In Conversation with Cath Brink from Tusks & Trails: Part 1

Now it’s Cath’s turn. After a spell in luxury travel in London learning the ropes, she’s founded Tusks and Trails, a fledgling destination management company which aims to show as much of this remarkable country to punters. It’s going good guns, too, with over 300 lodges on the books and a small but mighty team making it happen. It was in London that Cath met her fiancé, Dan Bradshaw, with whom she started Tusks and Trails. And he too has Zambian connections: His grandparents lived and farmed in the area and, as Dan was growing up in the UK, he would visit the country 3-4 times a year with his family.

No wonder, I muse, that they’re back. ‘Yeah, I think it’s fair to say this place is in the blood,’ Cath says, ‘it gets under your skin.’ Cath and Dan always had designs on moving back and setting up their own thing and, after a couple of locked-down years in London, they finally jumped ship and struck out alone. The business is flying – you’ll hear more about that in next week’s post – and they spend their days organising and selling trips to the country that they love.

‘Zambia is quite interesting in terms of tourism,’ Cath tells me, ‘as it’s the last true remaining wilderness in this part of the world.’ As a result, the game viewing across the country is virtually unrivalled. There’s Luangwa, the birthplace of the walking safari and a national park with the highest density of leopards per square metre anywhere on the planet. ‘99% of the lodges in the park are on the banks of the river that flows through its centre,’ Cath says, ‘and, because of the specific mineral in the banks’ soil, it draws in feeders and, with them, predators.’ That’s why, for the 6 months of the year that the park is open, the lodges in Luangwa offer the finest viewing going.

There’s more, though. Places like the Lower Zambezi National Park, which is game abundant but hilly and where you get everything bar rhino. ‘It’s enormously remote and hard to access, so the lodges are on the steeper side price wise, but it’s also the go-to place for fly camping.’ This sounds unappealing until I hear the word glamping. ‘It’s basically when camps are set up on the move, it’s very rustic, very wild, a little like safari glamping.’ And there’s Kafue, the biggest in the country – ‘it’s MASSIVE’ – with hot spots like the Busanga Plains, so rich in game that it used to be the King of Barotseland’s personal hunting ground and the only place in the country with wild dogs and cheetah. Then of course, there are the falls. The Victoria Falls. Cath’s family have a special connection – and camp – in this neck of the woods, so we’re going to cover it in more detail in a couple of weeks, but suffice to say it’s Zambia’s one unmissable.

The lodges that Cath, Dan and the team sell are, and there’s no beating around the bush, pretty high end. The Zambian market rivals Botswana in terms of level, with luxury the watch word and the toughness of accessing some places resulting in magical, but expensive, places to stay. ‘We’re becoming the new star in the luxury safari market’, Cath tells us, ‘with the wilderness as our calling card. We’re being noticed, both by tourists and investors, so it’s an exciting time for the Zambian tourism industry.’

It’s easy to see why. Cath lights up when I ask her to describe life in Zambia. She pauses, though, ‘I don’t just want to say it’s incredible. It’s so unique, even within the southern Africa and safari space, because it’s flown under the radar for so long, so it’s not boastful or arrogant.’ Their president, who Cath describes as amazing, has recognised this, carefully opening up the country so that outsiders can experience its beauty with their own eyes. ‘We’re no longer a stop off point of a trip, we’re a one stop destination’. The country really does have everything: game, service – ‘the calmest, kindest people I’ve met’ – landscapes, wildness, a wonderful deference to the chiefs of the land, who remain the highest power, and an abiding connection with nature and the land.