Ker & Downey Zambia

Discover Zambia with Ker & Downey, where raw untamed wilderness meets immersive luxury. Our guided safari experiences in expansive and remote destinations is at the heart of our six decades of safari knowledge.

Our camps in Lower Zambezi and Liuwa Plain are strategically positioned in the most remote, untouched corners of these renowned parks, providing guests with exclusive access to the most scenic and wildlife-productive landscapes.

Nestled beautifully in the wild

Zambia is renowned for being one of Africa’s finest safari experiences, known for its diverse game viewing, variety of landscapes, rich typography and exceptional wildlife. The destination focuses on uncrowded and immersive guided experiences which aim to reconnect the traveller with nature through walking, boat cruises and game drives.

Ker & Downey Zambia has deliberately chosen the more remote, quieter sectors of the Lower Zambezi and Liuwa Plain National Parks to preserve an authentic wilderness experience in untouched landscapes. This thoughtful placement fosters a deeper connection with nature, allowing visitors to experience the rhythm, solitude, and raw beauty of Zambia’s wild spaces in their purest form.

Play full video

OUR DESTINATIONS

Spanning 4,092 square kilometres (1,580 square miles), Lower Zambezi National Park is a sanctuary of breathtaking, untouched beauty. This cherished destination offers a diverse mosaic of habitats, creating a haven for a remarkable array of wildlife. Whether you are exploring via sunset boating safaris, game drives, or guided walking excursions, you are immersed in one of the park’s most scenic and wildlife-productive landscapes

Boasting 3,369 square kilometers (1,301 square miles) of untamed wilderness, Liuwa Plain National Park is widely celebrated as Zambia’s premier grassland safari experience, along with being home to the secret migration, Africa’s second largest of wildebeest. Our lodge is nestled on the threshold where rare, ancient woodlands meet the dramatic, seemingly infinite horizon of the Liuwa Plain, in near complete exclusivity of other guests, offering an unparalleled vantage point from which to explore this legendary landscape.

Lower Zambezi

Whether you are exploring the Lower Zambezi around our Musesenji River Camp via day and night game drives, tranquil boating safaris, or immersive guided walking tours, the opportunities to encounter wildlife are unmatched. This is a land of giants, home to large elephant herds, elusive leopards, powerful lion prides, and the rare spectacle of wild dog packs. It is also a true birder’s paradise, teeming with exceptional avian diversity, with more than 430 species.

Our camp occupies the most remote real estate in the Lower Zambezi National Park, uniquely positioned on a peninsula where the Zambezi and Musesenji Rivers converge. Opening its doors in April 2027, Musesenji River Camp is intimate in size, thus ensuring a bespoke, nature-focused experience within the breathtaking scenery from the camp’s vantage and surrounding area.

We believe in conscious luxury: our eco-friendly design is entirely solar-powered, utilizing a state-of-the-art water filtration system, and is built without permanent concrete footings to minimize our environmental footprint. To ensure your complete comfort throughout the entire safari season, the camp is also fully air-conditioned.

Musesenji River Camp, Lower Zambezi

5 Luxury Safari Tents and 1 Family Tent

Opening dates Shoulder Season 1 April – 30 June 1 - 30 November High Season 1 July – 31 October

Location Located inside the Lower Zambezi National Park, on the banks of the Zambezi River at the confluence with the Musesenji River. Musesenji is the furthest most east camp (downriver) in the Lower Zambezi National Park, making it the most remote camp in the Park, creating an exclusive experience away from the crowds.

Size Standard room internal floor space - 55m² (181 feet²). Outside decking space of 30m² (98 feet²). Total of 85m² (279 feet²). Family Room internal Floor space - Each bedroom 37m² (121 feet²) plus a shared common lounge space of 31m². Internal floor space of 105m² (344 feet²). Outside decking space of 50m² (164 feet²). Total 155m² (509 feet²).

Aspect Elevated tents with outside deck and private plunge pools overlook the Zambezi River. Tents are elevated 1m high, on a light steel frame. Sand colored canvas walls with glass sliding front doors and mosquito screening. Internal floors are cool underfoot smoked oak vinyl flooring, with outdoor decking built from teak composite decking. External PVC tent roofs are Nato olive.

No. of guests Musesenji River Camp accommodates 14 guests.

Set along side the Zambezi River and along the confluence of the Musesenji River, an exceptional wildlife corridor.

Elevated tents with outside deck and private plunge pools overlooking the Zambezi River. Tents are elevated 1m high, on a light steel frame. Sand colored canvas walls with glass sliding front doors and mosquito screening. Internal floors are cool underfoot smoked oak vinyl flooring, with outdoor decking built from teak composite decking. External PVC tent roofs are Nato olive.

Liuwa Plain

Liuwa Plain National Park is a safari destination unlike any other—an ultra-exclusive wilderness limited to just 15 guests. Far off the beaten track, this untouched sanctuary hosts Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration and serves as a vital habitat for over 350 bird species, including the continent’s largest population of wattled cranes, crowned crane and Denham’s Bustard. The plains are a thriving stronghold for lion, cheetah, and wild dog, with large hunting hyena clans dominating the predatory hierachy. A further interesting phenomena is that the landscape itself transforms with the seasons, carpeting the earth in wildflowers and dramatic, ever-changing vistas between October and December.

