As one of Africa's safest countries it is also one of it's most diverse. From desert to rivers and lakes to remote mountains, Zambia has something for everyone, and Proflight is the airline that can take you there.
Our fleet of aircraft will transport you to the tourism hotspots as well as to some of the more remote areas one can travel to.
For a detailed visitor attractions map please click here.
The Lower Zambezi National Park covers an area of 4092 square kilometres, but most of the game is concentrated along the valley floor. There is an escarpment along the northern end which acts as a physical barrier to most of the parks animal species.
In the peak season Proflight Zambia offer daily flights between Lusaka/ Lower Zambezi, direct flights between Mfuwe/ Lower Zambezi and daily flights between Livigstone/ Lower Zambezi.
Enormous herds of elephant, some up to 100 strong, are often seen at the rivers edge. ‘Island hopping’ buffalo and waterbuck are common. The park also hosts good populations of lion and leopard and listen too for the ubiquitous cry of the fish eagles.
Shiwa Ngandu (also spelled Shiwa Ng'andu) is a grand English-style country house estate in the Northern Province of Zambia, about 12 km west of the Tanzam highway and half-way between Mpika and Chinsali. Its name is based on a small lake nearby, Lake Ishiba Ng'andu which in the Bemba language means 'lake of the royal crocodile'.
The house itself is also known as "Shiwa House". It was the life-long project of an English aristocrat, Sir Stewart Gore-Browne who fell in love with the country after working on the Anglo-Belgian Boundary Commission determining the border between what is now Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
From his boyhood, Gore-Browne had an ambition to own an estate like that of his aunt, Dame Ethel Locke King, at Weybridge in England. Although comparatively wealthy himself, he could not afford such an estate in Britain. Land in Northern Rhodesia was very much cheaper for white settlers. At the boundary commission he had come to admire the Bemba workers and so he travelled to their country looking for a site. Arriving at Lake Shiwa Ngandu in April 1914 with his Bemba servants and porters, he knew he had found it. World War I intervened but its horrors only increased his desire to return to Shiwa Ngandu and achieve his dream. He also harboured the ideal of establishing a patrician regime of the kind whose time was ending in Britain after the war.
Construction of the mansion began in 1920 when Zambia was the British colony of Northern Rhodesia. The site was 400 miles from the nearest railhead, a journey of many days over rivers and swamps. At that time there were no roads to the area. As well as building the estate's access roads and bridges, Gore-Browne built roads and bridges for the local colonial authority. Almost everything had to be made on site, including every brick used in the construction. Hundreds of labourers were employed, and with the help of oxen to haul the bricks in scorching heat, a substantial house was constructed within a few years. However, the building work did not stop until the late 1950's; an imposing gatehouse, a tower, colinaded porticoes, courtyards, additional rooms all added to its size and stature.
The house was surrounded by nursery gardens, tennis courts, a walled ladies' garden and much more. The estate followed in the tradition of 19th century utopian model villages like Saltaire and Port Sunlight. The estate had its own schools, hospitals, playing fields, shops, and post office. Workers lived in brick-built cottages and the estate was ruled as a benevolent autocracy — though by a man with a temper ferocious enough to justify the local nickname of Chipembere which means 'rhinoceros'. He was also a very formal man who always wore black tie for dinner, at a table set with family plate and silver - whether he had guests or not.
Shiwa Ngandu's remoteness and isolation from white settler society in Northern Rhodesia's southern half and in Southern Rhodesia gave Gore-Browne a perspective on black Africans which led him to believe the country should develop in a more collaborative direction than the settler-ruled and segregationist Southern Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. He involved himself in politics as detailed in his biographical article.
The estate never managed to make consistent and steady profits. The soil was too acidic for most crops, and after trying various other sources of revenue, they found a more stable income in the production of essential oils and citrus blossoms especially when the Second World War closed off supplies of essential oils from the rivieras of France and Bulgaria. However, his projects were heavily subsidized by Dame Ethel Locke King, with whom he was obsessively attached and corresponded from his childhood until her death. This source of revenue ended in 1958 when the citrus trees were attacked by a blight.
