The Valley of the Leopards - North & South Luangwa

[ricmiles]

 

I come back from my Luangwa trip with mixed feelings. The positive note is I was not expecting the Luangwa Valley to be so aesthetically pleasing. The variety in trees and landscapes gives many photographic opportunities to zoom out and capture animals in their environment. The negative note is I was somewhat disappointed by my sightings, or better to say lack of. I barely saw any lions, no fully grown male leopard, no wild dogs, no kills and just one leopard on a tree. I wasn’t expecting all the above, but was hoping for more. On top of this, I realised on my first day my lenses had what looked like scratches on the glass, compromising my photography for the whole trip. Pictures below, I am not sure if these indeed are scratches, or dust or something else. Looks strange to me but will take my gear to a Nikon store for it to be checked. 

 

 

Regardless of the frustration caused by the lenses, I still had loads of fun, finally engaged in some real walking, experiencing the bush differently from my prior trips where I only had more of nature walks, and explored an area of Africa that had always been high up on my to go list. 

 

Itinerary:

4 nights at Mwaleshi Camp in North Luangwa NP by Remote Africa

3 nights at Mwamba Bush Camp in South Luangwa NP by Shenton Safaris

3 nights at Chamilandu in SL NP by Bushcamp Company

 

Zambia has been a special place to me for many years. It was the first country I ever travelled to in Africa shaping my professional career and I had always wanted to go back and check out what arguably is its prime wildlife destination, the Luangwa Valley. There were two reasons I was mostly drawn to it. Firstly, it’s known as one of the very best walking destinations. Secondly, its abundance of leopards, which I never had many sightings of in the past. 

 

What I tried to achieve by picking the mentioned camps was to explore as much as possible of the region. I started from North Luangwa, where Mwaleshi camp only offers walking activities. Then went on to Mwamba in South Luangwa, a forum favourite, located in the northern area of the park. where I focused exclusively on game driving looking for leopards. Finally, I proceeded towards the southern area of the SL, where the plan was to do a mix of walking and driving. 

 

A map taken from Remote Africa's website to help show the different areas. Mwamba is approximately at the same height of Tafika, but on the opposite side of the river. Chamilandu is much further down south. 

 

 

[Alex The Lion]

Interested to hear your thoughts in more detail. In terms of dogs, they are often not spotted during the denning season.

 

It looks your lens has a fungus issue, not scratches.

[John M.]

   What a delightful landscape image. 

[ricmiles]

@Alex The Lion I wasn't really counting on the dogs too much, but then we had a close call with the dogs twice when we found several very fresh tracks.  I think I would have felt like a sighting of them would have made it more than up for the lack of lions throughout the trip. 

 

Interesting about the lens fungus, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't know about its' existence. I really need to spend some time understanding cleaning and storing of my gear, especially since I'd like to upgrade. 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[ricmiles]

@John M.Thank you! It's an Ebony Forest not far from Kaingo Camp, the sister camp of Mwamba. At sunrise it is insanely beautiful with the light breaking through the trees and often quite an abundance of animals, many different antelopes, baboons and the occasional predator. 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[John M.]

   Yes @ricmiles a lovely patch of forest. I wish I'd seen that setting in that light when I was there in '08 (my historical trip report Chapter 6).  You're right about the beauty of the Luangwa Valley.  I loved all the landscapes I saw on safari, but LV was special.

[Athene]

@ricmiles beautiful ebony forest picture Riccardo, I am sorry for your lack of leopards, we have been twice to the Luangwa valley and I never saw a fully grown male leopard but quite a few females. I am very interested in your trip report as we will visit the LV again next year in September. We will be staying in North Luangwa, Takwela Camp and South Luangwa, Tafika.

[ricmiles]

@AtheneThanks! I did see many female leopards, especially during my stay at Mwamba. During my total stay, I saw 4 different female leopards, one of which quickly crossing the road at night. I also saw a male leopard, but was not fully grown yet. I can't say I am not satisfied with my leopards sightings, but still, on a 9 night safari I was hoping to see more of them on a tree and possibly on a kill. What I am more disappointed about is almost missing out on lions completely. I have explanations for this, will get into them for each camp. 

