We left Dubai on the morning Emirates flight to Lusaka—a blessedly direct seven-hour hop that deposits you into Zambia’s capital just after lunch. From there, a 35-minute light-aircraft hop south-east delivered us into a broad strip of wilderness that unfurls like green and yellow velvet along the Zambezi River: the Lower Zambezi National Park. As the bush plane banked and, after a 15-minute drive, we approached Lolebezi Lodge, its thatch-and-glass villas shimmered like river pebbles amid mahogany and winter-thorn trees. At check-in, we were welcomed with a hand massage and iced rooibos on the lodge’s timber deck, as elephants browsed the sandbank just across the river.
Zambia has long been safari’s connoisseur choice – think fewer vehicles, some of Africa’s best guides, and conservation policies that prioritize authenticity over mass tourism. Lolebezi, African Bush Camps’ newest and most intimate flagship, distills all of that into an eight-suite sanctuary where every angle frames the Zambezi’s slow bronze current.
A Front-Row Seat to the River that Shapes a Continent
Lolebezi occupies a private stretch of Zambezi river frontage inside the unfenced eastern boundary of Lower Zambezi National Park. The park’s unusual topography—mopane woodland rolling down to open floodplains, backed by the hazy blue escarpment—creates a year-round Eden for wildlife. Some mornings we spotted four of the Big Five before coffee; on others, we lingered in the villa plunge pool watching a group of hippos above the current. In the dry season (July to October) wildlife crowds the banks, turning the river itself into a theatre of survival.
Uniquely, the camp’s position means you can game-drive west into predator country, cruise east through lazy hippo pods, or canoe quietly along channels glassy as smoked glass. This tri-modal approach makes Lolebezi feel like three safaris in one.
Modernism Draped in Russet Canvas
Fox Browne Creative’s brief was to blend luxury minimalism with a tactile African soul. They delivered eight cubic villas clad in raw timber and blackened steel, their river-facing walls replaced by sliding glass panels. Step inside and you encounter a palette of ivory, charcoal, and ochre offset by artisanal bronze basins and hand-woven Mbala baskets. Teak decks melt into private pools whose tiled interiors mimic the Zambezi’s green-on-gold riffles. Lighting is soft, indirect, and even romantic; after dark the receding glow of copper lamps leaves the riverlit night sky to take centre stage.
Public areas express the same language: a library lined with Zambian art books, a wine cellar dug into river sand, and a suspended fire pit ringed with leather sling chairs for midnight star-talk. Ceiling beams are reclaimed dhow timbers; coffee tables are cast from driftwood and molten brass. Luxury here is less about gold taps, and more about design that whispers of place.
Eight Private Worlds
Four riverside suites are crafted for couples; two vast family villas add a second ensuite bedroom and double the deck space. Ours featured a super-king bed facing sliding doors that opened so wide we joked it felt like sleeping on the river banks. A telescope stood by for moonlit hippo spotting. In a separate room, a his-and-hers dressing gallery flowed into a bathroom worthy of Architectural Digest: double rainfall showers, a copper tub deep enough to qualify as a plunge pool, and amenity jars filled with marula-oil hair conditioner blended by a Lusaka social enterprise. Mini-bars stocked with craft gin from the Copperbelt and tonics infused with baobab. Privacy? Absolute: villas are staggered so no deck overlooks another; the only onlookers were vervet monkeys—and they seemed far more interested in jackal-berry pods.
Game Drives
Our first dawn drive yielded lion cubs practicing ambush in ankle-deep grass as waterbuck watched warily. Lolebezi Lodge guides benefit from exclusive traversing rights over a 10,000-hectare concession, no timing restrictions, and no queue behind five other Land Cruisers. Leopard sightings are common, and the area has earned a reputation for large wild dog pack dens in July but we could even spot them in May.
River Cruises & Canoeing
Late in the afternoon, we traded diesel for silence, climbing into a 20-foot aluminum skiff. Gin and tonics appeared as the skipper idled the engine and let the current spin us beneath a skyline of egrets. For adrenalin junkies, Canadian canoes await. Paddling at eye-level with crocodiles feels surprisingly serene; your guide’s whispered bird calls distract you until a cow hippo surfaces nearby and you realize you’re co-starring in a BBC documentary.
Walking Safaris
Cool season mornings mean tracking leopard spoor on foot, escorted by an armed scout. We knelt beside fresh elephant prints big enough to cradle a cereal bowl, learning how guides read crushed grass and dung moisture like a detective reads clues.
Farm-to-Fork With a Zambezi Accent
The chef oversees a menu that rivals boutique Cape Town restaurants. Breakfasts emerge as tiered stands – smoked bream Benedict, mini shakshuka, guava pastries as flaky as confetti. Lunch might be charcoal-grilled kudu sliders with piri-piri aioli or vegetarian nshima polenta topped with wild mushroom ragù. Evening tasting menus pivot around local provenance: mopani-honey pork belly, Musanza spinach risotto, sous-vide crocodile tail glazed in tamarind.
Wine pairings come from a 200-label list heavy on Swartland natural wines and Stellenbosch classics. One night we dined on our private terrace, another in the intimate restaurant, yet our favorite meal was a simple bush breakfast cooked on a cast-iron skillet: eggs spitting in chili butter while buffalo grazed upriver.
The African Bush Camps Foundation
A levied nightly fee funds the ABC Foundation’s nearby school lunch program, women’s sewing collective, and a pioneering human-wildlife coexistence project that installs predator-proof cattle kraals. Guests can visit the Chiawa Cultural Village or volunteer for library reading sessions. Seeing your safari dollars converted into textbooks and anti-poaching patrols adds a quiet glow of purpose to sunset cocktails.
Boutique by Design
With just eight keys and a staff-to-guest ratio of nearly 3:1, Lolebezi feels like renting a friend’s impossibly chic river house – if that friend happens to stock Bollinger and own safari vehicles at your disposal. Couples can commandeer the entire west wing; families often book all eight, turning the lodge into a private festival of fishing tournaments and impromptu movie nights on the outdoor projector.
Why Zambia – and Why Now?
Beyond the direct Dubai connection, Zambia offers world-class guiding (their licencing exams are famously rigorous) and a conservation ethic hardwired into park management. Where other destinations juggle balloon safaris, hot tubs, and spa circuits, Zambia gives you storybook wilderness served neat. Lolebezi epitomises this modern Zambian verve—polished, design-forward, yet anchored to the land through community investment and low-impact architecture.
Two days evaporated into memory fragments: orange light on bronze water, a leopard’s tail looping through albida trees, the scent of mopane embers curling over a lantern-lit dinner table. Lolebezi is opulence without ostentation, intimacy without isolation, adrenaline tempered by reflection. It’s a place where you can chase tiger-fish on a fizzing line at noon and soak in a copper tub by moonlight while hippos grunt lullabies beyond the deck.
For the traveller seeking a safari that marries avant-garde design to authentic wilderness, and who wants their spending to ripple outward into real community uplift, Lolebezi may well be the Lower Zambezi’s new gold standard. Pack light: curiosity, a pith helmet, and a notebook for capturing the superlatives you’ll inevitably invent. Zambia has been waiting in the wings; Lolebezi Lodge propels it to center stage with a flourish as thrilling as any lion’s roar echoing across the river.
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