Stewart Gore-Browne died in Kasama, Zambia in 1967, and to this date is the only white man to have been given a state funeral in the history of Zambia, with a eulogy given by then President Kenneth Kaunda.
After his death the estate was managed by one of his daughters, Lorna, and her husband John Harvey. They had four children, who grew up at the estate. They were filmed by the British Broadcasting Corporation travelogue series Pole to Pole, which included actor Michael Palin's visit to the estate. But only six months later in 1991, Lorna and John Harvey were murdered in Lusaka by three men who were caught and convicted. They were ANC members living in exile in Zambia. The ANC disavowed any prior knowledge and condemned the murders, and although some property was stolen, possible motives remain speculative.
In the years following the murders the house fell into disrepair.
Recently Shiwa House has been partially restored and has opened five rooms for paying guests under the name Shiwa Ngandu Manor House. An airstrip has been built for charter flights. The estate's remote beauty is once more accessible to visitors. The grave of Sir Stewart is at rest in the extraordinary African paradise he created. Lorna and John Harvey's sons have reintroduced wildlife, and established a large attle ranch. Poaching is under control, and the estate is proving to be a significant source of employment in the area.
Photographs of the estate can be seen at the Shiwa Ng'andu website.
The greatest known curtain of falling water, Victoria Falls are a spectacular sight of awe-inspiring beauty and grandeur on the Zambezi River, bordering Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as 546 million cubic meters of water per minute plummet over the edge (at the height of the flood season) over a width of nearly two kilometers into a deep gorge over 100 meters below. The wide basalt cliff, over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a wide placid river to a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic landscapes.
Facing the Falls is another sheer wall of basalt, rising to the same height and capped by mist-soaked rain forest. A path along the edge of the forest provides the visitor who is prepared to brave the tremendous spray with an unparalleled series of views of the Falls.
The Victoria Falls area is rapidly becoming known as the 'Adventure Centre' of Southern Africa, with various adrenaline sports, unmatched scenery of breathtaking proportions, and many other leisure options for outdoor lovers.
Bangweulu - 'where the water sky meets the sky' - is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain. Situated in the upper Congo River basin in Zambia, the Bangweulu system covers an almost completely flat area roughly the size of Connecticut or East Anglia, at an elevation of 1,140 m straddling Zambia's Luapula Province and Northern Province. It is crucial to the economy and biodiversity of northern Zambia, and to the birdlife of a much larger region, and faces environmental stress and conservation issues.
With a long axis of 75 km and a width of up to 40 km, Lake Bangweulu's permanent open water surface is about 3,000 km², which expands when its swamps and floodplains are in flood at the end of the rainy season in May. The combined area of the lake and wetlands reaches 15,000 km². The lake has an average depth of only 4m. The Bangweulu system is fed by about seventeen rivers of which the Chambeshi (the source of the Congo River) is the largest, and is drained by the Luapula River. Only the western side of the lake and some of the islands have a well defined shore, with sandy beaches in places especially around Samfya, though even there, some of the bays and inlets are swampy.
The Bangweulu Swamps, larger than the lake, extend from the north- west clockwise around to the south. The main part covers an area of roughly 120 km by 75 km and they are normally not less than 9,000 sq km.
The swamps act as a check on annual flooding downstream in the Luapula by releasing water slowly through many lagoons and channels. They help prevent the Luapula valley being flooded excessively in the rainy season.
Floodplains
Large grassy floodplains with an area of about 3,000 km² lie mainly south of the swamps, but also in the north-north-east, acting as an extension of the region in the wet season. The southern floodplains are famous for large herds of the near-endemic black lechwe. Further information on wildlife of the wetlands is found on the Bangweulu Wetlands ecosystem page.
The lake was known to Europeans from reports by chiefs such as Kazembe and from Swahili traders, and it was sometimes referred to as 'Lake Bemba' from the name of the dominant tribe. In 1868 explorer and missionary David Livingstone was the first European to see the lake at the north end of the Lake Chifunabuli section. He was taken by canoe as far as Mbabala Island. His last expedition a few years later foundered in the swamps and their maze of shifting channels as he struggled to discover the rivers draining in and out of the lake. He died in 1873 in Chief Chitambo's village on the edge of the southern flood plain, about 100 km from the lake itself. The spot is marked by the Livingstone Memorial
It was a desire for the riches of Bangweulu's fisheries and game-rich floodplain which motivated King Leopold II of Belgium to insist, in border negotiations between his Congo Free State and the British in Northern Rhodesia, on a land corridor reaching Bangweulu from Katanga. This resulted in the shape of the Congo Pedicle which, as it turned out, does not penetrate the area enough to be of the desired value.
