the town
of Livingstone. From the Knife Edge Bridge, wet from the 60m-high (200ft)
spray, I saw my first 360-degree rainbow. A few yards away was Zimbabwe,
whose partial collapse has given a lift to the Zambian tourist industry.
Here the speciality was adventure, with bungee jumping above the water and
white-water rafting on it. I went with my two oldest girls on a raft over
the rapids, shooting Grade 5 walls of water with names such as the Midnight
Diner and Oblivion. Our raft leader was a young Frenchman called Jeremie.
“So buff,” sighed my eldest. It’s a compliment apparently. Meanwhile my wife
and our youngest went elephant riding.
I needed the exercise. Food and drink are all included in most Zambian tours.
You begin with a 6am breakfast, then at 10am there’s coffee and snacks from
the Land Cruiser, then back for lunch of lasagne or macaroni cheese and
salad, then siesta, then tea and cakes, then sundowners in the bush to watch
the red African sun disappear, then supper – and all of it delicious. In the
Stanley Safari Lodge near Livingstone they would set up a table for your
meal wherever you fancied it – by the pool, on the terrace, in your rooms.
Ten days later we were in the Lower Zambezi National Park, flown into a
red-earthed landing strip in an excitingly small plane. At the confluence of
two rivers, one the mighty Zambezi, stands the Chongwe River Camp, possibly
the most beautiful location I have ever stayed in. We slept in luxury
tent/chalets, each with an interesting open-air sand-floored bathroom. This
was the base from which you could drive, go fishing or canoeing.
Chongwe exemplified something that we found with all the places we stayed. Set
up by a native Zambian, Chris Liebenberg, the business was partly a means by
which he could afford to live in the African bush, which he plainly loves.
This gives holidaying with the smaller operators a slightly different, more
passionate flavour than, say, being in a large hotel with added tours. You
also benefit from their expert local knowledge.
Another feature of Chongwe was the elephants who strolled along the line of
the sunbeds as you sat reading, passing within feet of you. On our last
night baboons set up camp outside the tent at midnight, and at 2am the
hippos from the opposite bank came onto our side making their weird hippo
noises, including a cacophonous munching and the most poignant stomach
gurgling you have ever heard.
Our stay was wonderfully luxurious, with every need instantly met. So it was,
of course, not at all cheap, and several of the people we met were
honeymooners who had splashed out. But the price is all-inclusive, and other
tourists were returning to Zambia for their fourth or fifth visit.
Increasingly, the country is not seen as just one short stop on a quick tour
of the region, but as a destination in itself – one free of the crowds and
problems sometimes associated with other safari countries. For me, I want to
go back, because it was the best holiday of my life.
Read about Zambia in How to Be Wild by Simon Barnes (Short Books,
£14.99). Available from Booksfirst for £13.49 (0870 1608080).
Need to know
Aardvark Safaris (01980 849160, www.aardvarksafaris.com)
arranges family safaris throughout Africa for children of all ages. It is
possible to arrange a good safari somewhere in Africa in the main school
holidays and half terms.
A typical safari in Zambia for a family of four, with three nights in Stanley
Safari Lodge and seven nights on safari, starts at £3,500 per person,
including all meals, safari activities, transfers, and regional and
international flights.
Budget options
Prices are for two adults and two children for the half-term break next
February, and include flights, transfers, accommodation and some meals:
Expert Africa (020-8232 9777, www.expertafrica.com)
offers nine days in Namibia from £4,812.
Thomson Farway Shores (0870 1604529, www.thomson.co.uk
) has a 14-night Kenya safari and beach holiday from £4,996.
The Adventure Company (0845 4505311, www.adventure
company.co.uk) offers a sevennight, full-board Land of the Masai safari
in Kenya from £6,336.
