Press Cuttings
The beautiful north
Financial Times
Let me tell you about the North Luangwa valley, Zambia’s best-kept secret. Mention Zambia in safari-going circles and the cognoscenti wax merrily on about the charms of the South Luangwa valley, how its legendary guides Norman Carr (now dead), Phil Berry and Robin Pope, both still very much with us, have made it the world-famous home of the walking safari.
But speak to those who live there, who know every corner of the vast and varied country, and they’ll tell you that northern Zambia is the place to go. And because they told me it was the place to go, I went. I found there the Africa that one dreams of in the cold winter nights back home, an Africa that today is disappearing fast, that is vast and wild, where designer camps and their fancy cushions have yet to arrive. It’s a raw and empty wilderness and these days that is something to be savoured. In 4,600 sq km of the North Luangwa National Park there are just three small and simple, rustic bush camps with no more than 28 beds between them. They’re spread far apart so that as you sit at sunset, your feet dangling in the clear and shallow waters of the Mwaleshi river, a glass of Pommery in hand, you have the illusion that you and your little group have all Africa to yourselves. Up in the North Luangwa valley there are no cars, other than the four-by-fours owned by the guides and anti-poaching guards, and it’s home to quite another sort of walking safari, one where you will see nobody else at all and you can walk wherever your guide and the fancy takes you. The game is skittish and you don’t see a lot but what you see is wild and glorious. The lions do what proper lions should always do, which is to growl and threaten and let you know that if you don’t disappear sharpish, there’ll be trouble. North Luangwa lions don’t do posing for tourists.
The only way into the park is to fly into one of the three camps and while all have their followers, for us Rod and Guz Tether’s chic and simple little camp,Kutandala , seemed quite perfect. Guz is a phenomenal cook (she trained at Ballymaloe), which whilst not strictly speaking essential turned out to be an enormous plus. But the real magic lies in the place, in its simplicity, in the sense it gave of privacy and peace, in the rustic reed and thatch cottages sitting right on the banks of the Mwaleshi river and in the river itself, where in the dry season all the animals tend to come down to drink. With Rod, a phenomenal guide who knows the Zambian bush intimately, we spent three magical days doing as we pleased – a freedom long gone in the busier, more heavily regulated parks. We walked and we walked. We came upon buffalo and lion, elephant, eland and hartebeest, wildebeest and a million thrilling birds. At night we sat under a great big mahogany tree, lanterns in the branches, Guz’s extraordinary food on the table. Kutandala is, above all, a bush experience. It’s for people who love the smell and the sound of the African bush and want to feel in and of it. If you want to tick off the big five in super-quick time, go somewhere else.
Lucia van der Post
August 21st 2010
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Splendid Isolation
Saturday Telegraph
Luxury and good game may be easy to find, but few safari camps offer a true sense of wilderness. Lisa Grainger picks 10 retreats that score highly on every count.
Kutandala, Zambia
This six-room camp is neither luxurious nor set in the most game-rich area on earth. But, located on the Banks of the Mwaleshi River in the North Luangwa National Park, Kutandala is miles from anywhere, without another soul about. Its charm is its isolation, its simplicity and the passion of its owners, Rod and Guz Tether, who live, breathe and worship the bush. Rod, the youngest guide to qualify in Zambia, takes guests out daily on foot - often past hyena, buffalo and lion - knowledgeably bringing the wilderness to life. And Guz somehow manages to whip up gourmet meals under the stars, although the nearest shop is seven hours away. It's so remote that you have to wade through a river to get there.
Lisa Grainger
March 8th 2008
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Stalk on the wild side
The Australian
North Luangwa National Park is the wild child of Zambia's game reserves. Remote and raw, North Luangwa is practically a trackless wilderness and ideal terrain for the connoisseur of wild places, and here Rod and Maelisa ”Guz” Tether have established Kutandala, one of the most delightful of all bush camps.
Kutandala is Africa unbuttoned. The LandCruiser that collects guests from the airstrip halts on the far side of the Mwaleshi River, from where we must wade through calf-deep water to reach the camp. On the far side is a masterwork of African bush chic: three guest huts strung out along the bank that transcend their raw ingredients of packed mud floors, reed walls and thatch roofs to become cool, airy and stylish enclaves with curving veranda and a sand-floored, open-top bathroom with a flushing loo and hot shower.