 

All in all, I think my time of the year was not the best and also I should not have picked two areas out of three that remote. These can be a hit or miss, especially when early on in the season. September should be a much better time to go, with lagoons located inland drying up and forcing all wildlife to gather around the river. 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[madaboutcheetah]

@ricmiles- I don’t think North luangwa is going to be chock full of predators…. Especially when you tend to focus on walking.  We did see leopard and lion from Takwela where they do a mix of drives too with the walking. 
 

with the dogs , I’m told the main section of the park closer to Mfuwe has had good sightings in recent years ,but, I have no idea about this time of the year when they tend to be denning.  Full grown male leopard, I think will be hit or miss anywhere in Africa as they’d need to patrol their territory and can be anywhere during your particular visit. I’d think the luangwa valley is leopard country in any case …. 

[madaboutcheetah]

2 minutes ago, ricmiles said:

@AtheneThanks! I did see many female leopards, especially during my stay at Mwamba. During my total stay, I saw 4 different female leopards, one of which quickly crossing the road at night. I also saw a male leopard, but was not fully grown yet. I can't say I am not satisfied with my leopards sightings, but still, on a 9 night safari I was hoping to see more of them on a tree and possibly on a kill. What I am more disappointed about is missing out on lions. I have explanations for this, will get into them for each camp. 

 

All in all, I think my time of the year was not the best and also I should not have picked two areas out of three that remote. These can be a hit or miss, especially when early on in the season. September should be a much better time to go, with lagoons located inland drying up and forcing all wildlife to gather around the river. 

The speciality about September and the highlight of visiting SLNP would be the Carmine colonies …. Simply amazing 

[ricmiles]

@madaboutcheetahDensity is not as high as SL. However, when the lagoons inland dry up, prey and predators are both forced to stay around the river, where all the walks are done. Brent, my star guide at Mwaleshi, mentioned that in October lions are sighted almost daily. 

[John M.]

@ricmilesOf course you're right about sightings later in the season. We were there in the second half of July and saw lions on several occasions, including a walk. We weren't as fortunate with leopard... just a couple, one with a kill.

   It would have been better later that year. But years can be different, too.

Edited August 6 by John M.

[ElenaH]

1 hour ago, madaboutcheetah said:

I’m told the main section of the park closer to Mfuwe has had good sightings in recent years

I can confirm this. We have been to SLNP in September 2020 staying in Kakumbi (Croc Valley Camp) and making game drives around Mfuwe. We have seen a fully grown male leopard and a pride of 12 lions. I have a Trip Report about this trip.

 

[ricmiles]

North Luangwa - Mwaleshi Camp 

This park is very remote. Infact, North Luangwa National Park might be one of the very last remaining true wildernesses in Africa. The park experiences less than 500 visitors per year. During my stay, there were 3 of us in the whole park. 

 

To get to NL you can either drive 10+ hours from Mfuwe, or fly on Remote Africa’s bush plane. There is a min. 2 people booking for the plane, so if you travel solo you will pay double ticket price. The pilot gave me flying lessons, which was great fun. We also flew quite low and we sighted a number of different species. Hippos and elephants were hard to miss because of numbers. Given how remote and exclusive the place is and with Mwaleshi being very reasonably priced at under $1,000pppn, I suspect the operator does not make much on this camp and keeps it going mostly for conservation of the area. The camp is located on a scenic section of the Mwaleshi River, around 10km north west before it flows into the Luangwa river. The plains on the opposite side of the river consistently had a variety of wildlife roaming on them during the entirety of my four night stay. The four chalets are very simple and rustic, but still provide some ‘bush luxury’ considering how remote they are, and include en-suite bathrooms with flush toilets, sinks with running water, and a bush shower that has hot water provided every evening. My guide was Brent Harris (https://primalpathways.org/guide#brent-harris) . He was simply outstanding. His knowledge of the fauna and flora and his understanding of animal behaviour, especially during walks, were beyond what I had seen previously. Brent has also guided at Mwamba of Shenton Safaris before and is also an agent and private guide when the season at Mwaleshi ends. I can’t think of a better person to talk to for anyone interested in going on a trip to the Luangwa Valley. The food at the camp has been consistently good. I actually must say all 3 camps did well in that regard. At Mwaleshi you have 2 daily activities, a long walk in the morning (4-5hrs) and a short walk in the afternoon (2-3hrs). I definitely got that raw experience I was looking for. Game is not habituated so sightings are few in number and proximity. Although sightings in general are probably less on foot than on a vehicle, I think saying “seeing less” is not an accurate description for this. By walking you always need to be aware of your surroundings by keeping your eyes open and not missing any noise. Because of this, there’s a lot of wildlife you notice that on a vehicle you would simply drive past. On my first drive, while walking through a plain, we stopped and realized we had four different species around us. This really forces you to be strategic in your decision making and movements and become part of the ecosystem, rather than a mere spectator. 

