The Kafue National Park is Zambia's oldest and largest national park and, indeed, one of Africa's largest protected areas, at just over 22,000 square kilometres, which expands to more than 40,000 square kilometres when its game management area buffer zones are included.

In spite of its size and stature, this vast wilderness is one of the country's best-kept secrets in safari terms, being largely unexplored and wonderfully remote, even though it's only a few hours's drive from the capital of Lusaka and the adventure capital of Livingstone. With a small but exclusive selection of wonderful bush camps and luxury lodges enjoying traversing throughout the park, it's attraction is its uniqueness - the Kafue is quite unlike any other national park in Southern Africa.

Bisected virtually from north to south by the Kafue River that gives it its name, the Kafue features vast floodplains combined with dense miombo thickets and woodland that give rise to a rich and diverse selection of wildlife species and incredible birdlife. From the northern reaches of the Busanga Plains to the rich waters of Lake Itezhi-Tezhi (where the Kafue has been dammed) the Kafue has areas of fantastic wetland, thanks to the Kafue's perennial tributaries - the Lufupa and the Lunga - which feed it from the north. Interestingly, the Kafue is the only truly Zambian river - beginning and ending within the country's borders.

Expect to see huge herds of red lechwe and puku, roan antelope and buffalo, as well as elephant and great lion and cheetah, painted wolves (African wild dog) and the occasional leopard, especially along the river banks. Huge rafts of pelicans, wattled cranes, crowned cranes and egrets congregate on the floodplains, along with open-billed storks and waders of all descriptions.