The road to Liuwa Plain National Park is not for the faint hearted

Posted on 16 March 2012

Liuwa Plain National Park in southwestern Zambia is a place where, until recently, only the ultimate adventurers have dared to explore. The destination is just part of the story. The adventures getting there and back would fill a small novel.

‘This is the most fun I’ve had this year!’ I exclaimed as we slipped and slid all over the road. I very much doubt that Jon, my travelling partner, felt the same way as he desperately tried to keep the wheels on the road and in more or less one direction. The more we got stuck, the more we slithered around and the more we got lost, the more fun I was having.

This is because my travelling partners and I believed we were true African adventurers, and we are at heart. We always had to take the road less travelled, or never travelled at all, never thinking that there might be a reason for it. This blog tells bits of it. In late November 2011, Jo-Anne Hay, Jon Morgan and I made the trek, just before the rainy season.

Getting to Liuwa is tricky even in the dry season, but when the rains come it’s something out of a Hollywood adventure movie. Our journey took us into the most remote and secluded area that I have ever travelled in.

‘Eish, but it’s a long drive, my friend. Kabula to Kalabo is very, very fa’, said Kennester, the delightful and friendly manager of Kabula Lodge in Zambia, where we spent a night on the way up. We were destined for Kalabo, the closest town to Liuwa. It didn’t look too far on the map.

It started to rain shortly after we took off from Kabula. The gravel M10 highway got a bit slippery but Jon managed to ease the car along the road. We travelled further and further from civilization. There were fewer and fewer people and cars on the road and eventually we were alone, deep in the Barotse floodplain. An impressive cloudburst of rain turned the roads into sprawling lakes. Mini waves made their way down the tracks.

Many of the roads had been washed away or barriers made it impossible to cross. Trees had fallen, bridges had collapsed and the centre of some of the potholes could have easily engulfed the entire car, if we hadn’t managed to skirt round the edges.

Our next mission was to cross the mighty Zambezi River via the pontoon at Sitoti. The combination of the rain and arriving at lunchtime meant that the pontoon was closed for the afternoon and we had to spend two hours waiting in the car, looking at the grey water flowing passed us. Finally the pontoon driver arrived and in no time at all we had crossed the angry looking river and proceeded to Kalabo.

We did our last refuel in Mongu and started our next adventure to Kalabo, driving around the broken causeway and crossing another river by pontoon. This was child’s play to what we had experienced earlier, but still a tough road to navigate. Finding our hosts’ house was another mission. Our GPS wasn’t familiar with the layout of rural Kalabo. We ended up driving through people’s backyards late at night until someone eventually flagged us down with a torch and directed us to our hosts’ smallholding.

The next morning, we packed the car full of supplies and crossed the river via a skadonk of a hand-drawn pontoon. From there, it was still approximately two hours to reach the park through thick woodlands and rural villages. Smiling children ran out to wave at us and dogs darted out and yapped at our wheels. There are no towns with shops once you’ve left Kalabo and no fuel stations once you’ve left Mongu. Your only hope of getting out of there, if something happens to you, is if someone finds you.

 

Take a 12-day Liuwa Plain National Park expedition and experience the raw wonder of Zambia with Getaway Adventures.






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