Liuwa Plain National Park

About this place

Liuwa Plain National Park covers 3,369 square kilometres in Zambia's Western Province, an open grassland running out to the horizon. Its name means «plain» in a local dialect of Lozi. Few visitors make it here, yet it hosts Africa's second-largest blue wildebeest migration, when tens of thousands of the animals gather on the grass. These plains were a hunting ground for Lubosi Lewanika, the Litunga or king of the Lozi people, who made them a protected area in the early 1880s. The park was declared in 1972. Since 2003 African Parks has managed it with national authorities and the Barotse Royal Establishment. It became known for a lioness called Lady Liuwa, who lived alone for years until she died in 2017. The view here is a beautiful emptiness, flat ground of grass and white soil dotted with small islands of trees under a huge sky. You see wildebeest alone and in herds, their dark shapes standing out at a distance, and lionesses resting on green grass in the shade of trees. There are cheetahs and hyenas too, and more than 300 kinds of bird. It is about 58 km from Kalabo in a straight line and about 107 km from Mongu. Tracks are sandy and flood in the rains, so bring a four-wheel drive and all you need, and ask the park about conditions. The wildebeest gather with the first rains, around November. Book a campsite ahead, as places are very few.