Category: Livingstone to Kafue National Park, Lusaka and Chirundu

Breezes is a basic lodge with campsites and a few “chalets” located on the bank of the Zambezi River. It has a nice pool overlooking the river, with an adjacent little bar offering very affordable beer and a small selection of food. It is also the starting point for canoeing trips.

We knew about this place because, seven years ago, we departed from here on a great 3 1/2-day, 72 km adventure down the river.

We decided to make this overnight pit stop because the drive from Lusaka to Chirundu takes about three hours, and the border crossing into Zimbabwe, from previous experience, can take anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours.

We would be heading to Mana Pools NP, which, all said and done, could potentially add another 3+ hours. So, unless we departed Lusaka at sunrise, there was a good chance we wouldn’t make it to our final campsite in Mana until close to sunset, which is not what we wanted.

It would also seriously reduce the stress level at the border if the crossing took a long time.

The views across the river at Breezes were beautiful, especially at sunrise, and we were treated to evening and early-morning elephant visits. Spectacular!

We departed early in the morning on the 25th of July and made our way to the Chirundu border crossing, hoping it wouldn’t take us the possible three hours to cross into Zimbabwe.

The drive to Lusaka was uneventful until we hit the chaos of Lusaka. Fortunately, Google Maps didn’t disappoint, and we were able to find our pit stop for the next two nights, Ibex Blue Short Term Apartment Rentals.

We had a nice two-bedroom apartment in a well-fortified compound, and it was great because we were a five-minute drive from a shopping mall with a Shoprite for grocery shopping and a really cool bar nearby.

We had a late lunch of chicken wings at a so-so bar (we hadn’t found the cool bar that was recommended yet), and then picked up a couple of pizzas to have for dinner back at our apartment, followed by an early evening after watching some very entertaining Zambian soap operas on TV.

The following day, during a much-needed long walk, we found Grandaddy’s, THE place in this neck of the woods. We had a great lunch there, shopped at a nearby Shoprite for our next six nights of camping, and then proceeded back to Grandaddy’s for some very affordable beers and dinner.

Next stop: the town of Chirundu on the Zambian-Zimbabwean border for an overnighter at Breezes River Lodge.

We arrived at Mayukuyuku Bush Camp at around 2:00 pm after a five-hour drive on the spinal road, which hugs the shores of Lake Itezhi Tezhi and the Kafue River. We had stayed here before in 2019 and really enjoyed it, so we thought it would be a good introduction for Kristina and Lucy to semi-roughing it in the wilds of Africa.

Our pitch was on the banks of the Kafue River. There are only three sites with river views. As we had stayed here in 2019 we knew the middle site was the best so we booked this through Pipa, the camp owner at the time, many months in advance so we had the best site for our first four nights of camping.

The river was very low for this time of year, but we were still entertained by the local hippos and had frequent visits from several bushbuck and the ever-present vervet monkeys.

The camp had clean ablutions and hot showers and even a small bar/restaurant a short walk away.

We did do an early-morning game drive on our third day, but unfortunately, the area was quiet, so not much to report.

After four nights of great camping and open-fire cooking, we departed the camp on the 22nd and made our way to Lusaka.

Loaded with food, beer, wine, water, ice and road snacks, we headed north from Livingstone to our first stop, the Dundumwezi Gate entrance to Kafue NP, located in the southern end of the park.

The drive to Kalomo was easy and the road was good, but once we hit the town, things did get confusing.

Our understanding was to turn left once you came into the market area of town. There were crowds and confusion and dusty gravel roads leading in every direction. What did “take a left turn at the market” mean? So we asked people. That’s what you have to do when you don’t have a clue, and we were directed to the Dundumwezi Road. We hoped.

We really didn’t know what to expect, but I don’t think we expected a fairly bad gravel road that would take us another 60+ km to the gate.

Not completely convinced we were on the right road, and our Garmin not really helping us as it gave us some bogus “turn here, turn there” directions, we stopped frequently to ask any locals we came upon to confirm if we were still on the Dundumwezi Road to Kafue.

We were always on the right road, and we arrived with “hoorays!” when we arrived at the park entrance sign.

Up to this point, everything I read about driving north into the park indicated the spinal road north was really good all the way to Itezhi Tezhi. However, we were instructed otherwise: to follow the road north from the gate, as the spinal road was not in good repair.

The interesting thing here is the road we followed north is not named on any maps. It is apparently called the unnamed road. I researched this portion of the drive quite heavily, and I was bewildered by the difference in what I read and what was actually true.

That said, the drive was effortless, and after less than two hours we arrived at our lodge for our pit stop evening, Musungwa Safari Lodge.

We checked in, ordered our dinner for the evening and organized ourselves. K and L went to the pool. J and I proceeded to the bar, where it was us and nobody else.

A cool breeze was blowing over the swimming pool. The bar was cold and empty—serve yourself, I guess. Quiet. Strange. Nice view over the lake, but what is lurking underneath? It was a weird scene.

Dinner was very good. Just us four in the restaurant, alone, the theme of the Exorcist playing in the background. The bream fish filet was delicious.

The next morning we had breakfast, met another person who was actually staying here on business, and then got the heck out and headed south around the lake and then north along the spinal road to our eventual destination, Mayukyuku Camp.