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Home , Bangweulu Wetlands, Kafue National Park, Kasanka National Park, Swamp flycatcher

A wildlife lover’s

BAT ATTACK: Between October and Zambia December each year, about 10 From bat swarms and birding bonanzas to encounters million straw-coloured fruit bats and little-known migrations, William Gray presents a guide to descend into a tiny patch of evergreen forest Zambia’s definitive, spine-tingling experiences inside

KATE SIEDEL

84 January-March 2018 | Travel Travel Africa | January-March 2018 85 EthiopiaZambia

Some of South Luangwa’s are bold enough to hunt by day — stealing through the thick cover of the park’s riverine forest, pausing to fix you with a nonchalant stare that instantly sears your memory

hirty years have past since my first visit to Zambia. foray into South Luangwa’s 9050sq-km mosaic of woodland, Bouncing around the country in the back of a bright and will hone your senses to every crackle yellow overland truck, it fuelled my love of African of leaf and whiff of dung. Your guide will translate the graffiti wildlife. Three decades later, I still have sketchy of tracks around a shrinking lagoon, or share nuggets Tmemories of a fat python stretched out on the floodplains of of bush lore rooted in birdsong and medicinal plants. With Lochinvar, freshly gorged on a fawn; a leopard slinking luck, you might glimpse distant game: a herd of Luangwa’s along a dry river gully in the Luangwa Valley; and herds of endemic Thornicroft’s giraffe, spindly legs quivering in the , easily spooked, drifting like grey smoke through the heat haze, or a herd of Cookson’s wildebeest — another of the mopane forest of . Back then, Zambia felt valley’s specialities. But they’re usually very wary. They’ve seen raw, untrammelled. And it still does. Every time I set foot in you coming. Far better to quietly stake out a riverbank and spy one of its vast wildernesses and smell the pepper-sweet tang on hippo, all twitchy ears and flatulence, in the water below. of the savannah, or hear hippo chuntering away in the river, I Time your visit right and you could be surrounded by can’t help feeling that I’ve returned to the wild heart of Africa. migratory carmine bee-eaters, swirling over their riverbank nesting burrows like pink sparks, or be treated to a quelea Valley of the leopard fly-past— tens of thousands of the weavers pulsing across Your gaze is never still during a game drive in South Luangwa the river in a frenzied murmuration. Statelier are the fishing National Park. Eyes dart from one ebony tree to the next, parties of , yellow-billed storks, marabou storks and flitting through the twists and turns of old river channels and great white pelicans that gather in shrinking pools towards probing every shadowy bushwillow thicket. There are leopard the end of South Luangwa’s dry season. Scan nearby trees and out there — probably in higher densities than anywhere in you may well see a pair of African fish eagles — their plaintive, Africa — but they are masters of camouflage. You wonder how gull-like cries carrying high above the valley’s backing track of many have watched you pass, lying unseen, draped like spotted churring doves and double-bass ground hornbills. sashes in the sun-dappled canopies of Natal mahoganies. It makes the encounter, when it comes, all the sweeter. Fireflies and blazing paddles Some of South Luangwa’s leopards are bold enough to hunt The cry of the fish eagle is also quintessential — and by day — stealing through the thick cover of the park’s riverine ideally experienced while paddling a Canadian canoe through forest, pausing to fix you with a nonchalant stare that instantly the backwaters of Lower Zambezi National Park. Fringing the sears your memory. They’re far more interested in northern bank of the Zambezi, this beautiful reserve merges the bushbuck, , and other small- riverside curtains of fig, ebony and sausage tree with an open to medium-sized that form the woodland of winterthorn acacia, rucked up against a bulk of their diet. South Luangwa’s 1200m-high escarpment. It’s one of the best places combination of dense cover and in Zambia to see elephant, sometimes in herds abundant prey is ideal for an ambush 100-strong as they wade across shallow specialist. Add darkness and the river channels in search of fresh forage stage is set for nocturnal drama that or seek shade under the winterthorns. will literally have you on the edge of Buffalo are also a common sight, grazing your seat during one of the region’s on islands while cattle egrets flap around legendary night drives. them like loose laundry. Just as walking safaris add a certain Walking in an frisson to exploring South Luangwa, African Eden canoeing in Lower Zambezi tingles with The leopard might steal the the prospect of a hippo encounter. It’s limelight in South Luangwa, but polite to tap on the side of your canoe it’s the small wonders gleaned on a when approaching hippo territory — walking safari that are often the most they’ll usually surface and watch while rewarding. Norman Carr pioneered you paddle in a wide arc around them. walking trails here in the ’50s and they Getting on the same eye-level as a EYES ON YOU: A leopard peers through lush are now available at several lodges — semi-submerged hippo or punting past grass in South Luangwa National Park. RIGHT: either as short morning or afternoon a family of drinking at the occur in only a few specific areas in central and eastern Africa, all of which are strolls, or multi-day jaunts between water’s edge are perhaps the iconic remote and difficult to access. This individual, remote bush camps. moments of a Lower Zambezi canoe in the Bangweulu , was rescued Walking single-file, like hominids trip. It pays, however, to stow your from captivity and reintroduced to the wild TIME + TIDE / WILL BURRARD-LUCAS from a distant past, a footloose paddles occasionally and go with

