Musekese & Ntemwa Busanga Kafue Bush Experience 2018 - 19

Day notes

Arrival and overnight at Pioneer Camp (Other options are available)

On arrival you will be met before passport control by our airport representative (Tours Africa) who will help you to pass through immigration. This is where you pay for your visa entry ($50pp), no need for a pre-arranged visa.

Having collected your bags you will be introduced to your driver from Pioneer camp,

Pioneer Camp is 20 mins from the airport in a rural area near Lusaka.

We have booked you an ensuite cottage for tonight. Pioneer is a very friendly informal lodge full of character. Staying at Pioneer is a great way to get over the flight and get in tune with Africa.

Day notes

This morning at around 06.30, you will be collected from Pioneer Camp by your driver / guide from Jeffery & McKeith Safaris and after a warm welcome you will be driven in a comfortable vehicle the 5 hours (approx) journey to your first camp, Musekese. The drive will first pass through Lusaka. The scene gradually changes as the busy city gives way to villages and then bush on your journey west towards the Kafue. There will be chance to stop en route and there will be refreshments on board.

The last couple of hours of the journey leaves the tarmac and follows a bush track across some very remote bush. The habitat varies from Miombo woodland to open clearings (known as dambos). Until Musekese was built, this area had never seen a vehicle, but as the seasons pass the game has become more used to our presence and the drive in to camp can be productive with sightings of Roan, Sable also good numbers of zebra and frequently leopard and lion.

On arrival a warm welcome and a cool drink and lunch. This is chance to relax and absorb your surroundings. Wildlife very often passes through camp, especially elephants, and this can include during the day. The camp is in the territory of both lion and leopard; you will be walked to and from your tents after dark and in the daytime if animals are around.

Musekese is the home of Jeffery & McKeith Safaris, and will be yours for the next three nights.

This season Musekese Camp has undergone a change and has been relocated to a stunning new location. When Tyrone and Phil Jeffery first found this previously unknown area during walking expeditions, they immediately christened the area ‘Eden’.

The new position of the camp is on a very big open dambo which stays wet all year. Very often there can be hundreds of antelope in view. There are also lots of elephants in the area and they love the dambo too, migrating daily between the dry bush and the wet areas and to the riverine woodland. The aerial image (next page) shows the area.

Camp centres around the ‘boma’ deck which is a great spot to simply relax between activities and enjoy the view as well as the company of the camp staff and guides.

The staff are very friendly in a typically Zambian way, very engaging; the team are employed from villages adjoining the Kafue, bringing the benefits of tourism into the local communities.

You will be accommodated in newly-created bush chalets, made from local materials, tastefully decorated in an understated safari style. Spread out on the edge of a shady tree island each has a private veranda.

Imaginative en-suite bathrooms have warm bucket showers and porcelain flushing loos, combining safari chic with an authentic safari feel. Your chalets are enclosed at nights only with Mozi nets.

Day notes

Today you begin the next chapter of your safari. Leaving Musekese early, first by boat to the confluence of the Kafue and Lufupa Rivers, and then on an extended game drive passing through miles of wilderness including the renowned Lufupa and Chibembe areas, well known for game density. The game drive follows the Lufupa River as you move north towards Ntemwa - Busanga bush camp.

Camp will be built in shady spot on the edge of the Lufupa stream in an area called ‘Musanza’. The area is well known for it’s game, and is home to some of the Kafue’s largest Lion Prides. The river is home to a great many Hippos who can often be seen just mtrs from camp.

Expect a very genuine Zambian welcome from the team who will be looking after you. With everything in place to ensure you will be immediately comfortable and well fed! You will be able to relax and get in tune with your new surroundings.

Dinning is generally around the camp fire under the stars, and in the shade during the hotter part of the day. Great meals are cooked by a skilled bush chef, expect to be surprised at the quality of food, often cooked over open fires or baked in the ground. Ice can be limited on safari but even when it runs out drinks are cold! Ntemwa Busanga Camp is a very small rustic bush camp which can accommodate just 6 guests in airy walk-in Meru safari tents, each with a private en-suite. Camp may be slightly more basic and "real" but some nice touches and very comfortable beds ensure a very enjoyable experience. Meals, just as they are at Musekese, are of a high standard and mostly enjoyed al fresco or in the shade of a small boma.

Hot water is always available.

For your guide this is home and his enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge and understanding of the bush will ensure you get the most from your safari.

You can expect to be kept as busy as you wish on walking safaris leading to and from camp and you will explore further afield on game drives.

From Ntemwa - Busanga you are well placed to venture on to the .This vast ecosystem of grasslands and marsh, dotted with Islands of Palms and fig trees is home to vast numbers of game and many other interesting species.

Typically game drives last 4 hours, leaving camp at dawn after a light breakfast, stopping for refreshments out in the bush, usually returning to camp at the hottest part of the day for Lunch. You can venture out again in the late afternoon, (with a cool box of sundowners and snacks) until darkness begins to reveal the nocturnal species, which you will continue to search for with the aid of a spotlight.

Back in camp a warm shower aperitifs and dinner under the stars make for a perfect end to a day on safari.

Your guide will keep you safe and brief you on what to expect and avoid. Lions do pass through camp often at night, and Hippo are also found grazing between the tents.

Amongst some of the more notable possible sights are a resident heard of Roan antelope which are very approachable and photogenic. There are literally thousands of Red Lechwe on the Plains and if conditions and time allows a journey to the Papyrus marsh is often a chance to see Lechwe running and leaping in the wet areas.

Day notes

After three nights at Ntemwa Camp ,you head south across the National Park, retracing your route on an extended game drive in the Musanza and Chibembe areas, to the confluence on the Lufupa and Kafue Rivers to rendezvous with a boat from Musekese.

You will be welcomed back to the now familiar Musekese where you will be settled back in to enjoy your last two days on safari .

You can do as much or as little as you wish. Taking game drives or walking safaris or simply enjoying the peace of sitting quietly in the photo hide. By now we expect that the African Skimmers will be nesting on sand islands in the river and a river trip with sundowners on board is a perfect way to search out Leopard and Lion that come to drink or with luck see Elephants crossing the river. A prefect way to enjoy a sundowner.

Day notes

Today after a gentle start to the day, you should have time for a last river safari or game drive, and then it is time to bid farewell to the Jeffery & McKeith team at who have been looking after you. You will be driven back to Lusaka airport in plenty of time to check in for your homeward flight .