Reviews of Mukambi Plains Camp

"The setting of this camp is amazing. It is built on a date palm tree island, and looks out to thousands of lechwe roaming about on watery channels. Food is very good, on par with other 5 star camps I stayed.

The main problem I had is with guiding. The game drive seems to be only 3-3.5h while all other camp vehicles are out there for 4-4.5, there is a tendency to rush through all cat sightings, and spotter seems haphazard in shining the torch during night drives.

One particular incident really upsets me. I was sharing the vehicle with another guest for the first night but had the vehicle all to myself for the nights thereafter, so compromising is not relevant here. And the guide is clearly aware that big cats and wild dogs are my priorities.

During the final night game drive, the guide has spotted a leopard, a clearly skittish one. Instead of keeping the torch trained on the animal to assist my night photography, he seems more interested in using the torch to signal other camp vehicles to come join us at the sighting. And that's exactly what happened, two other nearby vehicles (from a competing camp) whom he signaled came over to us within 3 minutes of leopard sighting. The leopard now felt even more cornered with 3 vehicles around. I pleaded with my guide not to drive any closer to the leopard, but he insisted. As I expected, the leopard then ran away, with the other two vehicles chasing after it, while my guide drove away from the sighting. I was very upset by the whole encounter - not only a missed photography opportunity where I could potentially have a private 10+ minutes interaction with the cat, but also the way the leopard was treated.

Upon return to Mukambi Lodge, I was told that it is standard practice that camps share sightings between camps ASAP, and I should accept that because I will feel grateful if the situation is reversed. For the record, I disagree. I think any camp vehicle that is the first to spot the game is not obliged to inform competing camps, aside from a goodwill reason, and even then, the information sharing doesnt have to happen immediately. Therefore, I dont buy that argument. Sure, sightings are shared officially within the same camp via radio, and off the record between competing camps. But it still doesnt have to happen the way it did. Therefore, I dont have strong faith that Mukambi has any intention of addressing this issue but rather is more interested in sweeping the problem under the carpet. I never received an apology for this incident.

This is truly a maiden experience for me, where the guide deprioritize the primary guest needs in order to score brownie points with a competing camp. I really think there needs to be better training on the guide.

If guiding/spotting issues are non-existent, I would rate this camp as 5 star all around." See all these reviews: 16n in Zambia

"The camp was enjoyable and again we were the only guests in camp. The room was good with most facilities that you could want.

Staff were helpful and friendly and Derick also made an excellent cup of tea. Food was enjoyable and tasty.

David was a good and pleasant manager but my only complaint was that we didn't think ha was a good guide. He advised us that the animals were skittish and therefore we shouldn't speak as it could scare them off which was fair enough, but then proceeded to speak non-stop to his spotter in a language that we didn't understand which made us feel that we were totally excluded from the game drives. Variety of wildlife was a bit lacking but we recognise that this can happen.

One wonderful evening though, a large herd of elephants came into camp to eat the figs which had fallen from the trees and some of them came within a few yards of where we were standing and didn't seem at all bothered by our presence." See all these reviews: 20n in Zambia