A Remote Wilderness

By: Marcus Westberg Photos: Marcus Westberg/Life through a Lens

Mario Voss is the Director of Conservation and Marketing for the newly opened Luambe Camp in remote and bio-diverse Luambe National Park, located halfway between South and North Luangwa. wilderness there. So in 2015, when I found an investor who wanted to put Luambe back on the map, with a focus on conservation and supporting the surrounding communities, I didn’t hesitate.

A: I experienced the Luangwa Valley as a guest about 16 years ago and, like so many others, fell in love with it. I started working with Kafunta Safaris in 2004 while finishing my masters in Zoology. We used to run trips to Luambe and I always loved the feeling of true A: South Luangwa has become more and more famous over the last decade, but Luambe remains relatively unknown. There is an amazing variety of habitats here, from the typical riverine forests to open floodplains and cathedral mopane forests. With certain habitats come some species that can sometimes be quite hard to find in South Luangwa, such as oribi,

reedbuck, eland and Cookson wildebeest. It is the remoteness and some of these rarer species that make it such a special place.

A: Presumably. Many places have issues of humanwildlife conflict these days, of course. The difference is that Luambe has had no support, financial or otherwise, from tourism or conservation organizations for some years. So any sort of conflict, such as poaching, has existed without anyone from the ‘outside world’ taking any notice or action. This is something we are trying to change, of course. Having said that, we are delighted with the amount of wildlife that can be found in Luambe already. We have incredible bird life, antelope are plentiful, and we regularly see elephant, hippo, giraffe, buffalo, and zebra. Wild dogs and lions are there too, but seeing them requires a fair bit of luck, while leopards sometimes come to drink at our waterhole in camp.

A: Wild dogs are my favourite animal, so watching a pack of these fantastic predators hunt down a puku one early (and chilly!) July morning on the plains is

definitely one of my favourite memories. I also saw a rare Pel’s Fishing Owl perched on a big mopane tree in wonderful afternoon light – that was magic. But, to be honest, sitting in camp watching the hundreds of hippos right in front of the tents is hard to beat most days.

A: Luambe is for people who love remote wilderness, those not feeling the need to ‘tick off’ the Big 5, but rather to enjoy quality time in the bush. With the camp the only one in the park, you won’t be running into a lot of other people. A fantastic experience is enjoying a sundowner across from one of our carmine bee-eater colonies in September/October. Another amazing, and for me vastly under-rated, safarimoment is simply admiring the Milky Way in its full glory; the wide open plains of Luambe, with their 360-degree view, are an ideal place for this. But really, not much beats enjoying a sunrise (with a cup of coffee!) while watching the hundreds of hippos right in front of camp. I’ll never get tired of that.

Marcus Westberg is a freelance conservation and travel writer and photographer. See more of his work at www.lifethroughalens.com.

One of the hidden delights of Luambe: bush babies, often spotted along the road back to camp at night