Flatdogs Camp Review : Living with Elephants, Hippos and More

Independent Campers should confirm that camping is indeed available at the time you plan to come.







We spent a month at Flatdogs and we had a hard time leaving because we had such a great experience there.

Here are some points to consider when planning a trip to Flatdogs Camp near Mfuwe, Zambia, and the South Luangwa National Park.

Ways to get there:

It goes without saying that you should visit the Flatdogs website , or contact them directly for the latest information Meanwhile, here is what we found:
**You can fly directly to Mufwe but you will be limited on the amount of luggage since it is a small plane.
**You can fly to Lusaka, then take a nice bus to Chipata (nice bus means luggage is stored underneath and there are only as
many people on the bus as there are seats) cost is k115,000 each and k5000 for each piece of luggage. There is an early
bus (4:00 a.m.) that leaves from Freedom Way and then the busses leaving from the main bus station. You will need to check
on times because we found that there were several bus companies operating to Chipata. Hint: Many of the buses indicate
they are heading to Llongwe in Malawi and make a stop in Chipata.
If you catch the 4:00 a.m. bus and get a taxi on the Mufwe/Flatdogs, you can make it in one day. We did not. We got to
Chipata around 4:00 p.m. and went to Dean's Hillside Camp. It had been recommended to us by the manager of Chachacha
It is only 2 km from the bus station and you could actually walk into town from there with no problem. Dean's Hillside Camp is a
very nice setting with a nice view out over the town and hills in the background.
**From Chipata to Mufwe you can either take the minibus, hire a private taxi, or maybe find a ride with an individual traveling thatdirection. We hired a private taxi partially because of the amount of luggage we carry and also because most minibuses do not leave until they are full. We did hear some stories of minibus travel they made us happy we did pay for the private taxi. On theway back to Chipata we shared the taxi cost with two other guys which made it even better.

Flatdogs Service
This is the most incredible place as far as the extra mile to make sure you have a pleasant stay! Everyone that works there goes out of their way to help you.
*Reception would gladly loan you a wash basin for clothes wash day, or let you know when they were making a shopping run to town so you could go to the local market and get fresh vegetables, meat, and other supplies.
*The watchmen were always warning you when there were elephants in the area, showing you the sleeping hippo and when the
hippos were coming out of the water would shine their torches so you could see. They also accompanied you back to your
tent in the evening coming from the restuarant and bar. One watchman, Keway entertained us with stories about the animals
and why they behave the way they do.
*Whether we were in the Cyberdog Cafe, the bar, the dining room, there were always smiles to greet us and ask if we were getting everything we needed. Visiting with the barmen was interesting as they would tell us stories of their life, life in the village and other interesting topics. The food at Flatdogs is incredible! They have a varied menu and daily specials. This is one thing that you do not find in many places and it is really tempting to blow the budget and eat there all the time! Most places have a set menu in the evening and will not serve food in the evening except for the set menu and you also must let them know in advance if you are going to eat. Here at Flatdogs, they had full service until 9:00 p.m.! We did yield to temptation several times in the evening and have nachos. We also had the curry, salads, steak baguette and the fatdogs full english breakfast.
*All of the managers Jess, Aidee, Cathie, Ed, Paolo, as well as the many local people employed there in a variety of positions, all would answer any question we had or were always checking to see how we and the other guests were doing and what they could do to help. Top to bottom, the staff was great! Really!

Flatdogs Services and Setting
Flatdogs is right on the Luangwa River across from the park and so you can see animals sometimes during the day and night.
There are huge trees all over the grounds and so the shade is most pleasant and the setting in the camp is almost manicured and beautiful, yet the view is of the wild.



In the camping area, there are several concrete service stands, each with a sink, braii pit, trash can and electrical outlets for charging things. However, this camp is in the game management area so food coolers are at risk of burglary by baboons and vervet monkeys who have been allowed to feed on human food by unobservant or tired campers. A locked and covered trash can is provided at the block. Food for "self-caterers" may be stored in the newly opened self-catering kitchen. Store food in the cabinets, or the baboons might see your plastic bags and break in.

There are three tree platforms for the adventurous or timid to camp on. These platform are also convenient when you see an elephant heading you way to climb up there and enjoy the view. They have a self catering kitchen with refrigerator, two burner electric hotplate, shelves to store your foodstuff and a sink and braii pit. There is a nice shower block with plenty of hot water!
They have twelve erected safari tents that are absolutely beautiful with private bathroom. Some look out to the river, others to the bush and others to the small waterhole.
There are also chalets that have a self-catering kitchen and private bath. They all look out to the river.
There is a very nice swiming pool that many a guest spent a nice afternoon sunning and swiming. The lawns out in front of the dining area has nice chairs to sit and enjoy the river and in the evening sit by the firepit, enjoy the fire and watch the hippos start coming out of the river.
There is both indoor and outdoor dining and both have nice views and you can have the white tablecloth treatment in the indoor dining room.

Atmosphere
An attempt by the management is made to keep the sattelite tv sports watchers and bar patrons quiet so that the abundant sounds made by birds and other animals may be enjoyed by all. There is also a "no music" policy except for that played by the camp in the bar.

All bets are off, though, when an overland truck brings a load of "gap year" young people who get loud and rowdy from time to time.

Finally, after a month of Flatdogs exceeding our expectations, we can easily rec this place to as an incredible place where you can observe nature up close and personal, a place run by such an amazing and caring staff such as we have seen in few places we have traveled around the world, a menu and bar with choices that seem hardly possible given the remote location.....

Important Note

Independent Campers should confirm that camping is indeed available at the time you plan to come. Apparently for the first time as of July 1, 2009, during the dry/high season independent travelers may not camp in their own tents as we did, but may rent safari tents or chalets only. The plan is to cater to those who want an all inclusive or self catering stay in the rooms provided by Flatdogs.

