Well hello there. I hope you are magnificently well and have embraced December with as much surprise as we have. Where has the year gone? With all the bush camps closed we have started some work on Luangwa River Camp, making the most of the last couple of dry weeks to get building materials in. We are very excited about the upgrades to the camp and can’t wait to open the doors once again in April. Here at the office Christmas decorations have been brought out of storage, the turkeys are on order, and the crackers have arrived. Just a few weeks ago I was thinking that I should really put my Christmas tree away from last Christmas as it was still in my office then suddenly realised that it was fast approaching the time of the year when it was needed again. Seems to have simply flown by and once again I have managed to have a Christmas tree up in my office for the entire year!
Zambian Tourism Excellence Awards 2025 was held last week, and we are honoured to have received two awards – our Mobile Walking Safaris awarded Best Tourist Activity and Bessie Lombe (Tena Tena host), Best Customer Service – Individual!
A huge congratulations to Bessie and our Mobile Walking Safaris team led by head guides and managers, Jason Alfonsi and Kanga Banda. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and continues to support, travel with, and believe in us, both recognitions mean a lot.
From that exciting news, lets dive back into stories from the Luangwa and what better way to do this than for me to tell you all about a group of guests that recently came out for Carnivore Week and it has been absolutely fantastic.
After a week of hectic rain, the bush sprung into life becoming insanely green and simply magnificent; all this just in time for Carnivore Week and the guests were left with perfect weather and scenery. Chizzy was the lead guide, working closely with one of the Zambia Carnivore Programme (ZCP) team, the guests were treated to talks about the carnivores, tracking and of course viewing and wow did they view.
The first day got off to a great start with plenty of plains game including buffalo, which since the rains have certainly been on the more elusive side. However, this was Carnivore Week and what better way to get it started but with a leopard cub. (Watch here) This young cub is just under a year old and hangs out with his mum just opposite Nkwali Camp however mum was obviously out doing her shopping, and he was on his own but was super relaxed giving the guests plenty of time to enjoy him. Back to camp for a quick lunch after which was an outing to set up camera traps to see what they would yield over a few days before back to camp for a presentation from some of the ZCP members and out for the afternoon drive.
Carnivore Week used to be called Wild Dog Week (this was a very long time ago!) and thankfully we changed the scope when ZCP moved onto researching all carnivores. As just in time for Carnivore Week the dogs all seemed to have some secret convention and disappeared into the far-flung corners of the Park which were simply unreachable. Checking their co-ordinates every day they still refused to move back into the main game viewing area.
Thankfully though, the other carnivores were out in full force so there was more than enough to keep everyone very happy including some lovely hyena sightings with a cub as well which is always a treat. Whilst hyenas always seem to get bad press the cubs are undeniably cute and our resident clan seem to have taken up residence under a bridge on the main road so we hope we don’t get too much rain otherwise that could be a rather negative experience for them.
On the second day the team found 4 lionesses feasting on a buffalo and after having their fill of meat there they stayed full fat and sleepy with the occasional effort to get up to snack on some more. (Watch here) With the dogs still very far away, the team went back to the lions in the afternoon but in between the hyenas were spotted again as well as plenty of plains game, lots of birds and incredible scenery not to mention regular sightings of the leopardess with her cub which lives in the area opposite Nkwali Camp.
Having just realised that we are only a third of the way through Carnivore Week and we have plenty more sightings to share it makes sense for me to reign in my chatter for this week and carry on with a part 2 next week.
So, for now let me bid you a very fond farewell and hope that you have a fabulous week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
