South Luangwa 2025 Trip Report

There are many iconic parks across Africa, but the one that flies the most under the radar in my opinion is South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. It has so many iconic animals that call it home, dramatic riverine landscapes, fantastic light, and more importantly, fewer tourists! Personally I had never even heard of South Luangwa until a few years ago, but once I started researching I knew I had to find a way to visit.

One of the most reputable tour operators in South Luangwa is Robin Pope Safaris, and they had great rates to visit in October which is still the peak season in the park. I was able to combine their camp in Mana Pools in Zimbabwe with a couple of different ones in South Luangwa, into what I thought would be a solid itinerary for a southern Africa safari.

After my time in Mana Pools wrapped up, I took a boat and then road transfer to the Zambian capital of Lusaka. It was then a short flight to Mfwue, the gateway to Luangwa, before arriving at my first home for the trip: Nkwali Camp.

Nkwali Camp is somewhat unique because it technically sits outside of the park, and the way that you enter is by crossing the Luangwa River by a ferry boat. But because the river had been so dry this year, we could safely drive our vehicle across the sand without any issue.

On our first afternoon we went looking for wild dogs because they had been spotted close by in the morning. I was coming off of a great wild dog sighting in Mana Pools, but dogs are always a special sighting so I wasn't about to turn them down here. After all, this entire trip was planned around photographing wild dogs, so I was just sticking to the script. But unfortunately we couldn't find the dogs despite our best efforts, so the first afternoon was a bust.

The next morning we went looking for Luangwa's most famous subject: leopards. It is known as the Valley of the Leopard, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to find these secretive cats than here.

After a bit of searching, we found a very shy male leopard hiding in a bush, but the photos just weren't happening if he wasn't going to come out. As we were waiting, a call on the radio came in that the dogs had been spotted in front of our camp. We raced over, and found the pack on the move after having devoured a puku.

The dogs parked under a tree by the river bank, but luckily it was in a relatively open area. We figured they'd stay there until the afternoon, so moved on to other subjects. We found some nice hippos by the river's edge, as well as some elephants, so I tried to force myself to photograph other animals instead of being zeroed in on just predators.

We had gotten word that a leopard had been seen in a tree with a kill about an hour away, and with the only other sighting being the shy male, it seemed worthwhile to head after the leopard far away since we knew it would still be there. When we got there the scene was less straightforward than we thought.

There was one leopard in a tree, but another leopard was on the ground nearby doing a sawing call. Had the leopard on the ground lost the kill to the one in the tree? It was hard to say, but clearly these two cats were not on good terms.

With the heat distorting my photos and the leopards relaxing, we decided to head back to camp in the afternoon. We had a choice to either go back to the leopards later or the wild dogs, but since the dogs were in a more open area that seemed like the smarter decision to me.

First we had to cross the Luangwa River again, and I got a couple of shots of a baboon and an impala leaping over it which I quite liked. And then we found a tiny tiny baby elephant struggling to keep up with mom in the October heat. Poor little guy!

When we caught up with the dogs they were still sleeping under a tree, so it didn't make much sense to just sit and wait for them. Luckily nearby there was a colony of southern carmine bee eaters on the banks of the river, and I tried my hand at some bird photography while we waited for the dogs to wake up. I am absolutely not a bird photographer at all, but I made an exception for these guys because they're so beautifully colored.

After trying (and mostly failing) to photograph the bee eaters, I figured it would be a good time to check in on the dogs. They were getting much more active, and because they were in an open area the shots I got were much better than I could have hoped for with the leopards.

The next day we tried to find the dogs in the same area but they had moved on. With the sun rising, I tried to photograph some Puku in the golden light.

On our first morning drive we had found a shy male leopard who didn't give us any photos. We tried looking for him again, hoping that he may be comfortable with only one or two vehicles instead. When we got to the area to look for him, we noticed a small carcass underneath a bush. Upon closer inspection we realized that it was an aardvark! I have only seen an aardvark once before, so it was pretty sad that my next sighting was of a dead one. My guide told me that they had 1 or 2 aardvarks that they would regularly see in Luangwa. I guess it's only 1 now...

Sightings were a bit quiet this morning. We found a pride of lions lounging around, but they were sleeping as most lions do. But then things picked up when we found a subadult leopard in a tree, and then mom not far off. They were very relaxed around vehicles, and we could park right underneath them without them moving off. It goes to show how amazing Luangwa is for leopards!

