Sleeping Under The Stars While On Safari At Zambia’s Chiawa Camp

Wildlife rich and less crowded than other destinations in Africa, Zambia is landing on this year’s hit lists for travelers seeking a prime safari experience. Among the top choices there: Chiawa Camp, a veteran of the landscape as the first to open in Lower Zambezi National Park in 1989. When it reopens on May 1^st, though, it will have a completely new look: the eight tents and safari suite have been expanded and redone with a new Star Bed tower and cruise on the river to that tower added.

Guests who elect to spend a night on the 13-foot-high Star Bed located just downstream from the main camp start the evening drifting down the Zambezi on a silent pontoon boat with a four course dinner composed of dishes fusing African and European specialties served on board. Upon arrival at the tower, guests will find a drawn bath and bottle of champagne as a welcome to the suite which contains a queen sized fourposter bed with a mosquito net and a complete bathroom. Since it overlooks the river where nocturnal animals may come to drink, there’s a flashlight with a red filter by the side of the bed to view that activity plus a two way radio for any necessary communications with lodge personnel. There’s also a photographic hide on the ground floor to view wildlife during the daytime without being viewed in turn. The next morning, coffee/tea and a continental breakfast are served.

Back at the main camp, the tents also overlook the river, allowing views of the wildlife that congregate there. The eight tents were recently rebuilt and expanded to 1,076 square feet—2,368 square feet for the Safari Suite-composed of canvas sewn by local tailors and decorated in neutral tones with furniture by local craftspeople and timber floors. A sliding door leads to a veranda and “bench wallow,” a plunge pool, the size of which is doubled for the Safari Suite.

Since this region is more remote and undeveloped, safaris take place in a number of ways. Standard game drives in vehicles are, as in most camps, typically the primary one in this case without canopies for spotting the birds flitting through the tops of trees or leopards napping in those branches. Drives also go out at night using red spotlights to observe nocturnal hunting. But the purest, and sometimes most dramatic, experience is a walking safari led by the professional guide and a Department of National Parks & Wildlife armed escort scout in which you may round a corner and come in eyeball to eyeball contact with a buffalo or lion. Canoe trips are also safari excursions heading downstream and east due to the current of the Zambezi, paddled by staff guides most of whom have grown up on the river. Zambezi River safaris in a pontoon boat cover more territory, gliding past hippos and crocodiles and possibly coming upon a herd of elephants crossing the river. And for those who want to go one on one with local wildlife, guests can fish for the elusive tiger fish most successfully from August to November. But in keeping with the sustainability practices that are contained throughout the camp, no one is grilling them for dinner. It’s all catch and release.