Near the Chipembe Pontoon in the Northern Province, an astounding drop in the middle of nowhere creates what looks like a smaller version of Victoria Falls. 35m high and 100m across, the falls nourish a small rain forest on the Kalungwishi River. They are quite magnificent and well worth the 9km detour off the main road from Kawambwa to Mporokoso.
It is an ideal spot for camping, and new visitor facilities have recently been built. Because of its remote location, you may well be the only ones there. The Falls are said to be the home of the Great Snake Spirit called Lumangwe. In the olden days, this snake was said to have stretched itself between the Lumangwe and Kabweluma Falls, a distance of 5km.
According to a local tourist, “Each waterfall on the river were attractions themselves with separate names as we were aware of Chipempe Falls, Kabwelume Falls, and Kundabwika Falls).
“We definitely earned our view of this waterfall because it seemed that this part of the country (the Luapula Province) didn’t see many tourists. Even one of the signs indicating the turnoff to this falls was stolen! It also felt like we were one of the first and few to actually come out to see this waterfall when we did it in late May 2008.”
Yet despite all the hardships and inconveniences, the strange irony was that in hindsight, this turned out to be one of the easiest waterfalls to reach.
Once we made it to the car park, we noticed that there were a couple of main areas to view the Lumangwe Falls.
The first one we saw was a very misty lookout providing a very wide view of the entirety of the waterfall
It was from here that we could totally see why this might be thought of as a miniature Victoria Falls.
The second main lookout we saw was right by the brink of the waterfall, which was a short walk from the first lookout point mentioned above.
“From here, we got profile views and we really had to watch where we were standing in order to avoid getting swept into the rushing Kalungwishi River”
“After seeing the falls from its brink, our guides Chanda, Joseph, and Chester took us down a very steep, rope-assisted descent down to the wide and misty plunge pool within the Gorge.”
The area down there appeared to be flooded as we probably happened to catch the Lumangwe Falls in high flow. Given the state of the plunge pool, we couldn’t go very far to even get a clean look at the waterfall from down here. The mistiness also ensured that there would be no way to photograph what it was like from this vantage point. Just to give you an idea of the time commitment if you’re planning a trip here, we spent about 35 minutes away from the car.”
Here are more pictures of the beautiful Lumangwe Falls In Northern Zambia
If you ever want to visit Zambia, the Lumangwe Falls is a place to be!
