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Extraordinary honeymoon - a safari to remote, rarely visited Zambian parks
The itinerary began in a fairly traditional manner with a week relaxing in the Seychelles and then a few nights in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park. After this the real adventure began and together with guide Rod Tether (features in Aardvark’s Top Ten guides in our last newsletter) Michael and Stephanie set off on a six night mobile safari to explore the remote Bangweulu Swamps and Kasanka National Park in northern Zambia.
Among the Clarkes’ highlights of this truly memorable trip were:
Being greeted by our pilot Edwin, wearing long khaki shorts and sunglasses, standing beside his vintage plane which looked, according to Stephanie, a bit like the inside of a Morris Minor.
Driving through tiny fishing villages on the way to Lake Bangweulu, watching the locals cycling to market, sometimes four to five days away, overloaded with dried fish.
To travel through this remote wilderness area and not see another tourist, in fact we saw only two other white faces during this part of their trip. We were a bit of a novelty and warmly welcomed where ever we went.
Visiting the forests of the bats (as seen on BBC’s Life series recently) and climbing to a hide 200 feet up in canopy to watch birds come in to roost.
Meeting ‘Mr Shoebill’ – an enormous Shoebill stork who stands at around 6ft and is extraordinary - like he has a clog stuck on his face.
First sight of Bangweulu Swamps with over 10,000 black lechwe grazing together.
Canoeing into Shoebill Camp in the heart of the swamp, where we listened to hundreds of hippos grunting as we sat round the camp fire each evening. Each night was as much fun as the day, with lively camp fire banter and watching hundreds of herons, cranes and storks all come in to land together in the twilight.
Boating past fishermen’s houses which are perched on floating islands on the way into Bangweulu.
The river trips in Kasanka National Park where we saw elusive African finfoot and Pels fishing owl.
Rod Tether, owner of Kutandala Camp in the North Luangwa National Park, is available to lead these private mobile safaris by arrangement. The areas visited are Kasanka National Park, the Bangweulu Swamps and Mutinondo Wilderness Area. Accommodation is rustic but comfortable. For clients interested in birds, and particular the Shoebill storks, there is no better place to visit and you are definitely off the beaten track. There are some pretty long drives, up to six hours, but a five to seven night trip would certainly make a unique African safari.