Kapishya Hot Springs & North Luangwa NP

The Kapishya hot springs was an absolute gem of a find after our day at the border, it offered everything the border didn’t.  A calm oasis of greenery teeming with different bird species we had never seen before.  Camp was set up by the river for two days where we caught up on emails,  baked bread in our bush bakery (Thank you Doug & Gabrielle!), got chatting to Mark Harvey – family of the infamous Sir Stewart Gore-Browne who set up the Africa House at Shiwang’andu (a story in itself – for more info check out www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/christina-lamb/the-africa-house/), and of course, took daily dips in the hot springs!  The water from the hot springs starts off at 110 degrees and travels 7 km to the surface, loosing about 10 degrees for every km it travels, which means its hot bath temperature by the time you find us bobbing around in it. Bonus is that it doesn’t smell of sulfur so you don’t get out reeking of rotten eggs – which is just lovely. After 20-30 minutes you leave the springs feeling quite drowsy and it offers you the best night’s sleep.

 

From the Kapyishya hot springs we drove around 80km to Samala Camp on the north western side of North Luangwa National park. 

 

In a word – North Luangwa is wild.  Its untouched wilderness, makes it incredibly beautiful, I would even go as far as describing it as romantic. The night we camped at Ituba, we had the campsite to ourselves.  We spent hours sitting under the shade of the Acacia Albida tree with our binoculars, watching all sorts of life come and go to the river.  In the small hours of the night the elephants foraged around our roof tent for so long there was no getting out for a wee.  (I couldn’t believe how close they had come to the car – and pointed out a ‘monster’ foot print just inches from Andromedas back wheel, only for Col to remind me that that’s where our gas cooker was the night before…. Clearly, I won’t be giving up day job, but you get the idea.)  We sat by the fire and watched the blood orange moon vanish over the horizon, crocs eyes light up with our torches, and listened to hippos grunting and honking all night.  It was the best!

 

So, if it’s as special as I just described it, why does it only attract a couple of hundred tourists a year?  The quality that makes it so special for some, makes it unattractive to others.  Its stinking hot, its home to zillions of tsetse flies, you won’t come across another person or car, there is no network, animals are quite skitsy, and there are no cold beers to be bought once you arrive in camp.

 

It’s a good thing that different things attract different people.  If we all wanted the same things, imagine how boring and competitive life would be!

 

Getting to Ituba camp was a mission, as we had to cross on THE pontoon, if you can call it that. 

 

When you finally see ‘THE PONTOON’ the first thought that comes to mind is a mix of ‘oh dear god’  & ‘you want us to do what now?’ We sat on the sand banks and watched for a wee while pondering the risk assessment for this rickety yet amusing contraption.  Think – a number of oil drums held together in some creative fashion with lots of logs on either side to act as a ‘jetty’.  In Europe it would have been shut down before it was even opened. As IT approached us, the ranger with the gun asked all passengers to get out.  Sure thing hun – you don’t have to ask me twice –I happily jumped out, made photos and wished Col lots of luck.  Not forgetting the pod of Hippo and a handful of Crocs watching us from nearby. Of course, it all went rickety tickety boo and we are around to tell another story!