The first Christian missions in Bangweulu were founded in the early 1900s under the authority of Bishop Joseph Dupont of the Catholic White Fathers who was based north of Kasama.
The area of the lake is inhabited by Bemba people and affiliated tribes who also speak Chibemba. The Bemba heartland of Paramount Chief Chitimukulu lies to the north-east, around Kasama.
The lake supports a seasonal fishing industry and the population may increase markedly during the season. In 1989 the average annual catch was estimated at 11,900 tonnes, caught by 10,300 people using 5305 dugout canoes, 114 plank and fibreglass boats, and only 54 outboard motors. In 2000 the catch was 13,500 t.
The largest town, Samfya lies on the south western shore and is the principal base for road and boat transport and tourism, as well as being the administrative centre for Samfya District covering about three- quarters of the lake and swamps. Chilubi District covers most of the rest, its boma is on Chilubi Island, which is bordered by the swamps to the east. Luwingu District just touches the lake at Nsombo, which is the principal town at the northern end of the lake. Mpika and Kasama districts just touch the eastern and southern margins of the floodplain, and Serenje District and the Congo Pedicle just reach the southern margin of the floodplain.
Kasanka National Park in Central Province, Zambia is unique in the country and unusual in Africa in that it is privately managed and owned by a trust. The Kasanka Trust was registered in Zambia in 1987 and in the UK in 1989. It aims to make the park self-sustaining and secure its biodiversity.
Kasanka National Park is in the Central Zambezian Miombo woodlands ecoregion which covers most of the country. Most of the park is well wooded with a diversity of habitats: a small lake, swamps, small rivers, riverine forest, dambos, as well as grassland plains included in the 450 km² of the park. Although not containing very large herds of animals, it is noted for antelope including Sable Antelope, the rare Sitatunga and for profusion of birds including aquatic species.
The park lies just south of the Zambezian flooded grasslands ecoregion of the floodplain, and maintains a camp on the floodplain where the rare Shoebill and large herds of Black Lechwe can be seen.
Two lodges and a campsite provide accommodation in the park.
The Livingstone Memorial is located about 30 km to the north and the park is the closest base for a visit there.
North Luangwa National Park is a national park in Zambia, the northernmost of the three in the valley of the Luangwa River. Founded as a game reserve in 1938, it became a national park in 1972 and now covers 4,636km².
Like the South Park, its eastern boundary is the Luangwa River, while it rises to cover a stretch of the Muchinga Escarpment to the west. The Mwaleshi River flows east-west through the centre of the park, the area to its south being a strict wilderness zone.
Wildlife is widely found, including Cookson's wildebeest, Crawshay's zebra and many antelopes and birds. Elephant numbers have recovered from poaching in the 1970s and 80s. The struggle against poaching in the park was described by Delia and Mark Owens in their book Survivor's Song.
For many years its wildlife suffered greatly from poaching, but recent years have seen poaching almost entirely stopped. It has generally suffered from a lack of investment and interest compared to the much more popular South Luangwa National Park, although its flora and fauna are very similar to its southern counterpart. In 2003, black rhinoceroses were re-introduced to the park.
The Lochinvar National Park lies south west of Lusaka in Zambia, on the south side of the Kafue River.
The national park straddles two of Zambia's ecoregions: Zambezian and Mopane woodlands in the south, and Zambezian flooded grasslands over most of the park. Habitats in the latter ecoregion include Chunga Lagoon and the Kafue Flats (floodplain), and drier grassland between floodplain and woodland dominated by termite mounds.
The park is very similar to Blue Lagoon National Park on the other side of the Kafue on the northern flats.