Liuwa is also a testament to the power of community and conservation of their ancestral inheritance, the land; it is home to the Lozi people, whose traditional heritage is woven into the park’s management. Today, it stands as a celebrated conservation success story, revitalized through the partnership of African Parks, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and the Zambian Carnivore Programme.

KING LEWANIKA LODGE, LIUWA PLAIN

5 Luxury Safari Tents and 1 Family Tent

Open Dates 1 March to 30 December annually, aligning travel for guests with the rest of Zambia’s peak season of travel.

Size Each Safari Tent is 60 square meters in size, together with an additional 40 meter² veranda and outdoor shower. Family Room internal Floor space - Each bedroom 100 meters² (328 feet²). All luxury safari tents are nestled on the edge of the woodland with uninterrupted views over Liuwa Plain.

No. of guests 5 luxury tents and 1 family tent Maximum 15 Guests. Each Luxury Safari Tent is set up either as a twin or double.

Family Tent The Luxury Family Safari tent can accommodate 5 guests with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathroom. 120 square meters (1,291 square feet). Each Luxury safari family tent is 80 square meters in size, together with an additional 40 square meter veranda.

Access Flights on our Cessna 210 Aircraft, this ease of access directly to Matiamanene Airstrip (6 minutes from camp) on a daily basis, from both Livingstone and Lusaka. The flight schedule seamlessly aligns for domestic and international flights.

The spacious luxury safari tents have been tastefully designed to offer unrivalled luxury, whilst championing the beauty of the Liuwa Plain from every vantage point. As you open your door and enter the room, you feel as if you are walking directly into The Plain, as the open fronted rooms effortlessly draw the beauty of outside, in.

Your eye is immediately tempted to scan the expansive panoramic view unfolding in front of you. Each luxury safari tent offers multiple seating areas, a large sofa is the perfect spot to sit with your binoculars and see what comes to drink during the heat of the day, or soak up the sun on your lounger chairs on the expansive veranda. The earthy tones of leather, steel and grass are wonderfully incorporated into the tasteful colour palette that reflects the golden hues of the grass that surround you. The luxury safari tents offer a choice of an indoor, or an outdoor shower, for the adventurous, a shower under the remarkable Liuwa night sky is the perfect way to end the day.

A wildlife success story

King Lewanika Lodge offers guests the opportunity to enjoy front-row seats to an incredibly diverse eco-system, rich with an abundance of wildlife, without the crowds. The lodge is situated in a game dense area of the National Park, perfectly positioned to showcase majestic lions, menacing clans of hyena up to fifty-strong and pans teeming with rare aquatic birdlife. It is the safari destination that truly has something for everyone.

To visit Liuwa Plain National Park means to be part of the incredible success story that continues to unfold. A Park that was once on the brink of total destruction, now thriving with a variety of mammal and bird species thanks to the unwavering efforts of African Parks in partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife.

Fine food, amazing sights, incredible people

Ease of Access

Ker & Downey Zambia is delighted to now have the arrival of our Cessna 210 Aircraft.

Assuring guests ease of access directly to Liuwa Plain, arriving at Matiamanene Airstrip (6 minutes from camp) on a daily basis, from both Livingstone and Lusaka and connecting the Lower Zambezi.

Importantly, the flight schedule seamlessly aligns for domestic and international flights, linking other iconic areas such as Kafue, Lower Zambezi and the South Luangwa.

Game drives

Game drives allow for exploration of our destinations.

With specially designed vehicles for exceptional viewing of the expansive Liuwa Plain. This areas teems with a stunning variety of plains game and their attendant predators, not to forget hundreds of bird species and large flocks of crowned and wattled cranes.

The vehicles also boast roof top "vista" seats which, together with the under roof game drive seats ensure the ideal vantages to spot, observe and photograph Liuwa's wildlife and landscapes.

Liuwa Plain - Follow the Northern Migration

As the migration moves North from King Lewanika Lodge, in late May, we have enhanced our guest offering with an innovative, fun and adventurous full day trip & sleep out experience, which is available to all guests on a complimentary basis.

The activity allows guests to track the migration on its Northern range loop, hopefully encountering them and spending time exploring between the herds in near exclusivity which spans an enormous area of 3,369 square kilometers (1,301 square miles).

Liuwa Plain - Cultural immersion

Visit local communities inside the park, to see and experience their generational traditional fishing methods. Learn the rich history and culture which continues to be celebrated today, a stronghold culture which continues today in an authentic environment.

Cuisine

Enjoy our fresh and nutritious cuisine across all of our destinations, with much sourced locally. Perhaps sample some wonderful local delicacies. Signature experiences include bush brunches, starlit dinners, remote plain picnics and Champagne sundowners.

Spa and Wellness

Indulge and unwind in the caring hands of a spa therapist between activities, with a treatment of your choosing, enjoyed while imbibing the tranquility and bush sounds as a backdrop.