MIKE DEXTER 86 January-March 2018 | Travel Africa Travel Africa | January-March 2018 87 Zambia

Kasanka plays host to the planet’s largest mammal migration. By day, the bats festoon every branch in a seething, chattering mass, but when dusk ZAMBIA’S falls they take flight, filling the sky with a pepper-storm of beating wings EMERALD SEASON Between December and April, the wet season in Zambia the flow, drifting past a colourful procession of avian beauties, with herons, hammerkops, storks and pelicans — but it brings heavy downpours; unsealed roads become impassable from white-fronted bee-eaters and malachite kingfishers to the belongs to none of these groups. It is a loner, both in habit and and many lodges and camps close. However, there’s also sought-after Narina trogon and Meyer’s parrot. Linger into . Imagine a dodo on stilts. Then add some serious a positive spin-off: with the rain comes lush new growth, dusk and you might even be treated to a mesmerising display of attitude. That enormous clog-shaped bill is no party piece — a time of verdancy that stimulates herbivores to give birth fireflies sparking through the riverside forest. it’s a lethal weapon more than capable of wrenching lungfish and to start breeding. National parks are far less busy from their burrows or striking out at snakes, turtles, young with tourists, while lodges that are open generally charge far Where the bats hang out and even lechwe fawns. less than at other times of the year. The so-called green or Fancy birds and fireflies are not the only weird and wonderful emerald season is not only ideal for birdwatchers, it’s also things to be found in Zambia’s forests. Each year, for about A mini Serengeti a boon for photographers who revel in the clear, rain-flushed 90 days from late October to mid-December, a small patch The is Bangweulu’s unexpected menace. Venture to the atmosphere. Lodges that are accessible during this time, of swamp forest in Kasanka National Park plays host to the Busanga Plains in the far north of Kafue National Park, however, such as Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa, offer special interest planet’s largest mammal migration. Around 10 million straw- and you’ll find more ‘traditional’ African predators. Lion, safaris such as boat trips. coloured fruit bats choose this spot as a seasonal roost. By and wild dog roam this 750sq-km swathe of seasonally CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Boating through the ebony forest during the emerald day, they festoon every branch in a seething, chattering mass, flooded grassland where termite mounds and ‘tree islands’ of season in South Luangwa; Thornicroft’s giraffe in dry season; vast herds of but when dusk falls the bats take flight, filling the sky with a sycamore figs prick an otherwise uncluttered horizon. buffalo on the Busanga Plains, during the rains. OPPOSITE: A fruit bat in Kasanka pepper-storm of beating wings. After a night’s feasting, the Watch the sun rise through early morning mist strung horde returns, creating an equally spellbinding pre-dawn in thick webs over Busanga’s floodplains and you will spectacle — best appreciated from Fibwe Hide, perched immediately fall under the spell of pure wilderness 18m off the ground in a mahogany tree. — herds of puku, red lechwe, wildebeest and zebra drifting like spirits through the golden haze, while Weird wetland wonders the guttural roars of a lion mingle with the distant DALE MORRIS As if bats on a Biblical scale weren’t enough, whooping of . Kasanka National Park has another wildlife Large herds of buffalo pour onto the plains when ace up its sleeve. What makes it all the more receding floods reveal fresh fodder. The open remarkable is that it can be witnessed from are also the perfect stage for kori bustards — the world’s the very same hide used for bat vigils. This heaviest flying — to strut their stuff. Hippo thrive in time, however, it’s eyes down, scouring year-round pools and , while the wooded fringes the undergrowth for a glimpse of an along the southern edge of the plains offer varied habitat enchanting, yet secretive antelope. for no fewer than 16 species of antelope, including roan, The is amphibious — splayed sable, kudu and eland. hooves and water-repellent fur allow it not only to run across spongy areas Zambia’s Great Migration of marsh, but also to dive underwater Busanga is not the only place in Zambia offering and hide with just its nose above a ‘Serengeti-style’ gathering of large mammals. In the the surface when threatened. west, Liuwa Plains National Park hosts its very own Kasanka lies on the soggy fringes of migration — some 45,000 arriving from Bangweulu, ‘where the water meets the sky’. Angola at the onset of the rains in late October or early Seasonal floods cause these extraordinary wetlands November. They join a smaller throng of zebra, red to expand and contract, pulsing like a living creature. lechwe and tsessebe. At its greatest extent, Bangweulu can cover nearly Wildlife numbers haven’t always been so prolific in 10,000sq km. When the grassy floodplains are a foot deep Liuwa — the wildebeest population, for example, has in water, huge herds of black lechwe — an aquatic antelope more than doubled in the past 15 years, while wild dogs endemic to the wetlands and numbering around 50,000 — have only returned to the national park in the last decade. can be seen leaping through the shallows. For birders, a boat Poaching and illegal hunting in the wake of the Angolan civil trip or walking safari can tick off many of Bangweulu’s 433 war decimated the lion population, leaving a single lioness species. As well as ducks and geese galore, the wetlands are RICHARDSON KATHY known as Lady Liuwa. After several unsuccessful attempts home to Montagu’s and pallid harriers, wattled cranes and to introduce male lions to breed with her, Lady Liuwa died Denham’s bustard. Serious twitchers will withstand rising last August. The future of Liuwa’s lions now lies with Sepo damp for a glimpse of the swamp flycatcher or rosy-breasted (meaning ‘hope’), a lioness introduced from Kafue. Join a longclaw, but it’s a sighting of the rare shoebill that fills most mobile safari to this remote, little-visited and wonderfully wild visitors’ bucket list. grassland and you might be lucky enough to glimpse one of her Largely silent and solitary, like a steely-blue statue snagged cubs — perhaps the most poignant and memorable encounter in dense stands of papyrus, the shoebill shares similarities any lover of Zambian wildlife could dream of. ALLEN / DANA WILDERNESS SAFARIS FRANS LANTING

