Parc National De Kundelungu

The Kundelungu National Park is the closest national park to Lubumbashi and is well known for waterfalls, including the Lofoi falls – one of the tallest in Africa at 540 feet in a single drop. There are reports that it is the highest in Africa, but that seems to be based some erroneous information stating the height at 1100ft. We've been wanting to visit ever since we arrived, but our lack of information made the trip seem insurmountable.
However, friends of friends had successfully visited; that gave our friends, a French volunteer couple with two young girls, the confidence to attempt a visit, and we invited ourselves along. We had to find a 4WD vehicle to rent and get things together fairly quickly, but the visit turned out wonderfully. Karen drove the big 2000 Toyota Prado, following our French friends out of town Friday morning. The SUV was imported from Japan with the steering wheel on the right, but beggars can't be choosers.

The park is north of L'shi. You can also see Kilwa, where Karen went a couple weeks ago.

We arrived at the park's gite (guesthouse) before lunch. The gite was very rustic by Western standards: no power, no running water, no kitchen, no dining room. But it had 3 bedrooms, each with a bathroom where one could bucket-flush and bucket-bathe. The gazebo shown below on the right was designated the kitchen.

Our gite for 2 nights. No running water or electricity.

After lunch we drove both cars to the first set of falls – Masansa.

Turning off the road for the track to the first set of falls.

The southern part of Kundelungu park, where we were, is a plateau and the waterfalls tumble off the plateau on to the plains below.

Above the Masansa falls, looking off the edge of the plateau.

Masansa falls

That night we struggled to get the charcoal lit, succeeding with the help of a lot of candle wax. We all played Blisters, a dice game, snacked a lot, and had rather burnt chicken around 8:30 or 9:00. Oh yeah, and toasted some marshmallows, too. A positive thing that could be said about the gite, though, was that the beds were firm, but comfortable, and clean towels, linens, and blankets were provided.

The next day we left around 9:30 for the 3-hour, 65-km drive to the Lofoi falls. We might have left earlier, but we struggled again to light the charcoal. The plan was to heat water for coffee, for dishes, for bathing, etc. However, we spent a couple hours failing to light the charcoal until we used the pine cones that the 4-year-old picked up the day before. We only had time to heat water for coffee. Not worth it ... almost.

Parts of the drive were through grassland like that shown below, and parts were through dry scrub forest. It looked like a perfect environment for elephants, antelope, zebra, and other animals. We heard there used to be a lot of animals before the war in the 90s, and it sounds like the lower parts of the park may still have a few left.

Crossing the grassland savanna to the Chutes Lofoy.

After parking and having lunch next to the river, we followed our guide across it and hiked around to the overlook of Lofoi falls.

Another lunch by a river before viewing the falls.

A view of the Chutes Lofoi and the edge of the plateau.

Another view of the falls.

We hurriedly left the overlook of the falls when we realized it was 3:20 -- the day had gotten away from us, and we knew we wouldn't make it back to the gite before dark [Karen: but we had a nice drive back, listening to ABBA and Dire Straits [Eric: Too much ABBA]]. When we arrived about an hour after nightfall, the park rangers were planning a rescue for the next day because our guide had no radio and no way to let the know we were OK.

Having learned our lesson, this time we asked our guide to light our charcoal, which he did using lots of dry grass. We heated water for pasta and grilled some thick slabs of bacon. Yum.

The next day, Sunday, we visited a third set of falls – Luchipuka – had lunch at the river, and hiked around to see the falls.

Luchipuka Falls.

Another part of Luchipuka farther downstream.

After the falls we returned to the gite, quickly packed up and headed for home.

Sign for home

We didn't see much wildlife of any size on the whole trip. Not a lot of bird life, not a lot of insect life (and I include spiders in that category), no mammals except some baboons on the last morning. There were a lot of interesting and unusual plants, not flowers generally, but plants: vines, trees, bushes, grasses. We did see one amazing large spider, but it was too high to photograph well; we also saw a variety of butterflies.

A large blue-winged wasp with a long ovipositor.

A wild iris. Much smaller than our domestics.

I really liked the Kundelungu plateau, but can't help but compare it to the Turaco trail that we hiked in the Nyanga National Park in Zimbabwe. Nyanga has developed trails and self-guided and guided backpacking options. In contrast, there is a little camping on the Kundelungu plateau, but self-guided hiking isn't an option, and what is available must be reached by car.  I dream of a developed set of wilderness trails used by backpackers and other outdoor enthusiasts to explore the plateau and the waterfalls. Unfortunately, the whole idea of wandering around the bush in the Congo is out of the question at this time – not due to wildlife, not much of that left – but due to a rebel presence. We were accompanied by an armed guide at all times. He has worked for the park for fifteen years and hasn't actually seen rebels, but said his colleagues recently ran across their traces near the Lofoi.

Kundelungu is tremendously beautiful and, due to its elevation, it is pretty comfortable during the dry season. The entire park is 7,600 km² compared to Nyanga's 472 km². I look forward to regional stability opening up more of this beautiful landscape.