Camping at Kafue National Park

When Rich mentioned that he thought we might camp during our time here in Zambia this summer, I looked askance at him. Camp, in parks? with wild animals? elephants? hippos? lions???? It seemed crazy.

But it was cool. So amazing. Lying in the tent at night, listening to the grunts of hippos in the river right next to the campsite. Being awoken in the middle of the night by the roar of lions (we were told in the morning that they were on the other side of the river). Looking out my tent window before tucking in one night to see a hippo grazing on the lawn of the campsite, not 50 feet from our tent. (The hippo's name is Sylvester, apparently, and he is known to be friendly, aka,  minds his own business and doesn't attack campers or tents. This is unusual, as hippos are generally thought of as seriously dangerous animals, despite their being vegetarian.)

Kafue National Park was our location for this episode. Our goal: to visit the Busanga Plain in the far NW corner of the park where Wattled Cranes are found. Kafue National Park is upstream on the Kafue River from both Blue Lagoon National Park and Lochinvar National Park, where we'd been previously. However Kafue NP is above the dam, so its hydrology hasn't been impacted in the same way. 

Busanga Plain is pretty remote from a tourism perspective, so much of the tourism there is super high-end -- think fly-in, $500+/person/night, all-inclusive. But that is not our game. We took the long way, driving windy, bumpy, dusty roads.

The grocery store in Mumbwa where we stocked up on	corn flakes, milk, and chips (a road trip requirement).
Kafue National Park is the second largest national park in all of Africa. It's the size of the state of Massachusetts.	Our home for our first night in the Park: a low-key, simple camp ground (with hot showers! bonus!)
Our camp right along the Kafue River.	That's our tent on the left; the hippo exit path from the river is that open area just to the right of our tent.

Wildebeest out on the plain.

White-fronted bee eaters that live in holes in the riverbank.	Puku. Looks a little like an impala but shaggier and redder (and different horns).
Zebra.	This female elephant was protective of young in her group and ambled after us down the road to make sure we kept moving...
Lilac-breasted roller. Our favorite bird.	These lovely ladies (there were three) had full bellies from a fresh kill (that alas we missed by hours).

This was our best campsite: the tent platform at what had been a super high-end camp (Kapinga Camp), but had been abandoned. Bonus: the water still worked! The bathroom (that canvas tent on the deck--all that remained of the former fancy tent) had brass fixtures. and a toilet. Despite these amenities, the place felt like we were at the end of the earth. 

The fancy-pants recessed sitting area of the former high-end camp made for a great cooking area for us. And Uncle Colin's battery-powered Chinese camping light strings helped a lot!	Adrian (park ecologist), Chaona (BirdWatch Zambia), and Griffin (ICF ecologist, Zambia) relax at the campfire.
Griffin and Rich at Kapinga Camp.	Fred, our scout, at the campfire next to the Kafue River.

They called this "the graveyard" -- those are all termite mounds in the grassland.	Our rental car was one of those "meant for suburbia" 4x4s. It overheated regularly when we went off road. But it made it in the end
Family selfie out in the papyrus, looking for sitatunga (who, alas, stayed in their hidey-holes).	We spent our final night in the park at this lodge at the main park headquarters. Simple, but good.
The view from the lodge. That's the Kafue River in the distance.	Full family timer shot, complete with Jeff and Jo (who are great travelers, if you haven't already read about them).

Another fine sunset shot by Ian Beilfuss. And the end of another great Beilfussian adventure in Zambia.