In the afternoon we went looking for the leopards again, but they had both completely disappeared without a trace. How secretive these cats can be! With no luck with cats, we went looking for dogs, and found the wild dog pack down by the Luangwa River. Sadly there was a crowd of vehicles watching them from the banks above, and no one wanted to be the first person to drive on the sandy river in case they got stuck in front of everyone else. Frustrating, so this sighting didn't yield any photos.

The next day was going be a transfer from Nkwali camp to my second stop: Nsefu Camp. Since Nsefu Camp is located in the private Nsefu sector, we only had a short morning drive before we'd have to link up with my new guides at our meeting point at the river.

We set off looking for the dogs since apparently sightings of wild dogs had been very rare in the Nsefu sector. Just before the sun had come up, we found them lying in the middle of the road. They retreated into the bush, and since we were the first people to spot them no one else even knew they were there. It was a magical exclusive sighting.

Eventually everyone else in the park found the dogs, and as it got crowded we decided to move on.

As we started to make our way to our rendezvous point with my new guides from Nsefu, we spotted a group of vehicles sitting below a tree. For avid safari goers, that's the tell tale sign of a leopard sighting. There was a female leopard lying in a bush nearby, as well as her subadult cub up in the tree. We sat with them for awhile, when we then noticed that the female was dragging something into the open. We hadn't even seen that there was a carcass with her, but before we knew it she was on the move with the remains of an impala.

We sped to get into position, and I smashed my shutter button hoping to get something, but she dropped the carcass and was looking in the opposite direction from us. I was fuming, thinking that I had missed an incredible shot, only to then look back at my photos and to my shock found one in focus of her looking at me for half a second. Oh the lows and highs of wildlife photography.

We were running very late at this point, but then spotted another leopard in a tree by ourselves. Luangwa definitely lives up to its name as the valley of the leopard!

At last we made it to the meeting point in the Luangwa River! Normally we would cross by boat, but because the water levels were so low we ended up crossing on foot. What a crazy dry season it's been.

As we were driving to Nsefu Camp for lunch, my guides spotted a new sighting for me to photograph: bats! They were hanging out sleeping during the day, but this was the first time I'd ever photographed a fruit bat. So cool!

But we had to move on and get to camp. Lunch was getting cold! As I started to check in, a herd of elephants came to the water hole right in front of camp, and I was half listening to the camp manager explain the rules while I was itching to just photograph the elephants. But thankfully he wrapped up and I could photograph them to my heart's content.

After a short rest, it was time for my first afternoon drive in the Nsefu. There was one subject and one subject alone that I came to Nsefu for: Olimba the leopard. The star of countless documentaries, she is perhaps one of the most famous leopards in the world. Her skills at using the dried gulleys of Luangwa to ambush prey above her is one of a kind, and she has been a fantastic subject for photographers and film crews for over 14 years.

As I was driving around these gulleys, it felt surreal to finally be in the place where I had seen so many documentaries filmed. We drove around for maybe an hour, when we then spotted a filming vehicle parked on the edge of a gulley pointing down. And who was it? Olimba of course! My first drive and we had already found her!

It was amazing to see her in person. I won't lie, it was like being star struck by a celebrity for me. She wasn't too active besides popping in and out of the gulley to look around, but the portraits she gave me were great.

Since we knew where she was, we figured we'd come here first thing the next morning. We couldn't find Olimba sadly, but such is the life of leopards who disappear in the night. It wasn't a total bust though, because we found her cub instead!

This is my usual luck with leopards and cubs. I usually find one or the other, but never both together.

Since we knew the cub wouldn't move too far, we went looking for other things to photograph. We found a nice kudu in good light, but it was too skittish and kept moving into areas with too much bush for my liking. Then we found a pride of lions sleeping under a tree, with one lion that kept oddly hugging a sausage fruit like it was a stuffed animal or something. It was the strangest thing, but it was still amusing to photograph.

Word soon got out that there was a pack of wild dogs not far from the lions, and we headed that way. It was pretty surprising, because my Nkwali guide said that wild dogs were rarely seen in Nsefu, which is why I focused so heavily on them there, only to find them in Nsefu on my first day there. I know I know, at this point I've photographed wild dogs to death on this trip, but I so rarely see them on my other safaris in East Africa so I was trying to take advantage of them here.

