Just inside the park entrance, Mfuwe Lodge is larger and less intimate than most South Luangwa accommodations, but it’s the perfect place to begin your safari. This is a game rich area, relatively well travelled (although still far from busy), which means the game is more accustomed to vehicles than in more remote corners of the park. The 18 chalets are spacious and cool, upgraded in 2010 to provide a little added luxury. Each has a sitting room, covered veranda and en-suite bathroom with panoramic views out to the wildlife.

In the family-friendly public areas there is a good sized swimming pool overlooking a lagoon, where numerous hippo pods sleep their way through the day. Every day, high tea is enjoyed from the open sided restaurant and bar area that also overlooks this lagoon, before afternoon activities commence. An enticing feature is the luxurious bush spa, on a secluded deck with open sides so that you can enjoy a relaxing massage while listening to the noisy soundtrack of hippos, birds and baboons: it sounds unusual but is actually intensely relaxing. The diverse wildlife really is superb in this area, including a magical two month period from October when elephants walk straight through reception, enticed in by fallen fruit from the wild mango trees in the lodge grounds.