A former ranch, the park was designated in 1972 and is known for its Kafue lechwe and birdlife, with over 400 species recorded. The antelope and birds thrive in the absence of larger predators, which have been killed off by ranchers in the area. Lochinvar is also home to hot springs, echoing rocks, remains of a Neolithic settlement and an Iron Age village on Sebanzi Hill, also known for its caves, ancient baobab and wildlife.
From the astounding Busanga Plains in the North - western section of the Park to the tree-choked wilderness and the lush dambos of the south, fed by the emerald green Lunga, Lufupa and Kafue Rivers, the park sustains huge herds of a great diversity of wildlife.
Here you'll find thousands of red lechwe on the Plains, the ubiquitous puku, the stately sable and roan antelopes in the woodland to the diminutive oribi and duiker. The solid-rumped defassa waterbuck, herds of tsessebe, hartebeest, zebra and buffalo make for a full menu of antelope.
Large prides of lion, solitary leopards and cheetahs are the prime predators. There is a host of smaller carnivores from the side-striped jackal, civet, genet and various mongoose.
Birdwatching - especially on the rivers and the dambos is superb. Notables include the wattled crane, purple crested loerie and Pel’s fishing owl. Over 400 species of birds have been recorded throughout the park.
The Kafue river offers superb fishing opportunities, especially good bream, barbel and fresh water pike. Most lodges have fishing tackle, rods, boats and bait available.
The Liuwa Plain National Park lies in Western Province, Zambia, west of the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi River near the border with Angola. It was designated as a game reserve of Barotseland by the king, Lewanika, in the nineteenth century and became a national park in 1972.
The park has no road access and no facilities, and is situated in one of most out-of-the way and least-populated areas of the country. The nearest settlement is the small town of Kalabo, about 40 km south which normally can only be reached from the provincial capital Mongu by dirt tracks and a pontoon ferry over the Zambezi. Visitors need an off-road vehicle, and have to be completely self sufficient. There is a camp ground in Kalabo, but no rest houses and no facilities in the park.
As a consequence of all this it is rarely visited; according to the Bradt guide to Zambia, it received only fifty visitors in 2000 and 121 in 2002.
Situated in the Western Zambezian grasslands ecoregion, it is bounded by the Luambimba and Luanginga Rivers and consists of a grassy plain with numerous pans, around which a variety of animals, including large mammals such as blue wildebeest and tsessebe gather. It is also known for its diverse birdlife.
The now famous 'walking safari' originated in this park and is still one of the finest ways to experience this pristine wilderness first hand. The changing seasons add to the Park’s richness ranging from dry, bare bushveld in the winter to a lush green wonderland in the summer months.
There are 60 different animal species and over 400 different bird species. The only notable exception is the rhino, sadly poached to extinction.he loop roads graded in the park, past dambos bursting with hippos, crowned cranes, grazing antelope and scurrying baboons. Further out on the plains you’re bound to see the large elephant herds, reaching up to 70 in number. Buffalo are abundant and spread throughout the valley.
South Luangwa has a good population of leopard but they are not that easy to spot and tend to retreat when they hear vehicles. Many of the Lodge’s game trackers are skilled in finding leopards on night drives however, and often visitors are rewarded with a full view of a kill.
Lions are as plentiful in the Luangwa as anywhere else in Africa, but when a kill is made away from the central tourist area, the pride may stay away for several days and may not be seen by visitors on a short stay. Very often they roam in prides of up to thirty.
With about 400 of Zambia’s 732 species of birds appearing in the Valley, including 39 birds of prey and 47 migrant species, there is plenty for the birdwatcher to spot, whatever the season.
Lake Tanganyika is a large lake in central Africa (3° 20' to 8° 48' South and from 29° 5' to 31° 15' East). It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. The lake is divided between four countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia, with the DRC (45%) and Tanzania (41%) possessing the majority of the lake. The water flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean.
The lake is situated within the Western Rift of the geographic feature known as the Great Rift Valley formed by the tectonic East African Rift, and is confined by the mountainous walls of the valley. It is the largest rift lake in Africa and the second largest lake by surface area on the continent. It is the deepest lake in Africa and holds the greatest volume of fresh water. It extends for 673 km in a general north-south direction and averages 50 km in width. The lake covers 32,900 km², with a shoreline of 1,828km and a mean depth of 570 m and a maximum depth of 1,470 m (4,823 ft) (in the northern basin) it holds an estimated 18,900 km³ (4500 cubic miles). It has an average surface temperature of 25 °C and a pH averaging 8.4. Additionally, beneath the 500 m of water there is circa 4,500 metres of sediment laying over the rock floor.
