Mukambi now on you tube!!!!!
To get a better impression of Mukambi Safari Lodge and especially its neighbors, you can have a look at you tube. Some friends have posted clips on you tube. Especially the postings of nutsandfriendsmedia are worth watching!!!! They stayed for a long period to film a documentary 'van Amstelveen naar Afrika'. Now they have plans to make a new series "Mukambi Lodge Animals'. Another professionally made clip is from open Africa. We like to thank everybody who posted clips taken at Mukambi on you tube.
Enjoy watching!!!!
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22 July 2010 GMT +1
Mukambi ‘our pick’ by Lonely Planet
In the latest Lonely Planet edition (2010) of Zambia, Mukambi Safari Lodge got a very good rating and was even chosen as 'our pick' by Lonely Planet.
Lonely Planet describes Mukambi as: ‘a great place to stay and easy to reach from Lusaka’. About the property and atmosphere they say: ‘It is very tastefully designed and somehow lulls visitors into a happy vibe’. Also the food is mentioned: ‘The food is outstanding, especially dinner, your three courses will rarely disappoint’.
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3 June 2010 GMT +1
Good Game and more rain!
So the past few weeks has seen our main game loops re-open with the receeding water tables, resulting in some great wildlife watching. A minor glitch in the form of a big rain storm on Saturday has seen some of our puddles refill again, to the great delight of our warthogs!
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1 June 2010 GMT +1
President's Wife Visits Mukambi!
A busy few days with a State Visit from the First Lady Madam Thandiwe Banda.
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8 May 2010 GMT +1
Crossing the Kafue River
Elephants crossing the Kafue River are always an impressive sighting. With the numbers of Elephants increasing fast in Kafue National Park it is impossible not to see them. Almost all breeding herds have a lot of young Elephants in their herds. It is very encouraging and shows that ZAWA is successful protecting Kafue National Park
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26 August 2009 GMT +1
Fred taking a nap....
What do you do when you’ve worked hard breaking trees and uprooting bushes at Mukambi Safari Lodge? You take a break..........
It is rare to see an Elephant relaxed like this. But it is clearly a sign Fred is completely at ease at the lodge.Needless to say that he was snoring........
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26 August 2009 GMT +1
The Plains Camp, our bush camp on the Busanga Plains has opened this month as well. Although we experienced the highest water levels in the past 6 six years, the camp opened according to schedule half July. As usual it was a huge challenge to get all materials to camp because of the high water, but with hard work and determination it was opened on time. The first guests arrived on 14th July . They experienced high water, but also spectacular birdlife, lots of game and stunning sunrises and sunsets (see picture, Puku’s in sunrise). The most encouraging development was the return of big groups of Elephants to the Busanga Plains. In the last years we incidentally saw one or a few Elephants passing through the Plains, but the last weeks there have been many Elephants staying on the Plains. It clearly shows that the Busanga Plains have recovered from poaching in the past. We are all very excited about this special part of Africa and we hope to show it to you all.
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17 July 2009 GMT +1
It has been a long time since the last newsletter. That doesn’t mean that nothing has been going on. The last few months a lot has happened. In February we closed Mukambi for building and renovation activities. Amongst many other improvements we built a fire place in the lounge/bar area. It is a very popular spot, especially during the cold winter nights. Nothing is better to discuss the day while sitting around a warm fire.
One thing that most guest will notice when they visit us are the new ‘Mukambi family members’, Babe (the daughter of Piglet) had 4 piglets. They were born in June and after two weeks they’ve started venturing around the lodge (see picture). The game drives in the last weeks have been fantastic. Good number of lion, leopard and especially cheetah. The game around Mukambi has improved dramatically the last 8 years since we started operating and we notice an increase every year. The elephants are more relaxed, the prides of lions are getting bigger and several times we have seen a group of 7 cheetahs. This clearly shows that tourism and conservation can go hand in hand.
