Wilderness Busanga Bush Camp

Busanga Bush Camp sits on a tree island in the middle of the Busanga Plains, in the northern section of Kafue National Park. Kafue is Zambia's largest national park, covering two and a quarter million hectares — one of the biggest protected areas on the continent. The plains themselves give you roughly six hundred square kilometres of seasonally flooded grassland to move through, and the camp opens only once the rains have cleared, running from the first of June to the end of October each year.

The camp holds four tents. That number is deliberate: the plains are remote, the season is short, and a small camp keeps the footprint light in an ecosystem that Wilderness operates here partly to protect rather than profit from.

Game drives go out by day and by night, the night drives using infrared spotlights. When water levels allow, swamp boat safaris run on the floodplains, where birdlife is the main draw — the African fish eagle calls across the plains, and Fülleborn's Longclaw, a range-restricted species recorded on the Busanga Plains, is a particular target for birders. Lion prides hold territory on the plains while nomadic males pass through; cheetah and wild dog are also present. Roan and sable antelope, puku, red lechwe, buffalo, wildebeest, oribi, and zebra make up the plains game. As the floodplains dry through the season, woodland animals push out onto the grassland and overall animal density rises.