The enormous depth and tropical location of the lake prevent 'turnover' of watermasses, which means that much of the lower depths of the lake are so-called 'fossil water' and are anoxic (lacking oxygen). The catchment area of the lake covers 231,000 km², with two main rivers flowing into the lake, numerous smaller rivers and streams (due to the steep mountains that keep drainage areas small), and one major outflow, the Lukuga River, which empties into the Congo River drainage.
The major inflows are the Ruzizi River, entering the north of the lake from Lake Kivu, and the Malagarasi River, which is Tanzania's second largest river, entering in the east side of Lake Tanganyika. The Malagarasi pre-dates Lake Tanganyika and was formerly continuous with the Congo river.
The lake holds at least 250 species of cichlid fish and 150 non-cichlid species, most of which live along the shore line down to a depth of approximately 600 feet (180 m). Lake Tanganyika is thus an important biological resource for the study of speciation in evolution. The largest biomass of fish, however, is in the pelagic zone (open waters) and is dominated by six species - two species of "Tanganyika sardine" and four species of predatory Lates (related to, but not the same as, the Nile Perch that has devastated Lake Victoria cichlids). Almost all (98%) of the Tanganyikan cichlid species are endemic (exclusively native) to the lake and many, such as fish from the brightly coloured Tropheus genus, are prized within the aquarium trade. This kind of elevated endemism also occurs among the numerous invertebrates in the lake, most especially the molluscs (which possess similar forms to that of many marine molluscs), crabs, shrimps, copepods, jellyfishes, leeches, etc.
It is estimated that 25–40% of the protein in the diet of the people living around the lake comes from lake fish, and that population amounts to around one million.[citation needed] Currently there are around 100,000 people directly involved in the fisheries operating from almost 800 sites. The lake is also vital to the estimated 10 million people living in the basin.
Lake Tanganyika fish can be found exported throughout East Africa. Commercial fishing began in the mid-1950s and has had an extremely heavy impact on the pelagic fish species, in 1995 the total catch was around 180,000 tonnes. Former industrial fisheries, which boomed in the 1980s, have subsequently collapsed.
There are two ferries which carry passengers and cargo along the eastern shore of the lake - the MV Liemba between Kigoma and Mpulungu and the MV Mwongozo, which runs between Kigoma and Bujumbura.
* The port town of Kigoma is the railhead for the railway from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
* The port town of Kalemie is the railhead for the D.R. Congo rail network.
* The port town of Mpulungu is a proposed railhead for Zambia
The first known Westerners to find the lake were the Great British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke, in 1858. They located it while searching for the source of the Nile River. Speke continued and found the actual source, Lake Victoria.
In 1992 Lake Tanganyika featured in the documentary series Pole to Pole. The BBC documentarian Michael Palin stayed on board the MV Liemba and traveled across the lake.
Since 2004 the lake has been the focus of a massive Water and Nature Initiative by the IUCN. The project is scheduled to take five years at a total cost of US$ 27 million. The initiative is attempting to monitor the resources and state of the lake, set common criteria for acceptable level of sediments, pollution, and water quality in general, and design and establish a lake basin management authority.[citation needed]
The lake has been identified as a place where man-eating crocodile Gustave has been seen. Gustave has killed many humans over the years, and many scientists are interested in studying him.
Lake Kariba is a large, man-made lake and reservoir located on the Zambezi river, about halfway between the river's source and mouth, about 1300 kilometers upstream from the Indian Ocean. The lake lies along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River and displacing large numbers of the local Tonga people.
The Zimbabwean town of Kariba was built for construction workers on the lake's dam, while some other settlements such as Milbibezi in Zimbabwe and Siavonga and Sinazongwe in Zambia have grown up to house people displaced by the rising waters.Fish eagles, cormorants and other water birds patrol the shorelines, as do occasional herds of elephants.