Kundalila Falls

Kundalila Falls (sometimes spelled Nkundalila Falls) is a gorgeous waterfall set in the escarpment country of the Central Province near Serenje. It drops in multiple stages some 30m in cumulative height where it begins as rivulets of rocky cascades at its top, then converges into a double barreled drop at its mid-section before dropping one last time in a consolidated tier.

This was the first waterfall we saw on our very adventurous waterfall safari through Northern Zambia. It turned out that our experience at this waterfall was one of the tamer ones on the safari.

After reaching the car park, we were greeted by a local villager who guided us to the viewpoints and ultimately to the base of the waterfall. As we approached the white rocky escarpment near the top of the falls, enjoyed the panorama looking towards what appeared to be rolling hills and low mountains fronted by more white rocky outcrops and some bush and trees seeming to suggest this area was either temperate or arid.

The walking path started becoming more like a scramble as we saw the waterfall's rivulted top (couldn't see the bottom from up here and the foliage was blocking the view). Then, we followed the guide on a roundabout path eventually leading down a somewhat steep but very doable trail ultimately leading to the misty and slippery rocks at the bottom of the falls.

All told, we spent about 75 minutes at the waterfall encompassing the hike and the photos.

We were told by the local guide that "kunda" means "dove" in Bemba (the most widely spoken language in Zambia) while "lila" means "crying." The falls was named after crying doves because it was said that white prospectors used to kill the now-extinct doves that used to be in this area for their gizzards. They believed that these gizzards contained gold dust since they thought the birds might have picked a few of these while trying to pick for worms or whatever else was on the ground. I'm not sure if they were successful or not, but it was certainly too bad for those doves.

Directions: We did this as part of a waterfall safari tour (as tourists, I don't think self-driving these parts was a very good idea). From what we could tell, access was from a signposted 14km unsealed detour off the Great North Road east of Serenje.

It was about a 2.5-hour drive from Mkushi where we started the drive.

[Back to top]

Spur road to the falls starts off sandy

Despite the road being unsealed, it was pretty straight shot

Our guide Chester talking to Julie while on the trail

Following the local guide across a narrow makeshift bridge

The panorama at the top of the escarpment

The upper part of Kundalila Falls

Descending towards the bottom of Kundalila Falls

[Back to top]


Left to right sweep of the river before sweeping from bottom to top of the falls

View Larger Map

TRIP REPORTS

• May 28, 2008

GUIDEBOOKS / OTHER RESOURCES

NEARBY WATERFALLS

Have You Been To This Waterfall?

Share your experience!

Click here to see visitor comments for this waterfall

Click here to see visitor comments for other waterfalls that we've visited in this region

Click here to go to the Comments Main Page