Zambezi Walking Safaris

The modern-day walking safari originated in the Luangwa Valley in the early 60's - the art has since been perfected by a series of old school Professional Guides particularly in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It's clearly the best way to experience the African bush, its variety of habitats and host of mammals, reptiles, insects and birds.

It's a reasonably loose term to describe a variety of activities on foot including short trails, expeditionary trips with backpacks, and lodge based safaris with vehicle and boat back-ups.

The lower Zambezi offers particularly good terrain and variety for walking trails. The area is game-rich and is renowned for its birdlife.

Large and small game is encountered on these trails and includes elephant, buffalo, lions, leopard, hippo, various antelope species and smaller game.

We use our main bases at Kayila and Mwambashi River Lodge on the Zambian shoreline of the lower Zambezi for walking. Vehicles and boats are often used for accessing areas of particular interest or where game activity is high and armed Professional Guides and scouts are used to locate and explain the many fascinating aspects in these areas.

From Kayila Lodge guests have the opportunity to explore our private game sanctuary and the Chiawa Game Management Area on foot. Hikes to the nearby escarpment with visits to its natural pools and waterfalls are always rewarding. This area is well known for its population of Samango monkeys.

Mwambashi River Lodge is located downstream in the remote Lower Zambezi National Park. This is relatively unexplored territory and offers a variety of game species in varying habitats. The area is well known for its healthy population of the endangered Wild Dog. We strongly recommend a minimum 3 night stay at Mwambashi River Lodge for serious safari enthusiasts.

Our canoeing operations on the lower Zambezi are totally complimentary and add a fascinating dimension to exploring the bush on foot.

The lower Zambezi is an important hub for accessing both the Luangwa Valley in Zambia and Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe.

Although SafPar doesn't run its own operations in these areas, strong relationships with the best safari operators in both enables easy extensions to any of our safaris.

We strongly recommend the following walking safari sites:

African Walking Safaris: A comprehensive guide to walking safaris in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana. Includes maps, full trail descriptions, planning details and frequently asked questions for planning a walking safari in Southern Africa
Graeme Lemon Safaris: Lemon & Carey Safaris specialise in wilderness trails on Matusadona, Zimbabwe - the Lion Trail is one particularly good trip. Also take note of options at Manyuli Springs and Elephant Point Camp.
Robin Pope Safaris: Full details on Robin Pope's lodge based safaris from Nkwali, Tena Tena and Nsefu in the Luangwa including additional information on the mobile walking safaris in both the North and South parks.
The BushCamp Company: Phil Berry and Andy Hogg's walking safari operations in the South Luangwa.
The Luangwa Safari Network: "Home of the modern-day walking safari", a comprehensive site with maps, travel guidelines, safari operator details and more...

Walking Safaris with SafPar