88 January-March 2018 | Travel Africa Travel Africa | January-March 2018 89 Zambia

MONTH BY MONTH: THE WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS OF ZAMBIA WILDERNESS SAFARIS / DANA ALLEN (2) / DANA WILDERNESS SAFARIS January-April May-November September-October Travel by boat along the Luangwa River The dry season is generally the best time for As temperatures continue to build during the during the emerald season when herons spotting leopard in South Luangwa — there’s dry season and the land feels increasingly and weavers are all-of-a-flutter around their less vegetation to obscure views. desiccated, game tends to concentrate nesting colonies, many mammals give June around rivers and pools. Buffalo and birth and flowering elephant can often be seen in large herds. Although it varies depending on local trees bloom. conditions, this is generally the time October-November March-April when walking safaris (left) can start. This is a good time to witness mass flocks This is one of the July of red-billed queleas swarming over dry best times to visit grasses or pulsing over rivers. Eastern white pelicans and wattled the Bangweulu cranes congregate in large numbers November Wetlands to see on the Busanga Plains. Thunderstorms herald the wet season and the flooded plains provide dramatic photo opportunities — and DANA ALLEN / THE BUSHCAMP COMPANY DANA liberally sprinkled July-November uncomfortable humidity. with black lechwe. Huge herds of red April lechwe, puku, zebra November-December (left) and other game The annual migration of blue wildebeest As floods recede on the gather on the Busanga arrives in Liuwa Plains National Park. Millions Busanga Plains in the Plains, eagerly watched of straw-coloured fruit bats congregate northern part of Kafue by lion, cheetah and other in a patch of swamp forest in Kasanka National Park, large herds carnivores. Access can National Park. of grazing arrive in sometimes be difficult search of fresh grass. December-January until the end of August. May Mango trees fruit, attracting everything August- from elephant (below) and baboons to Wild dog puppies start to September parrots and pigeons. venture into the open from their Migrant carmine bee-eaters (below) arrive to breeding dens. nest in South Luangwa National Park, forming May-June large, noisy colonies on the riverbanks. When the rains abate, migratory birds Blue-cheeked bee-eaters tend to arrive in the depart and the land starts to dry, allowing Lower Zambezi a few weeks later. access to lodges that were forced to close August-October during the wet season. This is also the Fishing parties of herons, storks, pelicans ideal time for spotting shoebills in the and other waterbirds gather in pools in . South Luangwa, becoming increasingly concentrated as the dry season progresses. ANDY HOGG / THE BUSHCAMP COMPANY ANDY FRANS LANTING

90 January-March 2018 | Travel Africa