Nkonzi Camp

fabulous safari at a great price

Nkonzi Camp is located in the South Luangwa North area of eastern Zambia.

The camp is owned, hosted and guided by Gavin Opie, whose operation was established in 2007, with the aim of filling a niche in the South Luangwa National Park for providing high-quality, all-inclusive safari for visitors seeking great value. They have worked really hard to strip out all the unnecessary costs, without compromising on the good bits.

Nkonzi Camp is a deliberately simple and outdoorsy place, where the focus is on intimate and high quality hosting and guiding, rather than ‘unnecessary’ fixtures and fittings. This is a proper old fashioned safari camp, the kind which is much appreciated by traditionalists.

As Gavin puts it …

“In the early days, when we dreamt of owning our very own bush camp, we imagined somewhere small and intimate where every guest would receive personalised attention. We thought the tents should be rustic yet perfectly stylish, simple yet lacking nothing. And most of all, we wanted our camp to be somewhere remote, a place where we would have only the wildlife for company and our guests would have the best kind of off the beaten track experience. And that’s exactly what we’ve built. We may not have millionaire investors, silk sheets and plunge pools, but we do have a deep love for our camp and a passion for sharing the magic of the South Luangwa National Park with you.”

All this is music to our ears!

The camp is actually dismantled during the Nov-May green season and removed from the park, being restored to the same location in time for the next dry season.

Activities

Nkonzi Camp provides the following guided activities …

• vehicle safari
• walking safari
• night vehicle safari

South Luangwa is a very high quality safari area that often serves as the primary location in a trip.

The stay duration tends to be 5-8 nights split between two camps, or more occasionally 3-5 nights at one camp. Three camp combinations are also possible.

Seasonality

The best time to visit South Luangwa is during the May-Oct dry season, when the wildlife is focused on the riverine areas and easy to find.

Within that period, May-Jul is pleasantly cool at night, but the animals may not yet be fully migrated back into the river.

Towards the end of that period, Oct-Nov the wildlife should be at its strongest, but the weather is likely to be uncomfortably hot, especially at night. Bear in mind that most camps do not have air-conditioning.

Getting around

South Luangwa lies to the east of the country and is usually accessed by light aircraft services from Lusaka or Livingstone.

From Mfuwe Airport it is three hours by road into camp.

usually combined with Livingstone and other safari areas