 

 

Elephants were a constant source of threat. We often had to change our plans and direction when we’d meet one. One walk saw us return to camp more than an hour late, because of repeated elephant encounters, where we had to make our way to camp through the very thick bushes. Again, it does not get more wild than this. You also get to cross the cold river on foot multiple times on every walk. 

 

 

As you can see the river is very shallow. However, we had to be strategic on where to cross as there was the occasional crocodile. 

 

On my second afternoon walk, we sighted a lioness on the opposite side of the river, literally in front of camp. We quickly realized she was old and sick. 

 

 

We decided to get back to camp, get the vehicle and get closer. Once there, we saw a hyena walking around the bush the lioness was in. She then just sat nearby. 

 

 

 

It got dark and we went back to camp to have a drink around the campfire. As we were having our drinks, the hyena started calling and within 5 minutes two more gathered around the bush and started to attack the lioness. The scene was so close we witnessed everything with the torch from the campfire. I really had a bad feeling for the lioness but it managed to fight them off and live the day. 

 

Some other good sightings include: 

 

Buffalos: 

 

Elephants river crossing: 

 

Big Herd of Buffalos we tracked for almost two hours: 

 

 

Hippos:

 

In NL, hippos can be particularly dangerous. Because the river is so shallow, they don’t have that as an escape option and tend to charge more easily then they usually would when they can just run into the deep waters. 

 

Puku, antilope I had never seen before:

 

Impalas: 

 

Hippos and Elephants at a lagoon inland: 

All in all, Mwaleshi and North Luangwa delivered what led me there in the first place. I experienced the bush in a very different way than usual and came back with much more experience and knowledge. The relatively low density of wildlife was mostly due to time of the year, with the lagoons inland being a water source. If I were to plan the Luangwa again, I would definitely look into September or even October. I was told the heat can be much to deal with, but sightings would improve drastically.

 

 

 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[Athene]

You are right about the heat, we were in SL last year in October and the heat was almost unbearable, i remember the highest temperature was 45°C one day and the other days in the low forties. The sightings were excellent though. 

 

Edited August 6 by Athene

[ricmiles]

@AtheneThat does sound like too hot. I will be very interested to get your feedback on your next trip there in September. Could potentially be the perfect sweet spot to balance quantity and quality of sightings and heat level.
 

It’s also important to remember that with most of these location being seasonal, animals take some months to get habituated to human presence. Going later in the season therefore means wildlife being more relaxed.  

[wilddog]

I visited Mawaleshi many years ago. The camp used to have an outside toilet, which was open at the front over looking the river, near the mess tent. Is it still there?

[ricmiles]

@wilddog Toilet, sink and shower are now behind the room, so no over looking the river. I guess it's possible rooms are not planned out exactly the same though. I also think they moved location as the river bank gets eroded every year. 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[wilddog]

Thanks @ricmilesI am sure there have been many changes over the years, but it seems to have retained it's rustic charm and wilderness feel.

[ricmiles]

@wilddogIt absolutely did. Very special place I hope I will go back to eventually. If there is one thing I would add is some kind of activity done with the Rhino Sanctuary. Informative sessions, tracking or anything else to raise additional funds for the conservation efforts I think would be very beneficial and something most guests would be happy to consider engaging in. 

[Julian]

@ricmiles

We went to Zambia in July in 2018, stayed at Tafika and Kaingo in South Luangwa, but also went to Lower Zambezi National Park. Total time on safari was 13 days. ( Trip report on here ).

 
At Kaingo we did see wild dogs, two different packs and we also saw plenty of lions ( although we saw neither at Tafika). We saw plenty of leopards at both those camps , but don’t think we saw an adult male leopard.
 

At Lower Zambezi we saw a lot more lion action including lions successfully hunting a buffalo calf, no wild dogs but there had been a pack around a few days before,  and we saw plenty more leopards including 7 months old cubs. Plus in Lower Zambezi we also went on the guided canoes, fishing, and other river trips.

