Travel EXPERIENCE
A ride in a tiny Cessna took us farther west,
to the virtually unvisited Liuwa Plains National
Park, which occupies part of an ancient
kingdom, Barotseland, near the Angolan
border in the upper Zambezi floodplains.
Once the hunting grounds of the Lozi kings,
the area has been protected since the late
1800s. Like some uncharted Eden, it remains
extremely isolated, difficult to get around,
and low on infrastructure. And during the
rainy season, the park’s extensive wetlands
fill to flooding, turning roads to mud while
attracting enormous inbound migrations of
30
water-loving birds.
We saw masses of storks, cranes, slaty egrets,
and whiskered terns, and when not navigating
the muddied tracks, our guide pointed out
red-billed teals, woodland kingfishers, whitebellied bustards, secretary birds, sooty chats,
pink-throated longclaws, and flocks of blackwinged pratincoles, all the way from Europe
and Asia. It certainly helps to have wings
if you’re here during the rainy season – we
frequently held our breaths as we narrowly
avoided getting stuck in roads consumed
by puddles. But it was worth braving the
mud to witness the world’s second-biggest
wildebeest migration. As water levels rise,
the park fills up with beasts skipping in from
Angola.
Apart from the blue wildebeest arriving en
masse, there were zebras and tsessebe, and
we saw tiny oribi, herds of Lichtenstein's
hartebeest, red lechwe, little duikers, and
roan antelope. And, of course, predators were
having a field day picking off the weak and
injured stragglers. Hyenas, wild dogs and lions
seemed to make a game of taking turns to
hunt, their over-stuffed bellies sagging, their
self-satisfied faces permanently drenched in
blood.
Aside from this profusion of animals, it was
wonderful being here for the sheer drama
of Liuwa’s skies, thick with bulging clouds
and surging with the energy of storms that
seemed always on the verge of breaking.
And each time they did, it felt like a miracle
of creation.