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Kasanka National Park (Chris Breen)

Having first visited Kasanka National Park in the late 80’s (and many times since!), it was a pleasure to return there once again in November to experience the incredible sight of millions of fruit bats migrating.

After arriving in to Lusaka on the SAA flight from Johnannesburg I had lunch and began the drive north-east to Kasanka NP. Heading out of Lusaka - which has grown noticeably since I was last here - was slow going, but then it generally is. Trucks heading north to the copper belt seemed to be dominating the road, as well as a considerable number of buses dicing with the ‘wrong side’ of the road. We were heading to Mkushi this evening to stay at Forest Inn. It is not a luxurious place, but a good road-side overnight stop. The food is good, they serve a beer or two and it is a very nice place to break the journey from Lusaka to Kasanka. Journey time approximately 4.5 hours. As an added bonus I believe that there is a population of flying squirrels that live in the area - though I have never seen them!

The next day our drive to Kasanka was an easy and pleasant 3.5 hours to the park gate. One thing that has clearly changed in Zambia in the course of the past few years is the quality of the roads - I don’t think that on the entire 500km journey from Lusaka we encountered a single one - this has to be good news!

After park fee formalities we stopped briefly at Wasa Camp before driving out to Sitatunga Camp. Sitatunga is a superb tented bush camp run by Dave and Una. This is its (and their) second season of operation. Mainly focusing on North Luangwa (where they have a main camp and a fly camp) they move to Kasanka for the bat season of November. Situated at the south-eastern end of the bat forest (mushitu forest) the camp is nestled amongst a ‘tree island’ and has a beautiful view over the low-lying papyrus swamp which at this time of year is almost dry. The tents are large, Meru-style tents with a private (but separate) shower and toilet. In addition to twin beds and a couple of useful tables, the tents have flooring mats around the beds and an exotic Persian carpet - which is brilliant - and makes the tent seem extremely comfortable

Una prepared an excellent lunch and then after a siesta we headed out to the western bat hide. We walked out of camp - it's about a 20 minute walk - taking in a few birds as we went, and reached the hide/platform at 1700ish. I thought I could hear the sound of rushing water, getting louder and louder as we approached the hide, but in fact it was bats, millions and millions of them, exercising their wings. We climbed up a short wooden ladder onto the platform and saw an amazing spectacle of bats. Hung from every part of every branch on every tree, and flying around overhead were straw-coloured fruit bats. We watched and photographed for 30 minutes or more before coming down the ladder and walking away from the forest where Dave and his team had set up chairs and a small bar for sundowners so we could watch the bats rising from the forest from a more leisurely distance.

Beer in hand we watched as wave upon wave of bats rose up from the forest, the first few venturing out from the trees only to return as if unsure about the evening’s foray, plucking up the courage and heading off again into the distance. There was plenty of avian interest in the bats too - fish eagles, hooded and white-backed vultures and eight or more eastern red-footed falcons - a first for me.

As dusk turned into night time we could just see the last of the bats disappearing and heard from behind us the near-silent sound of elephants walking past. My first visit to Kasanka was in 1989 when the park had recently been saved from being ‘de-gazetted’ as a national park by two local philanthropists, David Lloyd and Gary Williams, and back then there was no chance of seeing pachyderms. I have been many times since but have never seen ele’s here, though I know they have been seen. Now, they are seen a couple of times each week which is fantastic - a clear measure of the success of the ongoing conservation efforts in Kasanka. This was a family group of 12-16 elephants confidently, and unhurriedly, walking across the plain behind us. There are thought to be 40 or so elephants here that move freely between here and the forests of the Congo to the west.

Our mornings began at 4am when it was still dark. After a cup of tea we headed off to a different hide - this time the BBC hide. An apparently precarious affair, the BBC hide is in two parts, the first a steep wooden ladder against a large tree leading to a platform that was approximately 3 metres by 3 metres. The second stage from here is a steel ladder (without a protective handrail) leading up to a smaller steel platform. Whether you are on the first level or the second, you essentially have your head in the bats as they return from their nighttime feeding to a temporary roost, and then depart en-mass to their daytime roost right over the top of the platform.

Each day in Kasanka followed a similar pattern, with a super early start in order to get to the bat roost before they returned from their evenings foraging, and then in the afternoon heading out to the hides before the bats left. Breakfasts were by the fire as the day was warming up and consisted of cereals, toast and coffee - with plenty of time available in the middle of the day for a siesta.

Kasanka is a fabulous park - I first came here in 1989 - with so much of interest to see, whether you come here for the bats or not, including 20-30 leopards (though these are rarely seen), 70 plus buffalo, 40 elephants and 200 or more hippos. In fact the park plays host to more than 100 mammal species including a recently categorised baboon species - Kinda baboons - long slender legs, short, squat muzzle and testosterone levels closer to that of the vervet’s than other monkey species.

It is a fascinating place and I can strongly recommend a visit!

We offer several trips to Kasanka to witness this amazing migration