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Liuwa Plains Exploration

FROM PRICE: $ 2400

Liuwa Plains - 4 night/5 day or 5 night/6 day

Seasoned Africa travelers have heard of these vast open grasslands in the far west of Zambia but very few have been there. In fact in 2000 only 50 visitors were registered entering the park.

Why go? The Liuwa Plains is an immense wilderness area, brimming with birds and home to huge numbers of animals. The landscape is completely flat and the skies vast - here you really are in the middle of wild, remote and isolated lands.

Where is it?

The Liuwa Plains are far in the west of Zambia and are part of the Zambezi floodplains. It is extremely hard to get to which is why it is so undeveloped.

Past visitors to the park say this area hosts the third largest migration of wildebeest in Africa although it isn't a true migration but rather a massive gathering of large numbers of herbivores at certain times of the year.

What is the best time of year to go?

The best time of the year to see the gathering of the herbivores is November/December; however, game viewing is good year round with resident game and birds.

How to get there

You will need to be in Lusaka at the beginning of the trip (speak to us to assist with this).

The December trip will fly in and out of Kalabo Airport (avoiding the rutted roads!)

The May and June trips will fly in to Kalabo, then on the return journey boat from Kalabo to Mongo and fly out of Mongu.This boat transfer is around 3 hours, through the vast swampy, watery world of the Zambezi flood plain. The birding will be quite spectacular! The camp is a 2-3 hour drive from Kalabo.

Tips and Notes

Up to 35,000 blue wildebeest move between the western boundary and the centre of the plains. You tend to see large herds of up to a 1000 wildebeest, with zebra and sometimes tsessebe amongst them.

The bird life throughout the year is magnificent. It is home to large groups of crowned crane, sometime numbering several hundred and often mingling with the many wattled cranes that are never far from view.

Bustards, both Denham and white-bellied, are common and secretary birds stalk the plains. The water birds are diverse in species and the sheer numbers are staggering. Flocks containing hundreds of pelicans, egrets, spoonbills, yellow and open billed storks gather at the pans, which are often a white carpet of water lilies.

The waders run around the shores of these pans keeping any birder occupied for hours. In December the resident birds are joined by many thousands of migrants passing through.

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