Twenty years ago, on a visit to Lake Tanganyika on its Tanzania side, I recall thinking that the lake’s clear waters spoiled me for any other lake in Africa. In either country, Lake Tanganyika is indeed a gorgeous place. The steep escarpments bordering the lake are magnificently green in March, the end of the rainy season. You can fly Lusaka – Ndola – Kasama several times a week, from where transport is arranged for the 1.5-hour drive to Mpulungu, the jumping off point for the 2.5-hour speed boat to a lake side lodge. Or you can choose to drive from Lusaka. In MTT’s comfortable 4 x 4, you can combine Lake Tanganyika with other Northern Zambia highlights such as Mutinondo Wilderness; Kasanka National Park; Kapishya Hot Springs; and North Luangwa NP.

If you drive, you can more easily include a stop at Kalambo Falls on the Zambia/Tanzania border (Kalambo is Africa’s second highest waterfall at 220 meters) as well as a visit to the town of Mbala and its Moto Moto Museum, which is one of MTT’s personal highlights of a safari in Zambia’s far north. Here you will learn from competent museum guides that Kalambo has one of the longest histories of human occupation in Sub Saharan Africa. The excellent quality of this little museum, so far from Zambia’s capital where it could and should receive more visitors, is a mystery and one of those gems when you stumble upon it.

Zambia’s far north feels a world away from the well-honed hospitality industry in Zambia’s national parks. A good level of Africa travel experience is required.