On my recent trip to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, I had the privilege of staying at Chindeni for a couple of nights. What a beautiful and luxurious tented safari camp, in one of the most stunning settings.
Chindeni is built around beautiful ebony trees and overlooks an ox-box lagoon which was teeming with all kinds of birds when I arrived. What’s so great about Chindeni is that it fits every traveler’s desires. If you want to go for a walk, or prefer a game drive or just park yourself on your deck with a gin and tonic and sit in complete silence watching the birds feeding and fighting each other off for their fish. One of the most superb sightings I witnessed, was a Hamerkop dipping away finding his fish, when a Saddlebilled stork stole it out of his mouth and then out of the corner of my eye a Fish Eagle came swooping in to steal it away from the Hamerkop. The Fish Eagle then flew into the nearby trees and proceeded to eat someone else’s meal! So sorry I couldn’t get this all on camera or video, because it truly was something for the memory bank.
The luxurious tents are built on a raised wooden platform and each tent has a private deck overlooking the lagoon, where you can hang out on your own hammock enjoying the view and the animals coming down for a midday drink. We saw plenty of giraffe, kudu, puku, zebra, elephant and of course the lagoon was a hive of activity with all the birds.
Each luxury tent is built in an open plan style, so seems extra roomy and airy. I like the light colored flooring and grassmats too, which add to the roomy feel. Each tent has a 4-poster extra large king bed with mosquito netting, a lovely small living area with comfortable chairs and footstools. The bathroom is off to the side and offers a large shower, loo with a view and two sinks.
In the evenings after your game drive, you meet in the main area for pre-dinner cocktails and lots of chatting about who saw what during the day’s activities. Meals are served family style at Chindeni and a 5-star plus! I particularly liked the wood fired pizza lunch and Mongolian Braai or barbeque for dinner. Other Bushcamp properties do the same style of meal each night so as not to duplicate during your trip, but each host and chef has the option to design the meal the way they want. I loved ours!
Chindeni has a wonderful atmosphere about it, as did Bilimungwe where I was before Chindeni. I loved the staff and I felt like I was coming back home, it was very sad leaving, lots of tears were had!
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Truly a beautiful park. I particularly love the view of the river from the hammock.