LUKULA

Lukula: Our View

Luklula Selous is one of the most unique tourism projects in Africa today. Once a vast hunting reserve, Lukula is far from untouched yet the area has remained utterly unspoilt. Today it is one of the largest photographic reserves in Africa and with only four tents offers an unrivalled wilderness experience that is more exclusive than anywhere in Africa. To be honest, this place absolutely blew us away!

Lukula receives 5 paws for a number of reasons - the quality of accommodation, the size of the reserve, the attempt to transform old hunting reserves into photographic success stories, the fly camping, the atmopshere.....the list goes on. Lukula is truly unique and a safari connoisseurs paradise.

Lukula: The Detail

The camp was built by the late Anton Turner, an absolutely exceptional guide whose passion for Africa was infectious. You only have to walk into the camp to realise that Anton had seriously good taste; the camp is absolutely beautiful. Designed with a colonial exploration feel, the four tents are very high quality and look over the huge Luwega River. They are some of the most stylish accommodations we have ever seen.

The camp has a library and chill out area with comfy cushions and a fabulous collection of books that will give you a great understanding of the area and its history. The dining area is entwined around a massive old tree and also looks out over the Luwega. Persian rugs and beautiful antiquities cover the sand floor.  

Lukula is not for the first timer, it is in an area appreciated by patient safari addicts who have already had close up encounters with big game. Having said that, in our view Lukula is not just a safari destination! The adventure this place offers is undeniably some of the most audacious anywhere and subsequently caters for adventurous clientelle that are not actually safari travellers! We would also suggest that due to the sheer quality of the accommodation and guiding at Lukula, first timers could actually travel here using Lukula as the wilderness section of their trip. These first timers would need to combine Lukula with other game rich areas in the country and would need to want to spend a solid 10 days on safari in the country.

Safari however is obviously the main focus.  Game driving and walking are the primary activities with the option of extended trips for a few days at a time spent out on Lukula’s fantastic fly camps. Game is certainly skittish here but surprisingly you do not have to work hard to view animals, there are plenty of them and the diversity of what you see will rival anywhere. To give you an idea, in our last consultants three night trip to Lukula, he saw lion, wild dog, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, reedbuck, hartebeest, baboons, monkeys, warthog, kudu, eland and great birds. That list is enough to prove that the quality of game here is undeniable, it is just going to take some time to settle.