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17 July 2009 GMT +1
In June we replaced the tents in the bush camp at Mukambi with new tents which we purchased in South-Africa. So finally the bush camp is looking up to speed with a completely renovated ablution block (new structure with new plumbing hence better water pressure, in fact the best showers in the whole camp!) and 7 new tents. Two tents, no. 1 & 7 have double beds in them. We have also put down laterite paths and parking lots next to each tent so guests know where to drive and park without ruining the grass. In July we will be getting new beds in all the tents as well.
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16 July 2008 GMT +1
May saw the arrival of our new managers Jacques and Linda van Heerden. Jacques and Linda have 20 years of experience in the hospitality business and were at Barra Lodge in Mozambique before they came to Mukambi. Within a few days of their arrival we knew we had found the right people to take Mukambi to the next level of quality without loosing the relaxed atmosphere….Jacques and Linda are such nice hosts and make guests feel very much at home! They are also both trained chefs so we will be introducing some new menus and of course serving even better food!!
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16 July 2008 GMT +1
April saw the last of the rains, in fact the last time it did rain was the last Sunday this month! The river continues to drop and the bush is drying up nicely so we have had some wonderful sightings of lions again this month……on almost half of our drives we spotted a big family group. The leopards have also been around, almost twice a week we spotted them as well.
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16 July 2008 GMT +1
Newsletter MArch 2008
In March it finally started to dry up a bit and
now at the end of the month we have not had any rain this last week of the
month which is quite refreshing! We had a great Easter with a full lodge and
wonderful guests who we treated to hot cross buns and the children to an Easter
egg hunt on Easter Sunday morning.
During the weekend we had some good game drives with one group of guests
seeing lion, leopard and cheetah during the 3 days they were here. In the last
week of March we even saw wild dog again which is always reassuring how good
the game viewing actually is in the park!
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16 July 2008 GMT +1
News letter February 2008
Most important news at the beginning of this month is for our Dutch guests....the second series of the TV programme (Van Amstelveen naar Afrika) will start broadcasting on 3rd March at 10.30 on RTL 4. These are 6 new episodes filmed last year from March to September. As opposed to the series in 2006, last year focuses more on the day to day running of the lodge and is more positive and light-hearted. "Veel kijk plezier" as we say in Dutch!
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18 February 2008 GMT +1
News letter January 2008
Like we said in December, the rain came with force and is still
going strong as we speak! The Kafue River reached its highest point we
have ever seen it this last week of January with water levels up by 3,5
meters, the jetty completely under water and the plain opposite the
lodge on the other side of the river completely under water, we have
never seen anything like it! And the predictions for February are even
more rain.....Despite the rain we do however manage to do game drives
and when we do go out we still see quite a lot of animals because one
theory is that they also don't like getting their hooves, paws wet so
they often are found on the roads! There are definitely several prides
of lion around as we hear them calling to each other at night much more
often than in the dry season. Again a theory that in the dry season
they demarcate their territory by spraying a fluid from a gland where
as in the rainy season that spray would get washed away so they have to
call to each other more often to warn each other where they are. But
regardless of the rain life goes on around the lodge, Lucky and his
niece and nephews still sleep under the deck every night and disappear
into the bush during the day, Basil retreats more to the staff compound
these days and has not been in the lodge since the beginning of
December. We think because the river is so high his direct enemies have
disappeared with the high water and he therefore feels safe to wonder
around outside more than inside the lodge! Sometimes, however Basil
does come to the lodge to look for company (see photo).
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14 February 2008 GMT +1
The drives have been good considering the rain and the lush bush, we have still had good sightings of lion, leopard, cheetah and wild dog(see photo), elephant and buffalo and of course all the various antelope.
