Kissama National Park – A Safari in Angola

Kissama National Park is about 75 km south of Luanda. It’s close enough to easily make a day trip and far enough to be completely outside the city’s influence.

How to go to Kissama National Park?

The park entrance is just 2 km after the bridge of river Kwanza, which makes up most of the park’s northern border.

The first game drive is around 7:00 AM, so to get there in time, we woke up at 5:00 in the morning to leave at 5:30. This way, we escaped city traffic and arrived just in time.

Be advised that between the park entrance and the Kissama Lodge, we have to drive about 30 km on a dirt road. Don’t let this scare you, the road was in almost perfect condition, better than many of other roads in Angola.

Kissama Lodge

We heard that the lodge wasn’t in good condition, so we had low expectations, but it looked well maintained, with a bar, pool, and stunning view of the park. We couldn’t check the huts’ inside, but they looked nice from the outside. They aren’t luxurious, but we wouldn’t mind spending the night. Obviously, it isn’t the Pululukwa, but who would expect it to be…?

The problem is that there wasn’t anyone staying there and no one else but our group doing the game drive. If this is a normal day, they won’t be able to keep the park open in good conditions. It’s a shame because it’s a very pleasant activity and not that pricey… at least when compared with other prices in Angola.

How much does it cost to do a Safari in Kissama?

In 2015, at the time of our visit, the price ​​was as below, but in the meantime, it is possible that they have changed.

• National Park Entrance: 2500 AOA (15 USD) per person;
• Game drive: 4000 AOA ( 24 USD) per person;
• One night accommodation with breakfast: 20 000 AOA (120USD);

*Note: We have read and talked to people who paid different prices. Although we didn’t want to bargain (neither would it make any sense), apparently, like many other things in Angola, the prices of the park don’t seem to be too… rigid 🙂

The history of Kissama and Noah’s Arc project

Kissama was created as a hunting reserve in 1938 and became a National Park in 1957. During the 30 years of war, most of the animals were killed, and the Park was devastated.

In 2000 it was revitalized through Noah’s Arc operation, which translocated a huge number of animals from South Africa and Botswana to Angola. This included elephants, elands, giraffes, wildebeest, and zebras. These animals adapted well to their new home and quickly repopulated Kissama National Park.

The Animals And Plants In Kissama National Park

Although this success, Kissama can’t yet compete with other African parks like Kruger, Chobe, or Etosha in terms of the huge herds of animals neither has their variety and still lacks predators like lions, leopards, cheetahs, and hyenas.

Though what Kissama National Park lacks a variety of fauna, it balances with the quality of its flora and natural scenery. Kissama is as beautiful as it gets in terms of inherent and wild beauty.

The Kwanza River, the surrounding landscape, and the abnormal quantity of Baobab trees mixed with giant cactus and other exotic plants make the luxurious scenery, Jurassic-like. We were very lucky and went there in the rainy season. Therefore, the park was gloriously green.

The Safari in Kissama National Park

The safari game drive takes up to 3 hours and goes through the park looking for the big prizes: Elephants and Giraffes. Though we noticed a few idiosyncrasies on this safari tour:

1. In Kissama, the safari starts off through the dirt road and then goes into tracks through the savanna. Why is it different? After a while, you notice that you are more “off the beaten track,” and then there’s no track at all! You are driving in the middle of the bush without the road or tracks. We have never done this in any other national parks… IT WAS FUN!
2. When you find an interesting animal, let’s say a herd of elephants. When the herd goes away… in every other safari we did, if the animal hides or goes away, you have bad luck. We can’t disturb the animals in any way, so let’s try to find another one. In Kissama, the driver goes wild and starts chasing and hunting down the herd so you can have a better look. This was unique. If the park gets bigger and with crowds, they will need to change to a more passive attitude.
3. The truck used in the safari is a huge truck that is incredibly noisy. Besides being uncomfortable with the client, it seemed to scare off some animals. They need to improve on this.
4. The guides looked knowledgeable and did a great job finding and showing us the best of Kissama, but they really need to work on communication. They didn’t really explain much about the animals, the plants or the park…

We were lucky enough to see a big herd of roughly 10 to 15 elephants and two beautiful giraffes, one of them drinking water in a waterhole. Besides these two, we also saw elands, Zebras, several kinds of antelopes, monkeys, and wildebeest (incredibly cool fighting). The park also offers a boat ride for those still wanting more safari activities. We didn’t try it, but you can spot crocodiles, manatees, hippos, and turtles in the Kwanza river.

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Overall the Safari is worth the natural beauty and the park itself, but the tour can be improved. We believe that this will happen if more tourists come and enable the Park and Guides to improve.

When we returned to the Kissama Lodge, we had a surprise waiting for us. The lodge was full of monkeys playing in the ground and trees. There were so many and so cute, with youngsters and babies also. Although clearly wild, they looked pretty used to humans.
They probably go to the lodge every day looking for easy food. They even came to us to get some cookies. It was the first time we were able to do something like this 🙂 It was very different from our experience in Costa Rica.

Post-Kissama National Park Safari activities

Finally, after all this Safari fun, it’s only 11:00, so the logical thing to do is… going to the beach! Kissama is very close, 20km or 30 km, to the great beaches of Sangano and Cabo Ledo! These are great beaches to relax, sunbathe, and play in and by the turquoise and warm water.

Both beaches have good restaurants where you can have fresh seafood! What better way to end an already great day? You can (should) even buy seafood from local fishermen to cook at home.

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If Angola ever truly opens up to international tourism Kissama National Park will become as widely known as other great game parks in Africa. It indeed has all the potential, don’t you think?

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