The dogs weren't going anywhere, so we left them and figured we'd check them again in the evening. But the first stop in the afternoon was going to be the bee eater hide that was constructed right next to a colony on the banks of the Luangwa River.

Personally I've always been anti hide photography. I see it as the same as baiting, except instead of food you're baiting with water. The bee eater colony is naturally at this spot though, so I made an exception and wanted to see how it went. I found that the hide was built a little too close to the river bank, so trying to aim with my 400mm 2.8 was definitely a challenge. After an hour or so I realized that this bird photography thing probably wasn't my strong suit, but I got some shots I liked.

We then made our way to the dogs, who were sleeping as they had been when we left them. Some elephants were drinking in the river, and it made for a classic Luangwa scene.

The dogs then started to get up and be more active, when in the blink of an eye the adults sprinted towards the river. We thought maybe they had spotted some prey, until we saw another dog running completely across the length of the Luangwa River. These were intruding dogs from another pack, and the dogs we were watching had no tolerance for them since they had puppies to protect. The pack ran off and it seemed like they were on their way completely out of the Nesfu Sector. Naturally I missed every single shot of the dogs running, but that's how it goes with these guys!

Our mornings would usually go the same way every day. Head to the gulleys to look for Olimba, and if we couldn't find her then try to pivot to whatever subject we could in the good early morning light.

The sun rises very strangely in Luangwa. It's like the dusty red sun will come up and you can visually see it in the sky, but then it takes awhile for the actual light to break through and hit the ground. It's the weirdest thing, and I've even photographed during an eclipse. But it does give you time to find something to photograph, and this morning we struck out on Olimba so then switched to some giraffes on the move instead.

We drove around for a bit looking for leopards, but just couldn't find anyone. But what we did find instead were the wild dog pack, who had somehow made it back to our side during the night. I had honestly given up on photographing them anymore, but it's like the universe was telling me to just appreciate them and take the photo.

As more vehicles showed up the sighting got a little crowded for my liking, so we left. We drove around and saw a vehicle looking up at a tree far in the distance. "What do you think they're looking at?" I said to my guide. "Birds most likely" he replied. But come on, nobody likes birds that much, and I took a closer look with my binoculars and saw that it was Olimba and her cub resting in a tree. Because of course it was.

The light and photos weren't great, but at least now we had options for the afternoon. Dogs or leopards, which is a great position to be in. I often find that those later hours of the morning safari are crucial to get a sense of the lay of the land, and know where what animals are where so that you can set yourself up for success in the afternoon.

When we returned later, we found that Olimba and her cub had disappeared, and we just couldn't find where they had gone too. Just my luck with these two...

But we had the dogs at least, and as we were sitting with them a call came in on the radio that there were lions hunting buffalo nearby. The decision didn't even need to be discussed, we raced to the lions as fast as we could. I've seen lions take down buffalo only once, but I got 0 photos of the sighting so I was itching to get some shots now. Especially since a buffalo hunt is a prolonged experience, which meant that we would have lots of time to watch it develop and get action shots as the light got good.

When we got there though, the action was already over. The lions had taken down the buffalo on the complete opposite side of the river, where no one from the Nsefu side could get to. It was so frustrating to be so close yet so far to an amazing sighting, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

We headed back to the dogs, who then began to get up and stalk some puku in the distance. I had missed the dogs hunting the day before, but I wasn't going to miss this time around. Unfortunately the dogs missed out on making a kill, but I did get some photos of them stalking/running that I liked.

The next day we made our usual stop at the gulleys, but instead of giraffes now we had zebras at first light. I tried playing with more backlight, though I acknowledge I will need to continue to edit these photos because I know they're good, but not quite great yet.

I wanted to spend the day focusing on general game, not just predators. I felt like I had photographed so many wild dogs and leopards at this point, that my portfolio of the trip was becoming a little too one dimensional.

I found a nice kudu bull to photograph, and we chased him around for a bit, though I wasn't 100% happy with the photos. But I didn't want to stress him out anymore, so we left him.

We then headed to the hot springs of the Nsefu Sector since my guide had told me that with the lions making a kill on the other side of the river that our best shot for lions was going to be a pride up there. We found a mating pair, and I got a nice shot of the male, but my guides were quite weary of him and said we should leave him because he was staring at us a little too intensely. People have told me that the lions of Luangwa have a certain wild look to them, and now I can totally see why.

