Had our final night back at tafika after the walking camps.
It was an opportunity to learn about the work they do with the local community through the Tafika Fund.
We visited the local village and school and were inspired by the young people we met.
As far as we were concerned, Tafika and its sister camps are about as perfect a safari experience as it is possible to get.
The location is fantastic, the guiding is great and no importance is placed on superfluous luxuries.
Given the remoteness of the location, the quality and quantity of the food is quite extraordinary. Try the mountain biking!
On a memorable last afternoon, 5 elephants sauntered around the camp for half an hour or so. Fortunately there was no one in the hammock at the time.
Back after 19 years and just as wonderful.
Like going back to welcoming old friends. Tafika has lost none of its friendliness and quality. It's unusual in that it remains a family run venture.
Its natural setting and simple reed huts is underpinned by an amazing infrastructure and attention to detail. Great food and great guiding. We appreciated the introduction of battery fans as it was 104 degrees in the middle of the day in October.
The night drives are a real treat. Saw Leopard and Porcupine as well as many many lions and elephants.
Given the remoteness of the location, the quality and quantity of the food is quite extraordinary.
The journey to Tafika from Mfuwe by road is quite long and uncomfortable in the heat of the day; had we known about the option to fly in, we might well have chosen that option as other guests on our Proflight aircraft did. We thought Tafika was delightful and our hosts could not have been more welcoming.
Our stay was marred by Judy feeling quite ill for 36 hours and unable to take part in all the activities but on the second day she was able to sit outside by the river and watch the wildlife, including quite remarkably, the birth of a young Puku - something the owners had not seen in the 40 years they'd been in Africa. The game drives were full of wildlife experiences including lions, elephants, leopards and many species of birds - fantastic photographic opportunities.
The owners, Carole and John, were very keen to ensure Judy was taken good care of and did their very best to get appropriate food and drinks for her. In the end, a doctor who was visiting another guest checked her over and assured us that it was nothing serious and that she would recover, which she duly did.
Having been to Tafika many times before, everything there just suits us and meeting up with all the staff is like meeting friends.
John and Carol Coppinger have 'got it right'.
We've travelled across much of southern and eastern Africa, and Tafika remains our favourite destination with just the right combination of professional excellence and family friendliness.
Thanks (again) for the birthday cake and serenade.
Again there is impressive guiding as usual; the important part is continuity at the Coppinger's camp. It is really impressive that the key staff are still present from my first visit 9 years ago. The store of experience and knowledge must be almost without challenge. I suppose this is shown by the number of returnees after their previous experience.
I do think that there is some restrictions as to where one can drive to view the game; the Salt Pan route appeared to have problems with mosquitos and tsetse fly and so visits were not frequent.
As usual the river though provided a pleasing focus, for sunsets.
Mona's food was excellent -- particularly lunch.
Tafika has a lovely setting on the banks of the Luangwa River. The chalets are attractive and roomy. They are thatched and open at all times, with mosquito netting around the beds at night. This means that you will find more than the usual number of insects and other critters (e.g., mice, dragon flies, small frogs, small snakes) in your chalet.
The owners, John and Carol Coppinger are very gracious and good hosts, joining their guests for most meals. The staff is attentive and helpful. The guides, led by Brian, are quite good. They don't use radios in their vehicles (except for emergencies), so if one guide finds something of interest, there's no way to share that information with the others. However, as Brian pointed out, without radios, the vehicles are quieter, and there's no chance of the guides' abusing their use.
The camp is located in the Nsefu sector of the South Luangwa Park, and it seemed to me and my group that the area covered in the game drives is quite a bit less than at other camps (Kaingo and Mwamba, as examples). This led to our retracing our steps in almost every drive. Granted, you still see different things, but sometimes the scenery felt repetitive. That said, we did see a lot of different birds and animals.
Alex was our guide. He was easy to be with and very knowledgeable; however, at times he was unnecessarily aggressive with animals in order to get them to react (e.g., driving fast through a group of buffalo and again through a group of elephants). Also, the guides, as a group, seemed to be competitive toward one another, rather than mutually supportive as we found at other camps.
My 5th visit standards remain very high and importantly for me the Team appears unchanged with the exception of the guiding by local Zambians which has materially improved a very positive development .The food provided was outstanding and better than I recalled .
It was the first time in Africa for my wife and she immediately felt relaxed with the very high professionalism of the whole team.