Bangweulu Wetlands

Striking antelopes and the world’s most prehistoric-looking bird set amid beguiling backdrops of vast golden savannah and a labyrinth of lily-strewn waterways. These rare wildlife safari riches are to be found in the unheralded - and largely unvisited Bangweulu Wetlands.

Bangweulu means 'where water meets the sky', an appropriate name for Zambia’s answer to the Okavango Delta. Its landscape spans 6000sq km of watery wilderness, with glass-like lakes, lotus-covered canals and papyrus-fringed waterways. Home to unique birds and wildlife, this remote wetlands has a charisma all of its own. Bangweulu is the best place to see the quirky, prehistoric-looking shoebill, a prized sighting in the birding world.  Gawky yet strangely enigmatic with spindly legs, a big belly and a viciously sharp clog-shaped beak, these avian giants are often seen on the papyrus islands of the Bulanda swamps. With huge wingspans of around 2.5m, they seem to defy gravity as they fly. And so still do they stand when fishing, waiting silently to lunge at their prey, they could easily be mistaken for statues. Aside from the shoebills, an astonishing 680 other bird species frequent the Bangweulu Wetlands, among them wattled cranes, pelicans, swamp flycatchers and blue-throated bee-eaters. The wildlife is equally as diverse with buffalo, zebras, elephants, sitatunga, reedbucks, oribi and tsessebe all residents of the floodplains. And hartebeest, impalas and pukus have recently moved into the area, courtesy of African Parks’ relocations. The main antelope attraction here is the black lechwe. Look out for the newly introduced cheetah translocated from South Africa in December 2020, they are the the first of their species to return to this unique community-owned, protected wetland in almost a century and visit the burial spot of Dr David Livingstone, who died in Bangweulu.