Helen and Sally’s remarkable trip to Zambia with Crafted Africa culminating in a party in Malawi!!

We were so excited to explore Zambia. We had been to South and North Luangwa before but this would take us to areas that we had heard many a tale told and long dreamed about visiting.  Whilst it was a fam trip of 1 night stops for over 2.5 weeks, we saw so much wildlife, had the most incredible experiences, we were hot, we were spoiled and we were hosted by incredible lodges and camps with so much variety of room, tent, style, food and activities.  Wow, Zambia is so special…

Our itinerary was smooth and meticulously planned by Crafted Africa, thank you to the team for looking after all the details, organising charters, flights, site inspections and a wide variety of activities and experiences.  We started in Livingstone, (whilst the Falls were low we did have fun visiting Devils Pool for the inevitable selfie).  We stayed out of town on the river bank and so enjoyed experiencing the Falls from the Zambian side, not something we have had the chance to do before, knowing it so well from the Zimbabwe side.

We thought the Devil’s Pool experience was brilliant fun and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Looking right over the edge of the Falls at eye level with fish nibbling at your feet is not an experience we will ever forget. It was exhilarating and hair-raising in equal measure.   We had the Falls to ourselves as we flipped over them in a helicopter (now that is a smoother ride from the light aircraft that took me up last time and the microlight that took Sally – she deserves her thrill seeker crown for that one).  There is nothing better than getting a bird’s eye view of one of the seven natural Wonders of the World.

We were always met by Crafted Africa uniformed staff at the airport who helped us on to a charter flight to Kafue NP and the Busanga Plains which were incredible and so wild. We loved that we were able to explore this enormous Park with very few others and particularly enjoyed the Kafue River (a great Pels spot there) and then the lion prides that dominate the plains, together with their back stories and interactions.  We heard about incredible conservation projects and ongoing stories about its herds and carnivores and the impact the seasonal rains bring.  An incredibly hard life for much of the wildlife there and exciting elephant sightings as they adapt to a life without poachers, all so vibrant and exciting. It is so remote, so vast with endless horizons and yet still we managed to find a wide variety of animals for some extraordinary photography.

We continued to the Lower Zambezi, which is such an incredibly beautiful Park, those ebony and winterthorn trees make for an incredible photographic back drop with such beautiful light.  The Zambezi River adds another dimension and we loved the various boat trips, canoeing and of course the elephants up on their hind legs.  (Definitely not unique to Mana).

Lastly, we explored parts of South Luangwa that we missed during our last visit, so many had stories to share about Nsefu and the long awaited series, ‘The Kingdom’

Zambia is an incredible country with camps off the beaten track, wonderful heartfelt welcomes, river activities, incredible fresh and imaginative food, all served with heart and passion and outstanding game viewing. We particularly loved the combination of game viewing by vehicle, walking and river action. Floating down the river with a good guide is serene and relaxing and gets the heart racing at times (thinking of our canoeing here, but with an experienced guide, a trip to never be forgotten).  We had such incredible sightings of Pel’s fishing owl, a wide variety of kingfishers and finfoot together with many hippos, crocodiles, elephant, hyena, lion and leopard. Zambia certainly seems to have it all.

To top it all, our itinerary included a whirlwind stop in Malawi to help Mike and the team celebrate their 15^th year anniversary. Having been involved with Crafted Africa, or Malawi in Style as it was then, since 2014, we have watched the team grow from strength to strength. Mike has always invested so much in his team, ensuring that they also travel to all the camps and lodges so that they have first hand experience of all the services, camps and lodges that they offer. It was the perfect way to end our remarkable trip.

We like to give each camp 3 words that we think sum up the character or stand out feature of each camp. We hope you enjoy our three words for each and if we can offer you a deeper understanding about our experiences, please call and we can set up a presentation with you.