Some lodges you review; some you return to. Mukwa, on the Zambian bank of the lower Zambezi, is the second kind. We spent two nights there in March with the river running high, and the elephants crossed in front of the deck both evenings as if they'd read the brochure.
The refurbishment worried us — refurbishments usually do — but the new bar has kept the exact soul of the old one, down to the worn rail where you rest your sundowner. The guiding remains the reason to come: tiger fishing at dawn, a canoe drift past hippo pods, and birding that fills a page a day.
For golfers, Mukwa slots perfectly between rounds: two nights here after Elephant Hills and before the Lusaka leg turns a golf tour into a journey. Ask us to build it in.
— Graeme & Shelagh Harker, lower Zambezi