Wet trek: River crossing. Picture: Michael Gebicki
At the centre of the camp, the muscular, snaking limbs of a giant Natal mahogany tree divide the open-air library from the dining area and bar.
Better still, Guz is a wizard chef whose renown has spread throughout southern Africa: his delicate passionfruit souffles and home-made ice creams, tortellini with basil and shavings of parmesan and Thai-style entrees are all worth a long walk.
Kutandala leaves only the lightest of footprints on its surroundings. At the end of the season, Rod, Guz and their staff will dismantle the camp, haul it down to the river and light a match. Then, the following April they will return and rebuild everything.
While it lacks South Luangwa's lagoon systems, the northern park's open plains, mopane woodland and jesse thickets make it ideal for grazing animals. North Luangwa has some of Zambia's largest herds of buffalo and wildebeest, and that means lots of lion.
All through the night we hear the choking, asthmatic cough of lions calling to one another: it makes the apres-dinner walk back to my hut fragrant with hideouspossibilities.
This is prime country for walking, and Kutandala is dedicated to two-footed safaris. The camp's five-star walk is the trek to Chipopoma Falls, where the Mwaleshi hurls itself through a series of granite pools as it steps down from the escarpment that make perfect swimming pools, followed by a barbecue on the banks and a languid siesta in the shade.
From the falls it's a two-hour walk back to the vehicle. By this stage I've become reconciled that I am unlikely to have a close encounter with a lion on foot, but just then a martial eagle flies over with a freshly killed duiker antelope clutched in its talons. It drops it in surprise when it sees us, which is certainly something you won't see from a LandCruiser on your average game drive.
Michael Gebicki
22 July 2006
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Big Bush
Africa Geographic
”'What a wonderful stay - quite one of (possibly the) best bush experiences I have ever had… Rod and Maelisa have a place that is truly unique.'
I wrote this in their guest book and meant every word.”
Peter Borchert
April, 2004
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Walking Safari Guides
The Sunday Times (UK)
”Rod is a protégé of the famous guide and camp-owner Robin Pope, and his passion for the remotest corners of Africa led him to North Luangwa National Park, which has only one road and a couple of small bush camps. One is Kutandala, run by Rod and Guz, his wife. With room for only six guests in camp, what you get with Tether is the full-on experience of walking in serious big-game country with a man who really knows his business.”
Brian Jackman
February 19, 2006
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Eagle eyes of the expert guides
The Times (UK)
”Rod Tether is one of the best of the new generation of guides. He was just 17 when he started
guiding in South Luangwa in 1989. A year later he moved to North Luangwa and is now established at Kutandala.”
”Kutandala
is no ordinary bushcamp, and Rod Tether is no ordinary guide.”
”For a start, he is the owner of the camp, not
a manager, and he runs it with Guz, his wife, who creates cordon bleu meals on beds of hot wood ash in
an open-air kitchen. She learned her skills at the Ballymaloe
Cookery School in Ireland, and I have never eaten so well in the bush.”
Brian Jackman
September 20, 2003
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Walking into the lion's lair
The Sunday Times (UK)
”North Luangwa is serious wilderness. Imagine a park the size of Cornwall with no
roads, no permanent buildings and no people except for the likes of Rod and Guz, his wife. Their camp,
Kutandala, is one of only three in the entire park and accommodates no more than six guests at a time.
It's a place for safari purists.”
”'I'm a Luddite when it comes to bush camps,' Rod confesses. Not for him
the glitzy lodges with their safari-chic furnishings. Instead, my home for the next three nights was a
rustic affair of reeds and thatch, with rush mats on a bare earth floor and a shower open to the sky.”
Brian Jackman
January 11, 2004
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Wanderlust Travel Magazine
North Luangwa is devastatingly wild. This remote, ruggedly beautiful national park is for
those seeking Africa at its raw best. Kutandala Camp is a true bush camp, built in purist style using only
grass and reeds on a frame of wooden poles. Simple but exquisite, Kutandala cleverly makes the most of locally
available natural materials. Bow fronts to the grass huts provide a small veranda from which you can watch
the Mwaleshi River gurgle pass. Bathrooms are open to the sky, and decorated with arrangements of dried grasses
and colourful seed pods. The dinning table and library are set under the spreading canopy of a mahogany tree;
a buffet table is built around the trunk of an acacia. Staying here, you become part of the landscape.
