Kafue National Park

Kafue is Zambia’s oldest park and by far the largest. It was proclaimed in 1950 and is spread over 22 400 square kilometres - the second largest national park in the world. The Kafue National Park is a raw and diverse slice of African wilderness with excellent game viewing, birdwatching and fishing opportunities. To get the most out of a visit to Kafue, try to spend a few days at one of the luxury safari lodges in both the northern and southern sections of the park.

The Northern section of the park is the home of the astounding Basunga Plains. Comparable to the famous Serengeti, the annual floods bring with them tens of thousands of grazing animals and their entourage of deadly predators. Zebra, antelope, wildebeest and buffalo fill the landscape and there seems to be a pride of lions under every tree.This area in the Kafue may well be your best chance in Zambia to spot the splendid sable antelope. The Basunga is also very well known for its Cheetah sightings – the flat grassy plains are the perfect place to watch a cheetah take down its prey at over 110km/h (70 miles and hour).

Kafue is Zambia’s oldest park and by far the largest. It was proclaimed in 1950 and is spread over 22 400 square kilometres - the second largest national park in the world. The Kafue National Park is a raw and diverse slice of African wilderness with excellent game viewing, birdwatching and fishing opportunities. To get the most out of a visit to Kafue, try to spend a few days at one of the luxury safari lodges in both the northern and southern sections of the park.

The Northern section of the park is the home of the astounding Basunga Plains. Comparable to the famous Serengeti, the annual floods bring with them tens of thousands of grazing animals and their entourage of deadly predators. Zebra, antelope, wildebeest and buffalo fill the landscape and there seems to be a pride of lions under every tree.This area in the Kafue may well be your best chance in Zambia to spot the splendid sable antelope. The Basunga is also very well known for its Cheetah sightings – the flat grassy plains are the perfect place to watch a cheetah take down its prey at over 110km/h (70 miles and hour).

Lechwe, sitatunga and hippo thrive in both the seasonally inundated plains and year-round swamps, and in the south of the park there is an open area known as the Nanzhila Plains which is a wildlife rich mosaic of grassland and tree-crowned termite mounds.

Birdwatching - especially on the rivers and the dambos is superb. Notables include the wattled crane, purple crested loerie and Pel’s fishing owl. Over 400 species of birds have been recorded throughout the park. The Kafue and Lunga Rivers offer superb fishing opportunities, especially good bream, barbel and fresh water pike. Most  lodges have fishing tackle, rods, boats and bait available. Lake Itezhi Tezhi, down south,  is a favoured spot for hippos and the drowned trees along its shoreline provide roosting and breeding sites for water birds such as cormorants and the African fish eagle.

The Kafue combines very well with the Luangwa Valley and Victoria Falls so contact one of our Travel Experts who have traversed this area extensively so they can help you plan your epic safari and book your accommodation.