Bangweulu Wetlands

Bangweulu means where the water meets the sky, and the name describes it exactly, a system of lake, swamp and seasonally flooded grassland so flat that the horizon disappears into haze. Around fifty thousand black lechwe live here and nowhere else on earth, splashing across the shallows in herds. The wetlands are the most reliable place in Africa to find the shoebill, a prehistoric-looking stork the height of a person, reached by poled canoe through the reeds with a local guide from the fishing villages. Access depends entirely on the water level and changes month by month.