Accommodation Review - Lufupa Camp, Kafue, Zambia

Lufupa Camp is in the wilds of Kafue National Park in Zambia. Carrie Hampton explains that you come here for a rustic safari experience in the truest sense of the word. She says, 'you don’t come to this camp for interior décor, you come for interior gratification.'

Kafue National Park is so big (about the size of Wales or twice that of Yellowstone National Park) that I thought it would be impossible to see a leopard in the remote northern stretches of this Zambian wilderness.

I was wrong, almost every guest at Lufupa Camp sees a leopard during their stay. Perhaps it is because Lufupa Camp is right on the Kafue River and supplies a ready source of water in this dry landscape.

My leopard was on the riverbank and a mighty fine specimen he was; large and muscular compared to the dainty leopards I have seen in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

Kafue is even bigger than Kruger and there are so few safari lodges that it has a far-from-anywhere feel. That is exactly how I like it when I am on safari in Africa. I don’t really want too many other guests either, so Lufupa was perfect with only six safari tents and more staff than guests.

There are not so many safari first timers in Kafue as most tourists are sent off to the ‘soft safari’ areas of South Africa, where Big 5 sightings are almost guaranteed. Here in Kafue, nothing comes standard.

You take what you gets in a wild, roughty toughty sort of way. It’s a raw and earthy kind of place, where serious safari vacationers come to get away from everything.

That goes for the accommodation too, which is comfortable without being modern or fancy. The large walk-in safari tents stand on cement screed floors entered via a rough wooden deck. A simple director’s chair and little wooden table suffice for reading a book or watching the constant array of birdlife in the riverine trees.