Destination · Zambia
Zambia Private Safari Planning
Zambia is the country to come to once you already love safari. South Luangwa for walking, Lower Zambezi for canoes and rivers, Victoria Falls from the Livingstone side, and North Luangwa for the few clients who genuinely want remote.
South Luangwa National Park, Walking Safaris
South Luangwa is the birthplace of the modern walking safari. Norman Carr started running guided walking safaris here in the 1950s, and the tradition has been carried forward by lodges like Mwamba, Nsolo, and the Bushcamp Company. Walking with a Zambian guide and an armed scout is a completely different experience to a vehicle game drive. You move slowly, you read the bush instead of scanning it, and the close encounters (a herd of buffalo at a hundred metres, a lion call from the next bend in the riverbed) carry a weight that you do not get from a vehicle.
The Luangwa River is the heart of the park. In the dry season (May to October) the river shrinks, the floodplain dries out, and wildlife concentrates along what water is left. This is the best time to visit. Kelly works with the smaller, family-run lodges in South Luangwa rather than the larger operators and pairs walking days with vehicle drives at the start and end of the trip.
Lower Zambezi National Park, River Safaris
Lower Zambezi runs along the north bank of the Zambezi River opposite Mana Pools in Zimbabwe. The river is wide here, slow, and full of islands. Canoe safaris are the signature experience: drifting past elephant herds drinking at the bank, hippo pods that you give a wide berth, and tigerfish striking the surface in the early morning. The lodges are mostly tented, mostly on the river itself, and run by operators who have been there for decades.
Lower Zambezi pairs well with South Luangwa. The internal flight between the two is short and the experiences contrast cleanly: walking and bush in Luangwa, water and river in Zambezi.
Victoria Falls, Livingstone
Victoria Falls is shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Zambian side, accessed from Livingstone, gives you the closer view of the eastern cataract and the Knife-Edge Bridge walk that puts you in the spray. In the high water season (March to May) the falls are at their most dramatic but the spray is so thick you cannot see much. In the low water season (September to December) the Zambian side reduces to a trickle but Devil's Pool opens at the lip of the falls, and that is the experience most clients want.
Kelly pairs Livingstone with either a Zambian safari or a Botswana extension (Chobe is two hours by road).
North Luangwa for the Serious Wildlife Traveller
North Luangwa is the wilder sibling of South Luangwa. There are only a handful of lodges, walking is the primary mode of game viewing, and the park is closed during the wet season. It is not a first safari and not a soft one. Kelly sends clients here only when they have done the standard circuits and are ready for something with fewer vehicles and longer walks.
