Kalabo is the town at the edge of Liuwa Plain and the point most visitors pass through on the way in. It sits about an hour from Mongu, reached by a pont — a rope-and-pulley ferry — across the river.

African Parks, which manages Liuwa Plain, keeps an office at the harbour, and this is where arrangements for the park are made. It is a small place, and the crossing is part of the journey rather than an obstacle to it.