CHIBEMBE ISLAND
Inside the park.
Accessible only
from here.
The island sits in the main Luangwa channel — main channel along its eastern edge, Chibembe Channel along its western. It is part of South Luangwa National Park. Step off the reserve bank and you are immediately inside the national park.
No other operator can reach it. No vehicles have ever been on it. No tracks. The island lies north of the confluence — renewed by the same annual silt flood as the reserve. Its interior floodplains, old channels, and woodland are extraordinary.
“No vehicles. No tracks. No other operators. Step off the bank and you are already inside the park — renewed by the same annual flood as everything above the confluence.”
Chibembe Island - South Luangwa National Park
THE CROSSING
Three ways.
One decision:
the guide’s.
On foot when the season permits. By canoe anywhere along 4.6 miles of frontage. By pontoon in the area of the confluence. No fixed entry point. The guide reads the river and the morning and chooses.
Walk the island. Or cross the Chibembe Channel and step into the roadless interior of the main park beyond — the continuation of the walk Norman Carr began here in the 1950s.