Shumba Camp is located in the Busanga Plains, a seasonally inundated grassland in northern Kafue National Park that becomes a haven for wildlife during the dry season.

Northern Kafue offers an exceptional safari experience for five months (June through October) every year after the annual flooding has receded. The inundation of the Busanga floodplains brings in rich sediments from the overflowing waterways and as the water recedes, the nutrient-rich soil creates a verdant grassland that attracts large herds of herbivores.

Beginning in June, the dynamic ecosystem of the 230-square-mile (600-sq-km) Busanga Plains is accessible for safari game drives and there are few places in Africa that can match it for large herds and predators. During June and July (depending on the remaining water levels), Shumba Camp also offers boating in flat-bottom boats to explore the plains.

Wildlife viewing at Shumba Camp is excellent with big herds of buffalo and good numbers of zebra, red lechwe, puku, oribi, blue wildebeest, roan antelope, sable antelope, greater kudu, and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest.

The open plains of Busanga are well-suited for cheetah and they are seen regularly at Shumba. The name of the camp means 'lion' in the Shona language and there are good numbers of lion in the Busanga. Other predators that are seen include spotted hyena, side-striped jackal, serval, and African wild dog. Leopard are also here and sometimes seen.

Birding in the Busanga area is outstanding, with a large mix of grassland and water species. A typical day on safari at Shumba may produce 60-70 species and there are some specials to be seen, such as Fülleborn's longclaw.

Shumba Camp offers just 6 spacious and luxurious guest tents, each with views onto the open floodplain in front of the camp. The tented rooms are connected to the main camp area by elevated wooden walkways. Each guest room also offers an outdoor viewing deck with sunken lounge area.

The main camp area is constructed atop raised wooden platform and includes a thatch-covered lounge, dining, and bar area with a connected outdoor dining deck looking out on the Busanga Plains.

Wilderness Safaris are one of Africa's leading safari operators and they strive to minimize energy consumption at all their camps. Shumba Camp is powered almost entirely by solar power, with a diesel-powered generator used as back-up. Strict eco-friendly environmental standards are maintained so that no harmful chemicals or waste is allowed to enter the pristine ecosystem of the Busanga and Kafue.

About Kafue National Park

Kafue is Zambia's largest national park, covering 8 650 square miles (22 400 sq kms). It is named for the Kafue River, which traverses the northern section of the park. Kafue was established by the British as a game reserve in 1924 (when the country was a protectorate called Northern Rhodesia) to stem the decline of its wildlife due to over-hunting. At that time, the reserve consisted solely of the northern portion of today's national park. The southern portion of Kafue was added to the reserve in 1949 and the combined land became a national park in 1950.

Elephant and rhino poaching decimated all of Zambia's reserves and national parks during its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, but the remoteness of Kafue meant that is was spared the worst of the slaughter. During the 1960s, Kafue was home to around 60 000 elephants, but most were poached by the late 1980s. Today Kafue's elephant population is estimated at around 4 000. Kafue also had one of the largest black rhino populations in Africa, but they were all killed of for their horns by 1990. Today poaching is not a serious problem in Kafue.

Kafue is so large that there are completely different ecotones within its borders. The northern part of Kafue is characterized by several significant rivers, the Kafue, the Lunga, and the Lufupa. These waterways make northern Kafue a wetter and more vegetated destination for wildlife than the much drier southern part of the park.

Northern Kafue is dominated by miombo woodland, small areas of teak forest, mopane woodland, bushy thickets, open grassland, and seasonally flooded plains. The most significant wildlife-viewing region in the park is called the Busanga Plains, a vast area in the extreme north of the park along the Lufupa River.

The Busanga Plains

The Busanga Plains are a large area of seasonally flooded grasslands, waterways, and permanent swamps in northwest Kafue. This dynamic savanna ecosystem, which becomes dry grassland for part of the year, while completely flooded in shallow water the rest of the year, covers over 230 square miles (600 sq kms). During the dry winter months between June and October, the floodwaters recede leaving behind sediments that create a savanna of nutrient-rich grasses.

During this time, large numbers of grazers arrive to feed on the new growth, including herds of buffalo and good numbers of red lechwe, puku, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, zebra, oribi, and blue wildebeest. Roan antelope, sable antelope and greater kudu are sometimes seen.

Predators are also found in Busanga at this time, including lion, cheetah, spotted hyena, side-striped jackal, serval, and Africa wild dog. Elephants are present in Busanga all year, but especially during the winter. Hippos are abundant in the permanent waterways and lagoons.

The landscape in Busanga is similar in many ways to that of Botswana's Okavango Delta, with date palm islands, termite mounds, tall Phoenix palms, baobab trees, and sycamore fig trees dotting the seemingly endless grasslands.

There are two safari camps located in the Busanga area, both of them operated by Wilderness Safaris, one of Africa's largest and best respected safari operators. The camps are open for guests only during the dry season between June and October.