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14 February 2008 GMT +1
November: Translocation of Pumba and Pig
The most sad and remarkable event of November was the translocation of our warthogs Pumba and Piglet to Munda Wanga…..We had decided a while back that their time had come to leave the lodge as they were becoming increasingly unpredictable and had on several occasions started to run after and try and bite guests! Especially Pumba and Piglet, the 2 sisters who we initially adopted from ZAWA were becoming a problem, not only for guests but also for us, breaking waterpipes everyday, breaking the bushcamp ablutions, stealing the staff’s food in the compound etc. etc. etc. So last Friday on 30th November Mundag Wanga sent 2 of their esteemed staff members to assist us in getting them into 2 crates (see photo) and driving them as quickly as possible to Munda Wanga where they arrived safe and sound and after being released from their crates, starting grazing the green grass in the sanctuary! So maybe the grass is indeed greener on the other side! For those of our guests who loved the warthogs as much as we do, please go and visit them at Munda Wanga, they still relish in attention and a tummy-rub! Lucky and piglets babies (Wilbur, Babe and Rufus) are all still here and come and go in the evenings and early morning to sleep in their hide-out under the dining deck. They are considerably less tame and habituated and do not walk up to people as easily so we are hoping that once they are fully grown they will choose the bush as their natural home and return back to the wild.
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6 December 2007 GMT +1
October is traditionally called the ‘suicide month’ which temperatures rising above 40 degrees at times. But in Kafue with an average altitude of 1075 meters the nights are generally nice and cool.
The bush was dry but not as dry as it has been before since it had rained so much last the rainy season that there was relatively speaking still enough water in the bush. After the first rains the bush sprang into life within a week with fresh green grass and shoots on the trees and bushes. The game was fantastic and at Busanga we had great Cheetah sigtings (see photo).
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6 December 2007 GMT +1
September: New tents for Busanga
We have good news for Busanga. After a long (and increasingly frustrating) process we managed to get the news tents for our Plains Camp on the the Busanga Plains. We started ordering the tents in October last year. After numerous delays in the ordering and manufacturing process they send our tents to Namibia instead of Zambia. It took us five more weeks to get our tents where they belonged: The Busanga Plains. But……. It was worth the effort. The new tents look great, they blend completely into the environment, are more spacious and cooler compared to the old tents. (See photo’s).
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6 December 2007 GMT +1
News August: Opening Mukambi School
Today the Mukambi Community School was officially opened! After weeks of hard work, stress and dealing with things as roof sheets having the wrong color, our carpenter not showing up etc. etc. we managed to get the school ready just in time.
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18 August 2007 GMT +1
News July: Warthogs born
We are happy to announce our "Mukambi warthog family" has expanded. Yes, Piglet has just become a mum!!!
About 3 months ago we started suspecting Piglet had been a little 'busy'. Big belly, staff telling about a male warthog hanging around, odd behavior. But of course we were never 100% sure she was pregnant.
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18 August 2007 GMT +1
News June: Sightings
While going on a game drive in Kafue National Park - or any other park- it is always a gamble what you will see that day. It might be 'just' puku, impala with some kudu and elephant. Or, you might just have your lucky day and see 3 cats - lion, leopard and cheetah - on the same evening.
And exactly that has happened on a few occasions on our game drives the past few months!
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18 August 2007 GMT +1
News May
The end of April often means the end of the rainy season at Mukambi Safari Lodge. Also this year. For many animals these last rains mean the start of their mating season. And we think our resident warthogs Pumba and Piglet might have been busy!
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9 June 2007 GMT +1
News April
At Mukambi we often get requests from guests wanting to stay in a family chalet. As from April 2007 we have two such family chalet’s available, each accommodating 4 people or more if needed as we can add some extra beds for children!
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9 June 2007 GMT +1
MUKAMBI COMMUNITY SCHOOL
As you may or may not know, Mukambi Safari Lodge has about 45 employees working hard to satisfy the needs of our guests. Unlike other lodges we allow our staff and their families to live on the premises of the lodge. Since we are living 100km from the nearest village, this way families can still stay together. In order to ensure this Mukambi is currently in the process of building a community school.
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21 February 2007 GMT +1
NEW WEBSITE
Welcome to our new website! We have been working hard to be able to present you a Mukambi Safari Lodge website that will present you the lodge, the Busanga camp and the park much better than before. Not only will you find more and better images, also the information provided is more up-to-date and precise.
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21 February 2007 GMT +1
