Liuwa Plains - What we came here for

We burst through (okay, emerged from, is more accurate) one of the “islands” of shrubs and trees that adorn the Liuwa Plains National Park onto an expanse of grassland that stretched as far as the eye could see. We’re here. WOW!! A little further on we stopped and switched off when we observed some lumps on the horizon. Silence. Absolute silence, enhanced occasionally by the sound of bird life and the call of a Fish Eagle. We were the only people on earth. After the continuous movement and sound of engines this was unbelievable and, immediately, the weariness just slipped away to be replaced by peace and anticipation.

The lumps on the horizon were Wildebeest – hundreds of them in the distance. This was why we were here.
At Kalabo the Zampark official had given some idea of what we would find at the community campsites in the Park. Having been to Kwai / Moremi in Botswana and Popa Falls in the Caprivi, we were a little bit sceptical as to what constituted a Community Campsite. In those places it is a spot under the trees, nothing else. Here we were met at the edge of one of the “islands” and guided to our site at the Lyangu Campsite. Wow again!! It was situated in some beautiful shade, level, swept clean and raked, with a thatched Berakah to house the kitchen. The path to the ablutions was also swept and the ablutions, with toilets, showers and basins, were spotless. Even though the water was hand drawn from a well, there was always water in the taps. Wow again – some other communities could really benefit from a visit here!!

We were pretty much experts at setting up camp by now, and this little formality was quickly dispensed with. It was now about 37° and fairly humid. The others went for a drive and Dave and I busied ourselves with a little bit of camp maintenance – cleaning and reorganising the fridge, decanting water from our jerry cans and the time honoured tradition of just sitting and having a quiet beer. Then it was time to go for a drive, see if we could spot some animals and watch the sun set over the Plains.

We parked in the middle of nowhere. That’s exactly how it felt – the middle of nowhere. My co-driver morphed into a photographer and became Taz as he set up his equipment and then we settled down and let the whole experience overtake us. Again that amazing silence eased over us, slowing the heart rate and miraculously emptying the mind. This was awe inspiring and the spirit just quietened and lifted. You drank in the moment and thought of the people back home, missing them, but not the bricks and mortar. For this brief moment alone the trip became worth it.

When the sun had set we took that feeling with us and joined the rest at the campsite. What a magnificent evening. The silence remained, broken only by some wind later and the incessant chatter of one of our companions (who shall remain nameless) and the swoosh of a myriad of huge moths, attracted by the unusual spectre of lights in the bush.


A good dinner and a great sleep - again. We awoke to a gentle rainfall that made a little lie in necessary and welcome. Coffee and rusks and a drive to see what Liuwa Plains offered. Tracks4Africa was great and has much of this park mapped. It was a leisurely and pleasant drive and we saw Oribi, Lechware, Hyena, Zebra, Mongoose and, in this place, the ubiquitous Wildebeest and their calves. Clearly vehicles are not commonplace on the plains – the game was skittish and moved away very quickly – if you stopped and stayed very still, they would return slowly or at least not move that far.

The little bit of rain had obviously had a wonderful effect on the plant life and there were collections of unusual and pretty flowers that had suddenly sprung into being. I have never seen as many Cranes and Crane Species in one location as we saw here. Amazing and very elegant. We were again struck by the vastness that surrounded us. At one stage we stopped and you felt that you could see the dip of the earth on the horizon, such was the flatness and the distance that you could see.

Okay, our stomachs were rumbling now and we headed back where Simon whipped up a delicious brunch. We then settled down for the rest of the day. Fixed and changed the flat tyre that I got in Mongu and then, variously, read, chilled, downloaded tracks and slept until later in the afternoon. This is the really great part about staying longer than 1 night in a place – you get a chance to catch your breath and really “be” in Africa. Later George joined Simon and Ted in the Landy, to preserve his fuel. He was pretty low and with very little chance of finding more in Zambia, this was a prudent thing to do. We then took a drive and experienced 100’s of Wildebeest, oodles of space and another amazing African sunset – different, but as peaceful. Many people in the overlanding and game travel community tend to ignore Wildebeest, just like they do Impala.

To witness them in this environment and in these numbers is a vastly different experience. You see them in a new light and appreciate a strange type of beauty that exists in them, particularly with their young calves in tow. I will forever see them in a new way. However, creating a “Wildebeest Appreciation Society” is probably too big a step – they’re still pretty stupid, whichever way you see them.


We were to move camp to the Kwale Community Camp the next day, and had our normal evening, punctuated only by an unearthly sound coming from Dave as he tried to dislodge a seriously big beetle, with seriously big pincers, from his leg. This shattered the calm and generated much excitement and mirth.


