Chasing Waterfalls – Luapula – African Vacations

Join us on this laid back 9 day road trip to Lumangwe Falls (Kawambwa) and back to Lusaka. This mobile package takes you through some of Zambia’s many rivers cascading into fabulous displays of falling water as they wind over the undulating landscape.

So get your adventurous friends and make all the other friends back home jealous. After all, you are about to make a lifetime of experiences.

Highlights:

Mambilima Falls
Mambwemukonka Falls
Mumbuluma Falls
Ntumbachushi Falls
Lumangwe Falls
Kabwelume Falls
Samfya Beach

Trip Includes:

8 nights camping – (Lodging option available)
All Meals from dinner on first day to breakfast on the 9th day
Bottled drinking water
Camping equipment (tent, mattress, sleeping bags)

Exclusions:

items of personal nature
Camping fees

Travel Dates: 27 March to 04 April 2021
Package Price: K6,500 per person

*Contact us for self drive options*

**Bon Fire,
**Swimming under the falls
**No electricity or charging ports at most campsites. (charging can be done on board as vehicle is moving.)
**Sporadic network coverage
** Terms & Conditions Apply

Day 1: – Forest Inn

“BE AWESTRUCK”

As we drive farther away from town, hitting the Great North Road, the traffic will start thinning as well as the number of people. Already you can feel you are heading out into the wilderness. It’s time to look out the windows and not down at a screen, feel the spirit of adventure and really see Zambia passing you by. There is so much to see and experience if we are just open to it.

The villages become smaller and the houses more intricately hand-painted and you will find that everyone will greet you with a smile. That is what truly makes Zambia so special, the people.

Our first overnight stop is by Forest Inn in Mkushi, a few hours drive from Lusaka we have a chance to recharge our batteries before the adventurous trip.

Day 2 – Mumbuluma Falls

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey” ~ BABS HOFFMAN

Very early breakfast as we will leave quite early on this leg so you get to see the different attractions on the route. We’ll stop and camp at Mumbuluma Falls for the night after passing, Bangweulu swamps and restocking in Mansa Town.

Mumbuluma Falls is made up of two waterfalls occurring in succession, an upper and lower falls. It is called or popularly named Mumbuluma falls because of its famous sound of nature that is always produced from the curtain of water as the water falls down, at a drop of 9.3 metres high while the width is 30metres. The second curtain has the height similarly to that of the first only that the width there is different, it’s about 44 meters wide and poses a natural swimming pool for visitors. Mumbuluma means, the natural sound from the roaring waters.

*Lite Lunch will be served on route and dinner at Campsite.

Day 3 & 4 Lumangwe and Kabwelume Falls

“Discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

After breakfast we set off towards Kawambwa. Past Kawambwa we join the road that goes to Mporokoso, It will take another approx. 2 hours on dirt road to reach Lumangwe and Kabweluma Falls. The campsite is on the top lip of Lumangwe, aptly named ‘Little Victoria Falls’ and you can bath in a small rock pool on the precipice as the sun goes down. Probably one of the most hair-raising bathing experiences you will ever have, especially as it’ll be just after the wet season when the water is high and thunders down onto the rocks below.

Right by Lumangwe is Kabweluma Falls which surrounds you in a near 360 degrees of silver waters.

We’ll easily spend the night at the Lumangwe site and the next day exploring Kabwelume Falls, take a picnic lunch and enjoy the sights and sounds of the waters rushing by. There is also a campsite attendant there to help us out with a camp fire.

Day 5 & 6 – Ntumbachushi Falls

GENESIS 1:31 – And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

After breakfast we start herding back to Lusaka, we’ll stop and camp at Ntumbachushi Falls just after passing Kawambwa Town. Ntumbachushi is notable not just for the main falls, however, but for a series of smaller falls and pools stretching for a distance of more than 2 km above the main falls, in a landscape described by many as among the most beautiful in central Africa, with unusual vegetation, rocky outcrops and views over the Luapula valley. The water of the Ng’ona is filtered by the wetlands (locally called dambos) out of which it drains and is exceptionally clear, affording safe river swimming considered by many visitors to be the best in Zambia.

A steep path 20 m on the north side of the main falls leads up and over the rocky cliff and continues for 0.5 km to a place nicknamed ‘the beauty spot’ consisting of two pools below a falls of about 6 m high and 25 m wide in two sections. Above the main falls there are two further falls with a drop exceeding 5 m.

We’ll spend 2 nights exploring this hidden gem.

Day 7 – Samfya Beach on Lake Bangweulu

Better to see something once than to hear about it a hundred times.

It only takes about 3.5 hours to reach Samfya from Ntumbachushi so it’s a nice easy drive and we’ll spend the afternoon and 1 night there to see the sights.

Samfya is known for its perfectly white beaches on the western shores of Lake Bangwelu. It’s a great stop off point to just relax and enjoy the scenery. It is not recommended you swim in the Lake due to crocodiles but a quick splash in the shallows is perfectly fine.

Samfya is a commercial fishing centre, as well a centre for transport by boat to islands and other areas of the lake.

Day 8 – Forest Inn

“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.”― Aliyyah Eniath, The Yard

We’ll start off around mid day going towards Mkushi for our Last night stop.

This trip shows the true variation of landscapes that Zambia has to offer. The breath-taking beauty, expanses of water and serenity of being the only ones in a natural pool will stay with you for time to come.

It feels like you have embarked on a huge adventure, with time to reflect and do some soul searching of your own and really think about what is important in life.