Mobiles in Zambia

Author: Paul Barnes Photos: Pioneer Safaris Zambia

Zambia has long been considered and recommended as a safari destination that one must charter fly around to access the various parks we have to offer. However, there are more and more people looking to go on Mobile Safaris around our vast country and this is why.

There is a distinct difference between the experiences a guest has when he or she has chartered around Zambia as opposed to driving. Indeed, chartering is much quicker but it removes an understanding of exactly how remote or wild a destination is. Also, if one was to fly from Kenneth Kaunda (KK) International airport to a lodge’s private airstrip, then back to KK International after the safari, what of Zambia have they actually seen aside from the lodge they were staying in? Have they eaten nshima or felt the deep hospitality of a village community, or even spoken with someone whom isn’t paid to host them? The chances are none of the above.

Thirty three percent of the country is allocated to National Parks and Game Management Areas (GMAs). Some of the GMA’s are vast, still hosting a lot of game that are simply untouched by photographic tourism. We have managed to encourage more people to go into these areas and the feedback has been brilliant, mostly because there aren’t many places left in Africa in which you can safari without seeing other tourists - sometimes, hundreds of them.

Although we don’t have an accurate figure for the numbers of tourists coming into Zambia due to the business people utilising the same visa, we do know that the majority are only seeing our honey pot areas, mostly South Luangwa and Livingstone. There is of course good reason for this as the Victoria Falls is a wonder of the world and S. Luangwa is nothing short of a fantastic park and is now one of the top parks in Africa. We have some gems that are massively under utilised and are very expensive to fly to, such as Luiwa Plains which hosts the second largest Wildebeest migration in Africa, Kasanka National Park which hosts the largest Mammal migration in the world, Lake Tanganyika which is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume and the second deepest. Bangwuelu Wetlands accommodates the legendary Shoebill, up the road from there is Lake Bangwuelu, a vast lake which even residents of Zambia can fail to point to on a map, yet it has a lot to offer. We have the Kafue National Park, stretching some 22,4oo km sq and hosting over 55 species of mammals. There are many other areas I could delve into which are massively neglected. I do hope that with the

rise of Mobile Safaris, we may start to encourage more and more people to visit these incredible destinations.

When I start to form the itinerary for my clients, they always ask me what a good length of time to come to Zambia for and I always reply,

We have run a few trips that are a month long; every year we have a couple from England come for a month and due to what this country has to offer, we are able to put together a completely different itinerary every time, and we could do this for years with them and they still wouldn’t see it all. So, the reason why more folks are driving around our beloved country is clear, because there is more to see, more to touch, smell and feel. TL Z

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