Until the late 1960s Kasaba Bay Lodge was accessible only by air, or boat from Mpulungu, and catered to wealthy and international visitors. The
Mporokoso District authorities had a humble guesthouse at Sumbu Bay, reached by a gravel road from Mporokoso. In the early 1970s this road was connected to Kasaba Bay Lodge, and a new lodge was built at Nkamba Bay. At that time and into the 1970s, Sumbu was considered to be, with
South Luangwa and
Kafue, one of the best national parks of Zambia, with elephants and lions being common. Game numbers in the park declined in the 1980s and 1990s due to a lack of management exacerbated by the cutback of the country's domestic airline which used to fly visitors to the park. Its remoteness by road and proximity to war and conflict in the
DR Congo, the land border of which is only 25 km to the north, deterred visitors.
Present day There has been some refurbishment in recent years and game numbers are rising again. Frankfurt Zoological Society Zambian partnered with DNPW in 2017 to form the Nsumbu Tanganyika Conservation Project, and managed by Craig Zytkow, has grown considerably. Accessing the park is best done via the Kasama - Mporokoso - Nsumbu road. The road is tarred up to Mporokoso (170 km) and gravel thereafter (another 170 km). The gravel part is currently bring worked upon (early 2020) and is on the improve. The Tanganyika Angling Challenge place at Nkamba and Ndole Bay Lodges in March or April every year. ==Fauna==