The beginning of a new season is always a busy time for our camp teams and an exciting time for our guides as they return to the bush to see what has changed, what remains the same and which residents have endured the emerald season. Being an undammed, natural river from spring to confluence, the Luangwa river swells to breaking point every year and cuts new channels through the Valley which can bring some changes to our camps.
Camp building calls for all hands-on deck and many more members from the local community join our ranks to build our eco-friendly camps. Cutting, combing and thatching the Luangwa’s seasonal grass to weave our camps together takes great skill and manpower.
During this time the guiding and front of house teams took part in an advanced first aid course alongside our friends at Sungani Lodge. The guides then set out to clear and grade roads that became hippo paths during the rains.
Tafika Camp opened in May with an upgraded breakfast area and new chalet six now set back from the advancing Luangwa river. After exploring the game viewing area, we were excited to find Mutima the leopard (daughter of Olimba) roaming the area and seemingly taking over her mother’s old territory after Olimba’s death last year.
Mutima has grown into a beautiful leopard and we hope to see her establish her territory here for many years to come.
We’ve had several sightings of the Nsefu and Salt Pan lion prides and a few from the Hollywood pride as they visit Tafika from across the river. Some young male lions that fed on a buffalo that was stuck in the mud near Tafika hung around in a nearby sausage tree to enjoy the cool breeze and posed for some photos.
The Yellow-Billed Stork colony is always a favourite at this time of year and is a flurry of activity. By July most of the chicks have fledged and the storks are spreading out across the Luangwa in separate fishing parties.
Big Lagoon and Chikoko Tree Walking Camps have been busy and the walking safari teams have enjoyed beautiful birding, puku, elephants, giraffe, lion and close up wild dog sightings so far this year.
Several sightings of Cookson’s wildebeest and Rock python were highlights. One python sighting was particularly memorable with the massive snake tackling a sub-adult puku. The puku managed to thrash its way out of the deathly vice and limp away with the python slipping away into the gras
Takwela and Mwaleshi opened mid-June so the RASair plane has been busy winging guests up to explore the North Luangwa. Takwela enjoyed a facelift this year with the sitenge (dining area) being rebuilt upriver to evade an eroding bank. There’s been great feedback so far about the changes.
The North Luangwa guests have enjoyed several lovely sightings of wild dogs already this year and Moffat even saw a pack of 15 dogs take down a kudu in the Mwaleshi river from the camp.
Building of our new Olimba camp is still in progress and we look forward to opening next month. The builders were treated to a leopard skirting the edge of camp to hunt baboons one evening before sunset – we hope this trend continues when we open!
The smallest member of our team is happy to confirm the Luangwa sundowner sessions are top quality as always.
Thank you to so many of our returning and new guests who make this all possible. We hope that you continue to enjoy enriching safaris in the remote reaches of the Luangwa.
The Team
Our team remains largely the same but we are pleased to welcome a few new members to the Remote family; Masuzyo Zimba and James Duncan-Anderson. With several years of experience guiding in the Luangwa in both driving and walking safaris, they are a great addition to our longstanding guiding team. Some of you may remember our guide-in-training, Mwila Phiri? We’re pleased to share he has now qualified as a driving guide and is a second-generation member of staff with his dad having been in Remote’s employ for years.
We are also pleased to welcome back Karen Back; Karen worked with us many years ago and returns to manage Mwaleshi and Takwela in the North Luangwa. With her daughter, Georgia, having also returned for another season, we are lucky to have the Back ladies join the front of house team ranks with Vel and Mulangi.
We’re sad to share the passing of retired Remote guide, Isaac Zulu, last year. Isaac was a Norman Carr prodigy and was one of the first Zambian safari guides in the Luangwa. Isaac guided with Remote for decades and will be sorely missed and fondly remembered.
The Tafika Fund
The Tafika Fund scholarship programme is ongoing throughout the year. Thanks to generous donations we have been able to expanded our support to include 16 school pupil and 21 tertiary education scholarships. School pupils returned after a small holiday for term two in May.
The quality of tertiary courses has also increased with 11 of these being degrees at renowned universities like Copperbelt, Mulungushi and DMI St Eugene University – we have students studying medicine, accounting, maths, science, business administration and pharmaceuticals. Other students are studying accounting and tourism at recognized institutions like NIPA and ZITHS.
A very big thank you for all of your generous donations that make all of these initiatives possible.