Rather than going straight to the new camp, which was about 10 km’s away, we did this by way of new routes through the plains. The situation changes, but the surroundings remain pretty much the same, as do the animals. This is not meant to sound jaded or bored – it absolutely isn’t. We were just as keen and interested, and stopped often to experience new things, but there are just so many times that you can write, “we saw 100’s of Wildebeest, or Cranes, or whatever”. This WAS a birders paradise, with many different and new species. I stand under correction, but I think that Kobus and Debbie identified more than 20 that they hadn’t seen before. Despite all the bird books we had in our car, Dave and I still don’t manage to get far past the, “gee, that’s a pretty small (or medium or big) brown (or blue, or black) bird”, but the variety was stunning to see.

Although we had yet to see any sign of the 3 lions ( C’mon, give me a break. I know I was there, but 3 Lions in 1000’s of hectares is quite a big ask. Isn’t it?) that they had introduced, or any of the apparently plentiful Wild Dogs, we did see Buffalo today. ZamParks was busy introducing them to the Park and trying to train them into not straying too far from the area that they were introduced into. This is a very fine line – trying to balance the community’s needs in the park with the tourism requirement. I hope they manage it.

On the way we stopped for the obligatory group shot, which worked really well. We arrived at the Kwale camp and were just as impressed with the layout, ablutions and cleanliness of this camp as we had been by the previous one. In fact, in terms of location and view, it was probably even better. BUT (note the big BUT) the flies in this camp were off-putting – to say the least. I had continuously been exhorting my companions to, “ignore the flies, and they will stop worrying you” throughout the trip. This worked for me, but I’m not convinced that it ever did for them. However, in this camp, that approach was wholly inadequate and they plagued us for the stay. In fact, on the second morning I walked out of the tent in a pair of shorts and I swear I was set upon by more than 40 of them. This was so not cool!! Thanks goodness they disappeared at night, but they led to us keeping shirts on during the day.

In addition to these, I have never seen as many moths as there were here at night. It became increasingly apparent that our intrepid photographer was not big on the “bug” side of things, and these kept him quite busy. I’m not sure that he ever tied together the fact that he had a red light on his head might well have been responsible for them flying at him with red eyes gleaming. Of course, my turn came when bloody big green and yellow frogs started showing themselves.


Next morning we took off early again, and went to the Sausage Tree (as it’s shown on T4A). We saw that there were already a number of Wildebeest at the water hole, with more arriving. We parked in the shade of this tree and just waited. 2 very quiet hours later and we had been surrounded by 1000’s of these animals. As they passed us they moved off in waves over the horizon – until there were lines of them as far as you could see. What an amazing sight and what a privilege to be able to see this. We then moved on to King’s Pools – obviously normally a river. A beautiful spot, but exceptionally warm that day.

We had a similar brunch, whipped up by Simon, and proceeded to emulate the activities (or non) of the day before. However, this was not to last. Eventually the flies drove us back into our vehicles for a drive – this was with the exception of Dave who barricaded himself in our tent to wait them out. On this trip George and I tried to stalk a Hyena to get a better pic of him. He wasn’t having any of this – every step we took towards him, he took another 4 away.


That night we heard our first Hyena giggle close to the site. Huge excitement – but he disappeared again. As I said, they’re very nervous of humans. Only about 350 visitors visited this park this year, and for most of the time we were the only vehicles. This is an amazing opportunity to not be disturbed by others, but it doesn’t bode well for the existence of the Park if it doesn’t attract more visitors to prove to the communities that it is indeed beneficial to them to keep it going. Particularly given that most of this area is under water and almost impassable during the rainy season - so visiting periods are limited.

After another stunning sunset, that night passed as many others before them had. Good food, good drink and the stars were really out and lighting up the whole sky. We took a walk out of the campsite, not every far, but the night was still and amazing. I tried to teach them that one can walk in the dark, with no moon, without a torch, but they weren't having it and George's portable searchlight put an end to any thoughts of darkness. We returned to the camp for coffee and a night cap and just to enjoy the stillness. The same chatter as before eventually drove us to leave the fire – some of us to bed, and Dave and I to the middle of the bush, watching the stars and giggling like school kids while listening to George snore. No wonder the animals stayed away from the campsite.

It was a poignant moment – tomorrow we were to leave the Plains. We had expended some serious effort and time to get here, had an amazing time, and the long trek home beckoned.


Don’t miss “The trip home and my impressions” next on the Blog!!