We hope that in the coming years they will still allow campers to come in the "green" and wet seasons as they did this year.

Elephant for Breakfast, Hippo for Dinner, Monkeys at Night

We arrived at Flatdogs around noon. We checked in at reception where they give you a talk about the animals that roam the area. They tell you these are not tame but are wild animals and should be treated as such. You should have no food in your tent and there is a area attached to the camp managers hut that has shelves to store things on and a refrigerator.

We tried out the platforms. They are built for a smaller tent than the one we have. The stairs seemed a little steep to me and one of the platforms had quite a distance between steps. We set up next to one of the platforms and positioned the picnic table so it was a barrier to the front of our tent. Each of the platform areas and many other areas have a picnic table and a concrete structure with a sink, light, braii pit and a trash can. Very nice.

One of the first animals we saw when we entered Flatdogs was a large baboon sitting on one of the tables checking things out I am sure. We got ready to cook our first meal only to discover the gas canisters we had bought were not the right kind. Rookie move on our part. Next time we will know to bring our stove with us to check out to make sure it has the internal threads. We are reduced to using our oldest stove that will run off any type of fuel. The bad thing about it is it is very noisy when running and so you do not get to enjoy the sounds of the bush!









One of the things we have discovered here is the electricity seems to go off at random times but since we have been here it seems to happen around the early dinner hour (6:00ish). We perservered and had a nice dinner. After dinner Robert was heading to the closest ablution block to us and saw a hippo out in the bush! He came back and used the one on the opposite side.

There are watchmen that wander around the area and you are advised to have them escort you to the restroom, your tent, the dining/bar area. We did that and in the night you are to holler "watchman" and one will hopefully appear to walk you to and from the toilet.

The next morning we got up and fixed coffee and went and sat down on the bluff above the water and enjoyed the hippo pods in the water and birds that were flying about and on land. What a great way to start our official Africa visit as far as I was concerned. As the sun rose higher we decided to eat breakfast. I walked over to get our food out of the kitchen area and found my way blocked by an elephant! I went back and got Robert and we enjoyed watching the elephant graze for awhile before wandering off into the bush.

One of the issues you have to grapple with when you go to Africa is what sort of anti-malarial pills you are going to take or are you going to try some sort of non prescription form of malarials. We have always taken some type of anti- malarial pill. This time we are taking doxycycline. It is a tough choice as this is an antibiotic, can cause you to be sensitive to the sun and some other discomforts. Robert has been feeling badly and he thinks the pills seems to be zapping his energy at this early stage. The bad thing for me is that you should not take your vitamins at the same time so trying to remember to take our vitamins is not going so well.

We did a little birding in the afternoon and then fixed our dinner and retired to the bar for a few drinks and visited with the couple that is running Flatdogs. We had an interesting conversation about the effort being made to try to protect the natural animal corridors that are left in the area. They also discussed the problems the villagers are having with some of the elephants especially roaming through and getting into their maize storage areas. One of the watchmen told us the story of a mother elephant and baby elephant that got into their maize beer and got quite drunk and passed out.

The next morning we woke up and started on our breakfast routine. About 7:15a.m. Robert looked up and out of the bush coming from the reception area wandered a hippo right across the path leading to the ablution block. This is why we wanted to come to this camp! The thing is it looks so calm and peaceful and then something like this or the elephant by the kitchen make you realize you are not alone here.

After breakfast we went back down to the bluff to watch the morning scene on the river and riverbank. This time we brought our spotting scope with us. Traveling on a budget makes you think about what you can do to entertain yourself and not have to go on a game drive every day. The spotting scope was a wise investment for us because we can see a great deal more using it. We were rewarded when we trained it on the bank on the oppposite side of the river. There was a mother hippo and her tiny baby hippo. The baby was about the size of her head. We watched it get up and walk around sticking its nose in indentions made by larger hippos and and then it wandered down to the water and sploosh, in it went! The mother came in behind it and we could see it lift it head up and swim about. We wish it a safe life.

Robert did a great deal of research before we set off on this trip and was in e-mail correspondence with the staff at Flatdogs. They had told him the village of Mfuwe did have stores where you can get supplies and actually have a meat shop as well. We did not provision up as well as we could have. Part of the reason was our journey we were going to be making to get here. I was not sure how well eggs, bread, tomatoes would travel so we did not buy them. Since our provisions were not the best, we were still tired from our journey we decided to order lunch from the restaurant.

The restaurant here at Flatdogs is first class. They have a wide and varied menu and have top notch service. They have several choices for breakfast, a snack menu and a nice full meal menu. The bar is also well stocked and seems to be able to make all sorts of drinks. We ordered take-away food for both lunch and dinner and they had no problem fixing us up!

For the birder, this area has a great deal to offer. In the short time we have been here, without really sitting for hours at a time, have seen over 30 birds we were able to identify. For the more serious birder, they would be able to spot more. We found a spot overlooking a small pond and were rewarded by a variety of birds. Later that afternoon we went back over to our tent area and were entertained by the vervet monkeys. They are quite amusing but you must watch out for them and the baboons as they will grab what they can! I was startled one morning while mixing our milk to look up and see a baboon very close to me. We were able to scare it away after it had grabbed up the coffee and then threw it down. That night the vervet monkeys slept in the trees above our tent.

This evening after we had dinner and were relaxing I looked up and there was a HUGE hippo 40 feet from our tent! We decided our best option was to climb the ladder and sit and watch from atop the platform. It did wander back into the bush somewhere, you never can tell and then Robert looked over his shoulder to see one cross the path between us and the ablution block, restaurant/bar area. What an experience these days have been!