Kutandala
is owed and operated by Rod and Guz Tether. Rod started guiding in the Luangwa at the age of 18 in 1989
and has become one of the new generation of expert guides. Guz, a trained Ballymaloe chef, defies the odds
to
produce sensational haute cuisine from her bush kitchen.
John Warburton-Lee
Wanderlust Travel Magazine
June-July 2003 edition
Food & Travel
For a truly remote bush experience (and excellent cuisine), head for Kutandala in Zambia's
North Luangwa National Park, a conservation project reserve. Run by game guide Rod Tether and his wife, Guz,
the rustic camps sits on the banks of the Mwaleshi River, with unrestricted vies of the flood plain.
The
six-person walking safaris are led by Rod, accompanied by an armed scout; guests can pick the areas they
particularly want to focus on and how far they want to walk. All the big five plus 350 bird species and black
rhino are about to be re-introduced.
The camp has a dining tree and Guz, who trained as a chef in Europe,
serves up elegant four course dinners, plus home made breads, salads, cakes and coffee during the day.
This is unspoilt wilderness as it used to be.
Douglas Rogers
”Walk on the Wild Side” -
Food & Travel - July 2003
The Tatler
”Rod Tether has been guiding in the Luangwa Valley for 13 years and his wife, Guz, who trained as a chef at Ballymaloe, does all the cooking in an open-air kitchen. Just because the nearest supermarket is seven hours drive away doesn't mean there are no petits fours after a hard day facing down a 1000-strong herd of buffalo. Kutandala, on the banks of the Mwaleshi, take only six guests: track big game or go birding - you will not see another human.”
July 2002
Travel Africa Magazine
North Luangwa.
Further north along the valley lies North Luangwa NP, remote and exclusive. Every cliché about timeless
Africa is true here: the park doesn’t cater for independent travellers, with no permanent lodges and
very few roads. You’re unlikely to encounter anyone else during a visit. Its landscape is an extension
of that in South Luangwa, with mopane woodland, riverine forest, grasslands and acacia thickets. The park
is cut by the Mwaleshi river, which attracts game and flows over the escarpment in a series of impressive
falls (a visit makes a great day trip). The park has a wide range of mammals and birds, and is especially
noted for its large buffalo herds, plus accompanying lion.
There are no mobile fly-camp walking safaris in North Luangwa, but the day walking from base camps (between
June and October) is exceptional. Robin Pope’s trails are based from the grass-pole Kutundala camp,
including a visit to the dipping pools at Chipopopma Falls.
John Warburton-Lee
AFRICA'S TOP WALKING SAFARI DESTINATIONS
ISSUE 21 Autumn 2002
The Lowdown
”… both Rod's guiding and Guz's cooking are outstanding”
Ilse Mwanza
October 2001
Bradt Guide to Zambia
”Rod Tether is a top guide”
”Rod's a super guide who spent several years running mobile trips into the North Park… he is an expert on
the area … Guz's speciality is conjuring faultless cuisine from minute grass huts and open fires ”
Chris McIntyre
Outside Magazine
”Rod and Guz are young, charming and awesomely well-versed in Natural History”
Jonathon Hanson
May 2000
On Safari with Rod Tether
The Financial Times (UK)
”… it is the proximity with wildlife, the raw contact with natural Africa that draws visitors to the North
Luangwa for walking tours. Most guests have taken safaris before, but flown into the North Park by small aircraft,
they immediately find themselves rediscovering the African bush not in the usual crowded game-viewing bus but intimately,
on foot.”
”… one of the most isolated wildlife sanctuaries in Africa”
Nicholas Woodsworth
28th November 1999
The Charlotte Observer (USA)
” Rod Tether is a professional guide who operates a camp on the banks of the Mwaleshi River. Rod was born and raised in Zambia, the son of a geologist and a teacher. When Rod was 10 years old, his parents sent him back to England for boarding school and then college. But he never really left the bush and the bush never left him. He's been guiding since he was 17 and is a walking encyclopaedia of the natural wonders of the region. ”
Robert Inman
11 July 1999
The Daily Mail (UK)
”…We go on to spend four nights at Kutandala Camp in the unpopulated and rarely visited North Luangwa
National Park…. To get there, we fly for an hour over land empty of everything save animals, trees, plains
and rivers.