We explored around the hot springs, and I photographed more zebras, some crowned cranes, before heading back to the Luangwa River and photographing some giraffes.

After losing Olimba and her cub during the middle of the day yesterday, we didn't want a repeat of that scenario again. After finishing up with the giraffes, we had spotted Olimba resting in a nearby sausage tree. We then proceeded to sit with her for the next 6 HOURS. It was brutally hot and we were exhausted, but we just didn't want to lose her again like the day before. And every time she would get up and stretch we'd think that this was the moment when she'd come down and be active, but it just wasn't happening. At last she finally came down to make her way to the river to drink, and I got some of my favorite leopard photos of all time.

In the middle of the night, I could have sworn I heard wild dogs, but I couldn't tell if it was in my dreams or not. When we set out the next morning we noticed that the pack of dogs that we had been seeing had made a kill right in front of our camp. So I wasn't dreaming then!

The dogs had clearly eaten their fill, and then headed up the banks of the river to the other side of the park where we couldn't follow. There was also a hyena sitting in the sand nearby, and judging by its gigantic belly I was guessing it enjoyed some of the meal too.

After some driving around, it seemed like no one else in Nsefu had seen Olimba. It goes to show how secretive leopards can be, when you find them in a spot one day and the next day they've slipped away.

As we were driving along, we heard some baboon alarm calls and then quickly spotted the culprit. It was Olimba out on patrol. We quickly photographed her as she moved along, but she wasn't enjoying the attention and then slinked into the bush.

Not far from her, we also spotted her cub resting on a ridge line. Mom and cub were close, so we knew that this would be the best sighting of the afternoon if they'd reunite.

When I came to Luangwa, I had a vision for one specific type of photo. I wanted to focus on hippo photography, and with this being one of the driest years on record, the low water levels should mean that hippos are being pushed into tighter and tighter spaces. That is a recipe for territorial fighting, which is exactly the photo that I had in mind.

Nsefu doesn't have a dedicated hippo hide, so the idea was to drive to a nice spot on the banks of the river, get out, and lay as low and close as I could without disturbing the hippos. I was hoping to see them spread their jaws open wide, which I had never photographed before. And if I was lucky, maybe two bulls going at it as well.

It took us several days to identify a good spot on the river, one with a decent pod of hippos, a good background, as well as in a position where the sun would be setting and the light hitting the hippos too. But after a few days we found the perfect place, and in the afternoon I sat with the hippos and got some incredible shots that I was happy with.

After our time with the hippos, we went looking for Olimba, but couldn't find her. We found her cub in the same spot, but the light was no good for photos sadly.

The next day was my final day in Luangwa before I had to head home, so at this point I just wanted to see what we'd see. I was hoping for Olimba, but I wasn't getting greedy.

We found a hippo out of the water at sunrise, which was pretty surprising, but it was a little shy for photos and didn't want to cooperate.

After a bit of looking, we finally found Olimba resting in a tree. Over the 6 days that I had seen her, I hadn't seen her hunt once, so I knew she must have been starving at this point. She had a hungry cub to feed too after all. Some impala walked right by her tree, but she seemed to show no interest in them. It was very odd, but eventually my time ran out and we had to leave her and head to the airport.

Later that afternoon I would get word that Olimba did try to hunt, and much to everyone's horror, she had taken the horn of a puku to the spine, paralyzing her. With this injury, her fate was sealed. Olimba, who had ruled Nsefu for 14 years, was no more. I was naturally shocked and devastated to hear this news, but it was also bittersweet in a way. I had so badly wanted to come to Nsefu to see her, and I was just hoping that even in her old age, that she'd last just a little bit longer until I got there. So I was incredibly lucky to not only see her, but get good photos as well. I also felt conflicted, because I had taken a photo of her on her last day alive too. As far as I know, this is the last photo of Olimba, sleeping quietly in a sausage tree. It's truly a shot I'll cherish forever.

Luangwa was a magical place, and I was sorry I had leave. But I had incredible sightings, of wild dogs, leopards galore, and all the other amazing animals that call this place too. It's truly a hidden gem in the safari world, and one that I would highly recommend to anyone who is as addicted to this as I am!