Travel reviews by Dr VRG from Chiplun

"This was the first Bushcamp in my South Luangwa itinerary. I was very tired after a long flight and it was dark by the time I reached the park gate. First I was taken to Mfuwe lodge where after a quick refreshment and completion of formalities, I was transferred to an open landrover. The drive to Bili lasted for almost 2 1/2 hours but turned out to be very productive with a leopard and a lioness with cubs welcoming me to South Luangwa!

Bilimungwe, the camp itself is very small with only 4 chalets. The guide Manda was excellent. Katie, the manager on site is in this job only for 3 months, but she was quite good at it and made me feel welcome at the camp. The waterhole in front of my chalet and the one in front of the deck was a magnet for wildlife especially elephants. Elephants were practically everywhere and one had to be a little careful while moving about the camp. From my chalet itself, I had good sightings of elephants, a magnificent male Kudu, Impalas, Bushbucks and even a gang of banded mongoose. At night I was woken by a antics of large hippo in the visiting the waterhole in front of my chalet....

Fortunately for me the camp was not full and there were only 4 more guests. Next morning we had a drive followed by a walk which was a practical demo of tracking a leopard on foot. Although we did not manage to find the leopard, it was great fun all the same. Evening was a spotlit night drive yielding good sightings of genets, civets, white tailed mongoose. Next day was even better with me as the only guest in the camp. Manda took me for long game drive. We tried to track down 2 male lions which are dominant in that area but failed to locate them. Instead we found 2 leopards, one male and one female, spending almost an hour with them. Most important during these 2 days we hardly came across any other vehicle and all sightings were practically private! This is in stark contrast to many parks in Kenya and even Tanzania...

All in all it's a great camp with an able guide. The slight negative point is that the chalets do not have electricity so the only light available is that comes from solar powered portable "Luci lights". This makes is a little difficult to move around in the chalet after dark and a torch is quite handy. But then again it's all part of experience of a "Bushcamp" ."

"This was my second bushcamp and the transfer from Bili took only 20 minutes. This camp located along the Kapamba river with lovely views from both the deck and the chalets. The chalets are more substantial with stone construction. The bathrooms are big and the bathtub is more like a small plunge pool!

It was hosted by Claire, a Zimbabwean, lady who managed the camp well in her understated way. The guide is Fanuel Banda, a young enthusiastic guide. Fortunately I had good company with a couple from California who were keen birders like me. We ended up spending better part of a morning near a lagoon watching storks, ibises, hammerkops and even fish eagles going about their business. Last evening I was the only one in camp and hence spent the evening and the next morning with 2 male lions followed by some serious birding.

All in all a good camp, but it utilises the same area as Bili. In retrospect, I would have preferred to spend one more night at Bili and one night more at my next camp (Kuyenda) giving Kapamba a miss..."

"This was my third bushcamp and it was certainly the best of the lot. Kuyenda is located about an 1 1/2 hours from Kapamba/Bili area, a little closer to the Mfuwe lodge.

The camp itself is most rustic of the lot. There are only 4 chalets. All have views of an open plain and the sunrise in one of the best beautiful sunrises one can come across. But the soul of the camp is the couple who run it. Babette and Phil are legendary. They are genuinely warm people and I felt at home while staying with them. The food is superb. Phil, because of his age, is not able to do active guiding (which was ably done by Suzio) but he's always there to help and advise.

The biggest surprise however, was the wild dogs! The dogs were denning less than a kilometer from the camp and were seen practically everyday. One morning they killed an impala less than 100 metres from my room!! That was something! I did a lot of walking at Kuyenda with other guests. Suzio and Isaiah (The ZAWA ranger) always made sure that we always felt safe on the walks. We did see a lot of elephants, Giraffes and even a hyena on these walks.

One of the guests was a wildlife biologist who was working with Phil and his presence made these outings even more enjoyable. On the last morning I decided to take it easy. But after breakfast, decided to take a little drive to see the dogs for the last time. And behold! It turned out to am an incredible experience. While we were watching the pups, Suzio suddenly heard a distress call of an impala followed by the distinct "sawing" of a leopard. We hurriedly followed the sounds and came across an incredible sight!. A large leopard was up in a tree and he was growling at the wild dogs surrounding the tree. One of the dogs tried to sort of climb the tree which spooked the leopard. He made a jump for his life from the top of the tree and ran away! The dogs hung around for a while trying to locate the leopard but soon gave up probably thinking they had made a point!! as Phil explained what probably transpired was that the leopard made a kill, which in turn attracted the dogs resulting into the leopard being "treed" by the dogs.... Simply put I could not have ask for more. And I may not see something like this again!"