A’walking in Mawimbi

A WhatsApp voicenote on a grey London morning in October. “How do you fancy coming to Zambia?”, it cheerfully chirped. I have known Lu for nearly 30 years now, our friendship closely weaved by a shared love of Africa and of wildlife. Her latest project sees her helping to set up Mawimbi Bush Camp, a remote tented wilderness bush-camp in a private concession in Kafue National Park, Western Zambia.

Warwick, Mawimbi co-owner and founder of South African company Malapa (which has constructed many of Southern Africa’s most luxurious bush camps) and Tom, Mawimbi co-owner based in Cape Town have been working towards the camp's official opening in 2026.

Images are needed for their new website and for social media - for me, what a dream invitation! In the space of 10 days, my camera kit was packed and I was on my way to join the team.

Located on the banks of the great Kafue river, a more perfect location for game viewing is hard to imagine – the river view one way, and a large dambo (wetland) behind, gifting visitors a 360 degree open horizon. There is an incredible concentration of all creatures great and small in this relative postage-stamp sized corner of Kafue, due to the rich diversity of the habitat, and the relative peace enjoyed by the Zambian bush. Kafue National Park spans 22,400 square kilometres, plus the game management areas (GMAs), tripling the park’s size with these buffer zones between park and local villages.

For me as a photographer and passionate nature lover, the walking safari (or bush walk as the scouts term them) is truly the icing on the cake. The experience is totally immersive, close and personal. The soft crunch of your boots on sun-baked earth as you set out from the Mawimbi Bush Camp into the Kafue bush. The breeze murmurs through winter thorn trees. A fish eagle cuts the quiet with its unmistakable cry. And there’s no vehicle. No engine noise. No stop start, and onto the next. Just me, my cameras, a scout, and the bush - close enough to feel its pulse.

Mawimbi offers traditional game drives, alongside river and walking safaris. These bush walks offer an intimate connection with Zambia’s wilderness. But every tradition has a beginning. Zambia plays a special role in the origins of the walking safari. It was here, in the 1950s, that British conservationist Norman Carr brought the idea to life in the vast wilderness of South Luangwa. A true visionary, Carr believed that to love the bush, you had to walk through it—feel it, smell it, listen to it—without the buffer of a vehicle; the same senses that the natural life all around us rely on for survival. His belief that this connection fuels a desire to conserve, remains at the heart of Zambia’s bush-walking culture.

Before Carr’s bold ideas, safaris were largely hunting trips for the colonial elite. He reimagined everything. By establishing Zambia’s first photographic safari camp, he introduced walking safaris as a way to honour wildlife rather than disturb it. His guests became students of the bush, learning to read its tracks and respond to its subtle rhythm.

Every step becomes part of an intimate conversation with nature, and Kafue’s 8 scouts are not only trained to deal with the dangers of the bush, but are an extraordinary font of knowledge gained over a lifetime of an intimate relationship with their natural heritage. Crispin tells me the cautionary tale of the Honey Guide Bird. He will lead you to honey but woe betide if you do not share the spoils with him. The scouts do a similar job for their guests, following clues in the form of sounds, sights and smells, with the ability to lead you to treasure.

For photographers like myself, this is especially true.

Great images are founded not just on magical light and capturing the moment, but on a background knowledge and understanding of subject matter and their behaviour, with a decent helping of patience, anticipation and connection.

Every walk is different, but often includes a rest break down by the river where the breeze is cool. Mawimbi currently has two groups of hippos with babies within walking distance, one to the left and one to right of camp. So Crispin the scout and I sit, often unnoticed, in the shade of the giant root-rich trees alongside the river bank, watching hippo TV. We do not disturb their natural behaviour; the young ones play and the adults sink, surface and snort with beautiful and calming predictability within 50m of us.

As a result, my portfolio from my hallowed days at Mawimbi possess a much richer depth than merely game drives and ticking off the Big Five. It includes inch worms and shongololos (the Southern African word for millipede), scaling all the way up to the mighty elephant, and everything in between. In those precious hours spent walking and breathing in this magical place, the opportunity to become an integral part of the bush, rather than a mere voyeur, is one of the best experiences of my life.

Tammy Marlar, UK Professional Photographer

Tammymarlar.com

@tammymarlar

If you’re a birder, photographer, videographer or seasoned Safari traveller yearning for the soul connection of the African bush, Mawimbi Bush Camp is a jewel in the heart of Kafue National Park. Book now for a wonderful walking safari adventure.

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