August 6-8: Luangwa Valley and The Amatololo Wilderness Trail

After leaving South Luangwa National Park I headed north up the Luangwa Valley intending to stop for a night or two at the small Luambe National Park and then spend a few nights in North Luangwa National Park. However, I had learned of a brand new “wilderness trail” called the Amatalolo Experience in North Luangwa (Amatalolo means “wilderness” in the local languange) and I was eager to experience it. Unfortunately, the few exclusive wilderness campsites along the Amatalolo Trail were only available for the next two nights and then they were booked for several days. This experience was too enticing to pass up, and the Green Dragon, well, she was urging me on for the challenge. So, I made the 11 hour drive up the east side of the Luangwa Valley, mostly outside the Parks, to get to North Luangwa National Park.

I am not going to describe the two new Parks (Luambe and North Luangwa), as they are very similar to South Luangwa in many respects, other than to say that they are very much less visited and rather poorly designed to accommodate overlanders like myself. In addition, the vegetation is more dense as you go north up the valley so the wildlife viewing is more challenging, and I observed that the wildlife were very skiddish and generally took off at the first sight of me – an indication of either infrequent encounters with humans and/or a history of intense poaching, probably both. Instead, for this post I am going to change it up a bit to keep things new and fun for you – I hope – by directing you to watch this 13 minute slide show with music of my 3-day journey up the Luangwa Valley and along the Amatololo Trail in North Luangwa National Park. This slide show puts YOU behind the wheel as we travel from South Luangwa National Park and my Track and Trails River Campsite up the eastside of the valley through mostly community lands, but in and out of South Luangwa and Luambe National Parks as well, and along the Amatololo Trail for 2 days and nights, ending at my campsite at Samala Camp just outside the northern gate of North Luangwa National Park.

Before watching the video, here are a few notes about what you are going to see:

Fist, I took all but a few of the photos actually from behind the wheel, looking straight ahead or out the side window. SO, you will be seeing what I saw as we move along the route. Also, not all the pictures are beautiful photos as I simply took a picture at irregular intervals and whenever something caught my fancy. However, I deleted many of the less appealing photos so as to not totally bore you.

On Day 1, we will pass through many small villages but I have very few pictures of this, mainly because I felt too guilty to photograph these places when there were so many locals around watching me – and they were always watching as a vehicle was apparently an exciting event for the day. We will also pass by cotton fields that look like wild patches but trust me, they are growing cotton, and you will see a heavy truck loaded with the cotton bales as proof. We have a few low water river crossings that are much more exciting than the pictures depict. I gave out quite a few pencils but only managed in my excitement to get one picture – sorry. In one place, after crossing a river there were 3 children waving and saying hello to me and NOT begging – which was a rarity – so I stopped to give them paper and pencils. When all of a sudden I was ambushed by probably 20+ kids. I have no idea where they all came from – hopefully not holes in the ground. At one point I had at least 10 sets of small hands reaching in through the open window. Lastly, the day ends with an exciting pontoon river crossing before arriving at my sublime exclusive riverside campsite called Mushiki on the Luangwa River at the start of the Amatololo Trail.

Day 2 is devoted to driving along the Amatololo Trail from my Mushika campsite along the Luangwa River floodplain and then along a major tributary river, the Lufila, eventually climbing a couple thousand feet into the mountains to my campsite at Lufila Falls. We cross numerous steep-sided gullies or ravines which I simply couldn’t adequately capture in the photos for some reason, but trust me, sometimes I felt like I was vertical. The track up the mountains also provided some rocky challenges that I didn’t capture in the photos because I was too focused on driving. This trail was aptly named, as it was truly a wilderness experience. The track is not much more than a narrow corridor cut through the vegetation and there are no camps, roads or people for many miles. It was a good thing I did this trail now because in a few years time, after the inevitable neglect on maintenance, my guess is that the trail is going to be impassable.

Day 3 takes us along the last stretch of the Amatololo Trail until we exit the Park at the Mano Gate and end at my beautiful streamside campsite at Samala.

I hope you enjoy this 3-day journey boiled down to 13 minutes. OK, let’s take a drive:

Luangwa Valley and Amatololo Wilderness Trail video (13 minutes)

Was that fun? Cheers.