Liuwa Plain National Park

Liuwa Plain sits in the far west near the Angolan border, a flat grass plain that floods in the rains and dries into open country, and every November tens of thousands of blue wildebeest move across it in a migration that gets far less attention than the East African one because almost nobody comes here. The plain was the hunting ground of the Lozi king Lubosi Lewanika, who made it a protected area in the early 1880s, almost a century before it became a national park in 1972. Lady Liuwa, a lioness who lived alone here for years after the rest of the pride was lost, made the place briefly famous.

Highlights

• The wildebeest migration - tens of thousands of animals moving across the plain from November.
• The open grassland - flat country flooding in the rains and drying out after.
• The Lozi history - a royal hunting ground protected from the 1880s, a national park since 1972.
• The hyena clans - unusually large spotted hyena groups that dominate the plain.

When to go

November to December is the migration and the wettest, hardest driving. May to July is dry and easier but the animals are dispersed. The park closes in the peak floods.

Before you go

Access is genuinely difficult and self-drive requires full self-sufficiency in fuel and recovery gear. The migration timing shifts with the rains and can be missed. There is one lodge and a couple of campsites, nothing more.

Nearby

Mongu is east, and the Barotse Floodplain lies between them.

Key facts