North Luangwa National Park

Overview

Like the southern park, its eastern boundary is the Luangwa River, while it rises to cover a stretch of the Muchinga escarpment. It is an extremely remote, rugged and wild park definitely off the beaten track. The 4,636 kilometer square park was not open to anyone other than game department rangers for more than 30 years. Today only two small seasonal camps are permitted in the whole park. Once almost forgotten and certainly heavily poached, North Luangwa offers a superb authentic wilderness experience. There is an incredible diversity of habitats ranging from mahogany forests, mopane woodlands and the Luangwa and Mwaleshi Rivers. It is particularly good for walking safaris partly due to the lack of roads and very few tracks. However, the quality of walking camps is simply stupendous and many walks include fishing, hiking and swimming along the Mwaleshi River.

Game viewing in the North Luangwa is exciting and includes huge herds of buffalo, zebra, and escarpment with African fin foot, lady ross’s turaco, marina trogon and white winged starling among the species that call the park home.

 

Best time to visit

The Best Time to Visit the park is during the dry season from June to November as animals are drawn from the bush the river banks in search of water. In addition to few game watching opportunities, access during the wet season is almost impossible.