Dear all!
First thing first!
We will be celebrating our 20th birthday on 4th of July, and we will be running a fun contest with exciting prizes to win. So stay tuned and watch your inbox on July 4th!
Meet our newest staff
We’ve had a few new recruits this year to add to our exceptional operating team.
Annelle Dessels is taking the role of Lodge Manager at Kafunta River Lodge. Anelle has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, split between the UK and South Africa.
Dottie Mulenga comes to us from Chongwe Safaris, and brings with her 17 years of hospitality experience, along with a large smile. She is Kafunta River Lodge’s Duty Manager.
We also wish a warm welcome to our Camp Managers for Three Rivers Camp and Island Bush Camp. Theuns Kruger and Adam Parker are both coming from South Africa with many years of hospitality, conservation and guiding experience in their bags.
Our final welcome goes to Sam Machin who will be with us for a couple of months as part of his Falmouth University internship.
We’re delighted with the team and we certainly hope that all our guests will enjoy the services and company of these young men and women who are so passionate about guest services and the African bush.
What a special sighting!
This is a side-striped jackal! I know… you probably don’t think this is special at all! As opposed to South Africa, Botswana etc, jackals here in South Luangwa are not common and when seen, they are extremely shy and elusive. This one was just outside Kafunta River Lodge and Ed Selfe quickly got this one shot – with success! It’s the first time I actually see a jackal (on photo, not even in person) in my time in South Luangwa, and Anke confirmed it was also her first photo in her 25 years in the valley!
So I think this one definitely deserves its own spot in our newsletter! Well done Ed! More about Ed’s photos further down.
# Keep the Luangwa Flowing!
The Luangwa has long attracted both people and wildlife with its fertile banks and dynamic flows. It remains one of Africa’s prime wildlife sanctuaries and is home to elephants, hippos, lions, giraffes and so many other amazing species. But it is also home to many villages and communities who depend greatly on the river.
A proposed dam at Ndevu Gorge threatens to transform the river and put all who depend on it at risk. The dam would create a reservoir that reaches South Luangwa National Park, with continued impacts felt for many kilometers upstream. The changes to the river would displace communities near the gorge – destroy livelihoods and negatively impact wildlife – and the vast tourism economy that it supports.
Last week, WWF & WWF Zambia launched a petition to Zambia’s President, His Excellency Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu to declare the Luangwa a Water Resource Protection Area as part of a “Keep the Luangwa Flowing” campaign.
Read more about the project here and watch WWF’s video by clicking this link (right).
Next? We invite you to sign the petition and to share the campaign with your friends.
TIMELESS
Fittingly, this is the time Zambian wildlife photographer Patrick Bentley chose to publish is superb new book featuring the iconic wild animals of the Luangwa Valley
Read more or pre-order the book here
Ed Selfe
We had the pleasure to have Ed, another one of our favourite Luangwa photographers, stay with us at Kafunta for over a week. Here are some of his sightings.
Elephants, wild dogs and a special leopard sighting.
Now this one was a special sighting indeed.
This leopard cub’s mother had successfully killed an impala and guests were able to watch them feed briefly on the carcass, before a large male arrived on site and made the kill his own.
The female tried to fight the male off by snarling at him, while also offering a distraction to give time to the cub to hide away from this threatening male.
There was no chance however for her to win her, and her cub’s, meal back.
Above: the mother and her cub feeding on the carcass.
Below: the growling male taking the carcass over.
Visit Ed’s website here and check out his 2019 photo-safaris dates.
Stephan Tüngler – supporting our local sport association
While Stephan Tüngler (InAfrica) was at Kafunta River Lodge for his annual Luangwa photographic workshop (another successful one, hopefully I will have his photos for our next newsletter), he – together with his colleague Marco – brought a large amount of football shoes and jerseys for the Mfuwe Football League.
Big thank you to Stephan and Marco for their generous donation to the young men of Mfuwe!
Meet our guest… Petra Kurth
A regular visitor to Luangwa, it was the first time last April that Petra stayed with us at Kafunta after several weeks of volunteering through her own charity "Spirit of Zambia".
Petra’s passion about Africa, for its wildlife but mostly for its people is uplifting. Here’s some snippets of her story.
What brought you to Africa in the first place? When I was a child I loved watching the series such as "Daktarir" and never in my dreams did I think I would ever come to Southern Africa.
But in 2008 my husband and I took a self-drive trip in South Africa. Our first contact with real wildlife was memorable. That’s also when I bought my first SLR camera. We knew we had to be back to Africa.
Since then we have taken multiple trips including to Namibia, Victoria Falls, Botswana, Tanzania, … The intervals between our trips getting shorter and shorter. Each trip filling my heart and head with so many special memories. Then we thought about Zambia, and bought Ilona Hupe’s book on the Luangwa Valley and also Chipembele Anna & Steve Tolan‘s own book "Bulu". We were ready to walk in their footsteps.
Despite all these previous trips and African experiences, our first visit to Zambia knocked us off our feet. This was the "real Africa". This is now my 3rd visit to this amazing place.
You founded "Spirit of Zambia", tell us more about this. What struck me on my first visit to Zambia was its local people, its warmth and hospitality. Never before had a child’s laughter and eyes touch me so profoundly.
During that trip we decided we wanted to make difference to the people, through education but on many different levels. We launched Spirit of Zambia to raise funds. We’ve got our hands in many projects (supporting Project Luangwa, supplying equipment to schools, building hand washing stations, drilling boreholes etc.
Our biggest dream is to generate more donations to tackle the following tasks:
- to pay schoolfees for children to attend Secondary Day or Boarding School
- to buy schooling material for basic schools, school uniforms etc.
- to provide medical aid to disabled children in order to make life easier for them
- water well construction in rural areas or schools (Water Is Source Of Life)
- The biggest wish would be, to be able to build a school
It sounds like a full time occupation! Is it? No, at the moment it is on the side although I I use every free time I have, including nights. Constantly looking at ways to raise money, our priority project right now is the construction of a borehole with Makolekole.
You do wonderful photos, what is your story about photography? It built up over the years. I started with one camera, then a second one, then a very good telephoto lens – I got addicted to taking pictures of the animals. And then I realized that I can sell them to collect more money for our dream to support Zambian People and Wildlife.
What was the best sighting or experience on your latest trip? When the pride of ginger and garlic used our car to chill, because our car was in the shade. It was a little bit scary for me and I could not take pictures with my wide angle lens!
Another incredible sighting was the moment when Abel found a chameleon in the darkness. It looked like a leave and I struggled to find the chameleon. I think Abel has much better eyes than me. Thanks so much for this moment.
Anything else you would like to add? I want to thank so many people and organisations for their inspiration: Ilona Hupe (travel writer), Steve and Anna Tolan (Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust), Karen & Dave (Project Luangwa), Rachel McRobb (Conservation South Lunagwa), Matt Becker (Zambian Carnivore Program), Gid & Adrian Carr (Makolekole), Raise A Smile, and many more! I can’t list them all here.
We thank Petra for opening up to us about her experience and dedication to change the future of the Zambian children.
Click here to learn more and support Spirit of Africa or contact Petradirectly.
That’s it for this month! Like I said at the beginning of this newsletter, July will be a busy month of celebrations for our 20th birthday! Stay tuned for news about our upcoming online contest. Check your inbox, or watch our Facebook Page – whatever you do, don’t miss out!
All the best,
Izzy
Kafunta Safaris
