Mvuu, Lower Zambezi National Park

Leaving Kafue we headed towards Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, bypassing the city center and turning off just before the Zimbabwe border to get to Mvuu camp close to Lower Zambezi National Park. We thought we had left the worst of the roads behind us, and 60km does not seem far, but OMG, this one was a classic. What made it bearable was the amazing, picturesque villages and the waves and smiles from children as we passed by.
The very sad story we were told when we arrived at the camp, which is situated on the banks of the very impressive Zambezi river, looking across to Zimbabwe, is that the day before we arrived a camper from Germany had been killed by an elephant just a few yards from his campsite, in front of his girlfriend. John met the owner and talked about the incident, and it seems unclear exactly what happened, but more than likely the victim approached too close to the elephant without being fully aware of the danger, trying to get a ‘perfect’ picture, and by the time he realized the elephant was charging him in real life, it was too late. Regardless, a very sad story and to make it even sadder, we just learned that a local villager was also killed by an elephant on the same day.
Given the bad roads here and the stunning beauty of the river, we opted to see this park and critters by boat. Some great views of both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides of the river with plenty of hippo, elephants, birds of all kinds and even some buffalo on one of the islands. Sadly, poaching is a major issue in this park (and apparently all of Zambia) and you can see it in the way the elephants run away in fear when you approach, with their ears curled and the fear clear in their eyes.Read more