Robin Pope Safaris
(RPS), a classic safari company known for its innovative safaris, invites
wildlife lovers on a unique and exotic excursion – the annual Bat Migration to
Kasanka, Zambia’s smallest national park.
The Kasanka Bat safari package starts at US$4243 per person
sharing, and comprises three nights at RPS’ Nkwali Camp, three nights in
Kasanka National Park and one night in Lusaka. Included: round-trip internal
flights to and from Lusaka; all safari costs. Excluded: international airfares, Visa and
airport departure taxes.
Set departures:
November 23, 2012; November 22, 2013. Alternative dates can be booked
for late November, early December, but rates will vary.
In the center of Kasanka National Park in Zambia’s north lies
100-acre Fibwe Forest, host to an extraordinary phenomenon – the annual visitation
of some 10 million, “straw-colored fruit bats.” When in full swing, the bats of
Kasanka form the highest mammal concentration in Africa, and most likely the
world. Each bat weighs 8.82 ounces. As
numbers reach up to 10 million, the skies are weighed down with 5,505,267
pounds of fruitbats! As RPS’ Emily
Haynes mused, “This is equivalent to 700 elephants flying around. All I can say is, ‘Poor trees,’ as the bats
all come to roost.”
Of the Kasanka Bat Safari, trailblazer and veteran
safari-goer Jo Pope said, “I
have spent three hours with half a million King Penguins on South Georgia, so
my wildlife bar is high, but the bats impressed, inspired and left me awestruck!”
The
bats take off from their roosts at dusk and fill the skies, turning the sunset
almost black, as they disappear for a night of foraging in the ripening fruit
trees. They return again at dawn, and take up their cozy spots next to each
other high up in the trees, covering the trunks like thick icing, as branches
buckle under their weight. Best time to witness the phenomenon is pre-dawn. Standing
in a 60-foot tree-top hide watching the roosting bats and the raptors hunting
them is a sensory phenomenon like no other, not only for its visual effect, but
for the sound of pulsating life.
Kasanka
National Park is also regarded as one of the country’s best birding
destinations, inhabited by no fewer than 457 different species. It’s home, too, to elephants, sitatungas (swamp-dwelling
antelopes), hippos, bush pigs and blue monkeys.
