Mukambi Safari Lodge

We really enjoyed our stay. The staff are so friendly and helpful. The accommodation is luxurious and the food is good. Our safari guide was excellent and we saw lions, elephants, hippos, monkeys, buffolo, crocodiles and a leopard. Would highly recommend.

The quick hop from Lusaka quickly turned into an epic safari experience. The guiding was very good and tailed to my needs and there were bonus look sightings of lions on all three days. The food was very good particularly the surprise lunch menu that fit in very well taste and portion wise with the early morning wake up, game drive and planned siesta.

Untamed safari experience ever, located in the Kafue National Park with other two camps some kilometers apart. Scenery of hippos in the vicinity. Boat cruise also accessible on daily basis along the Kafue river, also to access other camps.

The Lodge is beautiful. Everything is clean and well maintained. The staff is friendly. The food is excellent. It is off grid and runs on solar power, so don't expect many outlets for charging. There is a view of the river from the main Lodge, but also from the chalets and tents. It is a very nice respite.

The pros: The lodge is very beautiful and the location is stellar. We loved hearing hippos grunting while drinking our morning coffee. The guides were so kind and knowledgeable, and they were able to adapt the activities to our particular interests and requests. We saw some amazing animals. I'll never forget hanging out with a pride of lions at sunset, just 15 feet from our jeep. We appreciated the pool, with the separate kids area, even if our rowdy kids likely acted as birth control for the honeymooning couples who were also enjoying the pool area. The cons: The villas were small, with limited space to relax and hang out. There was a small verandah with chairs so we could sit outside, but our septic tank was actively overflowing just a few feet way and the smell was incredible. It would have been nice to sit out there with a cup of coffee in the mornings, but there's no room service (or even a phone in the rooms to request service). The rooms themselves were SWELTERING. We slept terribly while we were there and woke up drenched in sweat every day. It made the 5am wake up calls and late nights (because of slow dinner service) even harder. We almost left a day early because of this -- we were almost too exhausted to enjoy the activities. The most frustrating part of the stay was the meals. While the food quality was fine (not spectacular, but perfectly fine), the service was SLOW and there were only 1-2 choices per meal. After waking up at 5am, doing two long activities outside each day (which requires kids to sit quietly and not talk so we don't scare the animals), all we wanted was a quick and easy meal so we could get to bed. It would take 45 minutes or longer to even get the first course for dinner, which was an absolute disaster for our large party. It was also weird that we had to choose one kids meal for the entire party (of 6 kids) and it would then take an hour for the kids meal to arrive -- a bowl of plain pasta, no side, no fruit, no vegetable, nothing. By then, the kids were in full meltdown mode and had already filled up on bread rolls that we threw at them in desperation. The vegetarians in our group were repeatedly served meat dishes even after we requested/reminded of dietary needs. The staff often seemed annoyed or confused by requests for vegetarian meals or our desperate pleas to get meals to go (often requested at lunch time for the dinner service, in an attempt to give the staff plenty of time to adapt).

Setting out by boat to cross the Kafue river for safari activities adds a magical dimension here. We picked Mukambi as it is accessible by road from Lusaka in a reasonable time. The road is quiet once the city if left behind, and most of the drive is through a wild game management area. The lodge itself is attractive, with the central feature a stream that flows right through it to the river, so there's a relaxing sound of water flow. There are multiple decks which offer places to sit quietly and enjoy the view, but not ideal if guests have mobility difficulties. I like places where the owners are resident, and here it was a pleasure to meet Robyn and hear her stories. The rest of the staff including Rita and Maggie were also good company. We were guided by Malcolm, with both drives and a walk. He was very knowledgeable, and shared stories about traditional plant uses, especially the many sausage trees and jackalberries. The miombo woodlands are good for walks, with enough shade at this hot time of year. We also enjoyed the night drive, seeing scrub hares, nightjar, hyenas and grazing hippos. As we had a short stay we did not have time to visit the sister lodges at Fig Tree and Busanga Plains, but heard good reports from other guests.