Introduction
North Luangwa National Park is a wild and untouched region on the western bank of the Luangwa River. The park is not open to the public in general. Instead, a handful of safari operators have permission to run walking safaris in the park, with a couple of intimate and luxurious tented camps providing accommodation for a limited number of visitors. From the camps can be accessed the beautiful surrounding wilderness of riverine forest, open grasslands and pockets of sausage trees, vegetable ivory palms and red mahogany.
The Mwaleshi River creates a number of watering holes as it recedes in the dry season, and these are good vantage points for seeing a variety of wildlife. North Luangwa safaris often lead to some incredible animal encounters. Antelopes are well represented here, with hartebeest, reedbuck and eland frequently seen. So too are four of the Big Five - elephants and leopards are sometimes sighted, while huge herds of buffalo and large prides of lion are a more common occurrence.