In total on the trip we saw 16 different leopards, but I think only one adult male. Quite a few of the leopard sightings were after dark driving back to the camps. 
So maybe Lower Zambezi Valley instead of North Luangwa would be a better choice for better leopard and lion sightings if you return to Zambia.

 

Edited August 6 by Julian

[ricmiles]

@JulianWow sounds like you had quite a collection of sightings there. The Mwamba/Kaingo area lion activity was severely disrupted by the invasion of two nomadic males. Both the MK pride and the Hollywood pride basically fled the area. 

 

I have already booked LowerZambezi Old Mondoro and Chiawa for late June next year. Will be guided by Greg du Toit and will be focusing on photography and we intentionally went for an early season safari. 

[ricmiles]

South Luangwa Mwamba: 

 

Mwamba Bushcamp by Shenton Safaris is located in the northern area of the South Luangwa NP, bordering the Nsefu sector. I picked this camp after a small survey done here on the forum. Mwamba definitely sounds like one of the very favourites for many people here. I intend not to worry readers, but I bring news that Mwamba has recently been renovated. Based on what I was told by Emma, the manager, upgraded is a better term. The camp now has a luxury feel which I really enjoyed. It is very tastefully done and I don’t think it’s overly luxurious, keeping its original and intended DNA. 

 

 

I will actually go to the extent to say it’s one of the very best camps I have ever been to precisely because I was as comfortable as one can be but could also appreciate the wild feel of being in the bush. I feel it's a fine balance not to over do it, and Mwamba has hit the right spot. Food and drinks were also both good. A longer wine list would not hurt. Emma is a great manager and makes sure guests have the best experience during their stay, which I did. My only complaint is that I was not that impressed with the guiding. I had very high expectations for Zambian guides and I can’t say these were met. Other than not being the best communicator, the guide had little understanding of photography (light, vehicle positioning etc.), often making things a little complicated. On top of that, I think I personally had a harder time connecting with Zambians compared to Kenyans and Tanzanians. I might be the one responsible for this, hard to say. 

 

The highlight of my camp life was on the very first night. I was abruptly woken up by the crying screams of a dying animal. It felt like it was happening literally on my veranda which is only separated by a mosquito net as showed above. My instinct led me to jump out of the bed before I could even really figure out what was going on. Holding a torch with one hand and my phone recording a video with the other, I slowly slid the veranda net open, trying to figure out what was responsible for the kill. The room is positioned on the edge of the dry Mwamba river and because of the slope I could not see what was going on, but could definitely hear the chewing sound of a predator eating its prey and then saw a hyena on the opposite side looking in my/our direction. It was calling and it wasn’t long before more hyenas joined. Only at that point did I hear the unmistakable growling of a leopard. It couldn’t defend the kill and the hyenas overpowered it and went on to fight between them for the scraps the next hour or so. Useless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night. At 5:30am, I immediately asked my guide if we could go and inspect what actually happened on the ground and if my understanding of the event was accurate. 

 

 

Very interestingly the track confirmed my theories and added further insights. My guide recognized the leopards’ print and said it was the resident male leopard. A very big leopard who is very shy but hunts around camp quite often. When sighted, it often growls at the vehicle and I was told it also charged more than once, so they now don’t get close to it anymore. Within me, I did hope to find it during my stay. It did not happen, but I could hear it calling every night, which was a good enough compromise to me. 

 

During my stay at Mwamba, I had several really good leopard sightings. Unfortunately, I did share most with 3 or even more vehicles. As per the lions, I was really eager to see the MK pride and Hollywood pride which I really enjoyed following on several documentaries. This did not happen due to two nomadic males invading the territory and my understanding is both pride fled to the very remote edges of their respective areas. We found these males just once on my first game drive. Interestingly, one was injured on a paw, which I assumed was the result of a fight with one of the prides. 

 

 

Major sightings of my stay in Mwamba to be posted soon. 

[ricmiles]

Female leopard 1 on a tree: 

 

 

Female leopard 2 on the move:

 

 

 

Very relaxed serval on our way back to camp: 

 

 

Zebras: 

 

 

Female leopard 1 relaxing: 

 

More soon. 

Edited August 6 by ricmiles

[JimS]

Some really nice photos so far, especially like how you’ve captured the light in the landscape. It really is a lovely place.

 

I’m about a month back from SL (and making slow progress on my trip report), @mopsywas there similar time and has written up a really good report on his trip. I’d say he had better all-round predator sightings, including more lion seen around the central part of the park.