Norman Carr Safaris and African Parks are proud to announce details of the investment in, and construction of, a luxury lodge in Liuwa Plain National Park, Zambia. Mambeti Camp is being funded by African Parks with the design and construction being implemented by the award-winning Norman Carr Safaris group which will also manage and market the new offering. Construction will start in February 2016 and the lodge is expected to open in early 2017.
The name of the camp pays homage to two remarkable residents of the park – Mambeti and Lady Liuwa. Mambeti who lived, died and is buried in Liuwa was a member of the Lozi tribe and a highly revered grandmother to several existing park staff. Lady Liuwa is the world-famous matriarch around whom the park’s lion pride has evolved. According to local folklore Mambeti, the grandmother, was reincarnated into Lady Liuwa, the lioness, and is the reason why the lioness spends so much time in the same woodlands area frequented by the elderly lady in her twilight years and near to where she was buried.
Liuwa Plain is situated on the upper Zambezi flood plains of western Zambia and is bounded by the Luambimba and Luanginga Rivers. Vast (it is 365 000 hectares in size), remote and untamed, Liuwa is characterised by seasonally-flooded grassy plains dotted with woodland islands. It has one of the oldest conservation histories in Africa having originally being proclaimed a protected area by the King of the Lozis in the early 1880s. The Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) is the monarchy of the Lozi people who live in and around the park and is the official administrative entity of the region. Since 2003, the park has been managed by African Parks through a public-private partnership with the Zambian Government and the Barotse Royal Establishment.
In addition to its famed lions, Liuwa is home to the second biggest wildebeest migration in Africa, recovering cheetah numbers, a burgeoning hyena population, wild dogs, abundant zebra, buffalo, red lechwe and tessebe herds and more than 300 bird species. It is not uncommon to see millions of pratincoles and spectacular kaleidoscopes of crowned cranes and endangered wattled cranes which start flocking at the onset of the rains.
Located on the upper Munde stream, a site chosen for its sweeping vistas and complete wildlife immersion, Mambeti Camp will comprise six luxury villas including a two bedroomed family villa, with the capacity to accommodate a total of 15 guests. It has been designed by acclaimed lodge architects, Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, who are also responsible for the design of Norman Carr Safaris’ flagship camp, Chinzombo, in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park and sister property, Miavana, a new development in progress in Madagascar under the marketing umbrella of Time + Tide.
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