Kutandala is run by Rod Tether and his cookery star girlfriend Maelisa. Here, less is more. There are just three
simple thatched grass huts. We breakfast on the banks of the Mwaleshi River and dine under a mahogany tree.
Rod is a superb guide, and together we cross the river by foot (shallow and no crocodiles), walk up to hippo pools
and picnic by waterfalls. There is serenity in such simplicity. For me it is the ultimate luxury.
Somehow Maelisa serves up meals such as steak in port and cinnamon sauce, cheese soufflé and herb salads.
There's fresh bread, petits fours, choux pastry in chocolate sauce and home made praline ice-cream. I want to stay
for ever.
Alison Rice
22nd September 2001
Getaway Magazine (SA)
You will want for nothing given Maelisa's (Guz's) culinary skills. She is taking bush cuisine to new heights - pitta calzone, tuna and spinach roulade, spicy ginger and pineapple chicken and home made praline ice-cream”
Justin Fox
June 2000
The Charlotte Observer (USA)
”one of the world's last truly remote areas”
Bob Inman
11 July 1999
It's Monday
”Last weekend I popped up to North Luangwa to visit Rod and Guz at Kutandala. What a wonderful bushcamp - the best I have ever been to. Built with such simplicity, accuracy and imagination. There is nothing more than you need but there is everything you need. Each room overlooks the Mwaleshi River - with a huge open window. The ensuite bathroom (loos are flush) is open from the shower, allowing you to see across the river. The main area is around a fallen but alive mahogany tree - no ”building” but with different ”rooms” between the huge branches on the ground. Guz produces superb cuisine and Rod takes you on extremely productive walks. ”
Jo Pope
September 2001
It's Monday
... We were the only guests for the 4 days we spent at Kutandala, and that invariably has an impact on the dynamics,
but with only capacity for six guests the experience will always be very personal and afford a sense of exclusiveness.
'Exclusive' is a common thread which runs through the whole experience - you arrive via a bush airstrip into a park
the size of many countries and yet it only contains three camps! Imagine only 24 guests in the whole national park
- that's pretty exclusive! You can drive or walk for days and not meet another human being and at times this sense
of isolation was almost palpable. The camp itself supports this feeling. The accommodation huts are spread out along
a river bank giving lots of space and privacy whilst the dining areas (one by the river and another a few paces
back) are deliberately and delightfully low key affairs...typical of a bushcamp.
Rod and Gus, who own and operate Kutandala Camp, clearly care passionately about what they do and about the restoration
work which has brought North Luangwa back from the brink. This 'passion' manifests itself both in and out of camp.
In camp Gus has managed (against incredible logistical odds) to produce meals of the highest quality and variety.
The accommodation is a step above your average bush camp - fine river sand rather than swept clay is used to form
the floor in the bathroom and there are no long drop loos!
Out of camp, Rod's depth of local knowledge and enthusiasm for all things ecological meant that the guiding experience
was always informative and fresh.
The Kutandala safari is based almost exclusively on walking. During an average day we would walk for around 5 hours
in the morning and 2 hours in the late afternoon, generally starting and finishing from camp, but occasionally driving
to a starting point which enabled us to reach a particular beauty spot.
So where is the drawback? In so far as one would definitely go back again, there isn't one, but any visitor to the
North Luangwa has to accept that the variety and quantity of game is going to be less than that which one might
expect to see in South Luangwa. Also this is not a stopover venue but a destination where one needs time to adjust
to the wilderness experience which is Kutandala.”
Linda & Chris Cotton
August 2002
DC Magazine (London)
Kutandala Camp in Zambia offers the ultimate in getaway experiences and it is this remoteness that an elite but
growing band of travellers are searching out for their holidays.
....Kutandala Camp has it all. It's in a stunning position on the south bank of the Mwaleshi River, in Zambia's
unpopulated and rarely visited North Luangwa National Park.
....And that's the luxury of it. Serene simplicity.
....just as you find a spot for a mid-morning tea break, a mother elephant and her calf want it and you have to
pack up quickly and quietly and move on. When you do settle for a sit and a sip, it's like being in a zoo.
Alison Rice - DC Magazine - March 2002
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