South Luangwa

Anyone with any recent experiences here?
Curious about wildlife, camps...

I spent a week there in August 2005.
Stayed at Flatdogs Camp.

To be honest I was slightly disappointed in both.

South Luangwa. Quite a lot of game, but generally very skittish, possibly
as a result of the poaching that occurs there. A lot of sighthings were of
animals disappearing into the scrub.

Flatdogs. Excellent place - well organised and they really try to provide a
budget alternative.
But......... the drivers who take guests into the park seemed to resent the
guests and I found them to be both arrogant and lazy. In the week I was
there I saw two groups make vehement complaints about the attitude of their
drivers and I was one step away from doing the same thing myself.

There are other alternatives to Flatdogs, but mostly a lot more expensive.

In summary, based on my experience:

If you haven't been to Africa before you would probably love Sth Luangwa
because you will see animals, but having been to Sth Africa, Botswana and
Namibia I would say you can have the same or a better experience elsewhere.
This is particularly so given the extra cost of flying into Zambia and
catching local flights once there.

Sorry for the negative report, but that's my 2c worth. I'm glad to have
done it once, and it certainly wasn't all bad, but wouldn't go back.

I spent 4 days at Chobe National Park in Botswana after leaving Zambia and
the game viewing was a lot better.

Regards

Michael

"Dave Patterson" wrote in message
...
Anyone with any recent experiences here?
Curious about wildlife, camps...
Have been to South Luangwa twice and would recommend it (tho not to a first
time safari-ist).
Last time was a couple of years ago - we stayed at Remote Africa's place,
run by John Coppinger and his wife, Tafika. And also spent a couple of night
at their 'out camp' which you walk to. The guides were all excellent - have
had our best sightings of leopard of anywhere.
They arent cheap tho.
(we booked through Sunvil and would thoroughly recommend them; combined the
Sth Luangwa with Old Mondoro on the Zambezi - also excellent, tho we didnt
see the wild dogs I was hoping for).
You dont get the 'big herds' that you do in Kenya/Tanzania (tho we saw some
pretty large groups of buffalo) but you get a big variety of animals.


--
Rita Daggett

Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
South Luangwa. Quite a lot of game, but generally very skittish, possibly
as a result of the poaching that occurs there. A lot of sighthings were of
animals disappearing into the scrub.

We had a couple of excellent lion sightings at Luangwa - right by the
roadside and completely not bothered by the vehicles.

However, due to the nature of the terrain (a lot more scrub), it is a
different park from the typical Kenya/Tanzania circuit. As mentioned
above, not for the first timers - but I really enjoyed my time there.

Flatdogs. Excellent place - well organised and they really try to provide a
budget alternative.
But......... the drivers who take guests into the park seemed to resent the
guests and I found them to be both arrogant and lazy. In the week I was
there I saw two groups make vehement complaints about the attitude of their
drivers and I was one step away from doing the same thing myself.

There are other alternatives to Flatdogs, but mostly a lot more expensive.

Try Wildlife Camp - a little further down the road from Flatdogs. Much
quieter, excellent guides and a really nice ambience. I had a hippo
come grazing by my tent one night, and an elephant picking food from
the tree under which I was camped another night. It is right by the
river, and you can see lots of eles, buffalos and assorted
meat-on-hooves come by to drink. A lion apparently walked through
their campsite a week before I was there, as well.

The owners are very nice and into conservation - and their guides are
excellent - quite the opposite of what is described above. Camping is
cheap, all inclusive rondavels were $80 per night when I was there (in
2002).

It was one of my most enjoyable stays in Africa.

Vandit

Sounds good, but I don't think I would bother going back to Zambia - there
are no direct flights from Australia and I had to fly to Joh'burg, then to
Livingstone, then 6.15 AM flight to Lusaka etc. The internal flights added
about A$1000 to the trip and for that money I could have hired a good car in
Sth Africa and stayed several nights in a private game reserve such as
Elephant Plains, where I have seen leopards really close on 6 of the 7 days
I have previously spent there.

Flatdogs was fine except for the drivers (good restaurant, internet cafe,
lots of animals wandering through the camp). The drivers (and some were
better than others) just didn't like stopping, didn't like talking and if
they did stop, they wanted to get going again immediately. The worst was
the evening drives which included a spotlight operator who had nothing to do
until it got dark. He and the driver would just chat constantly without
making the slightest effort to spot game. One of my fellow passengers on
one drive asked them to stop talking and look out for animals and the rest
of the drive passed in sullen silence. That prompted one of the complaints
I mentioned in my first post. Not the sort of atmosphere you want on a
holiday.

Cheers

Michael