Zimbabwe | Wild Paradise of Africa

We meet in the early afternoon at the Plumtree border post between Botswana and Zimbabwe, just north of Francistown.  We will be on hand to help with border post procedures and from there it is a short one hour journey to our campsite for the next two nights overlooking the majestic Motopos.

As the group will not arrive together, the guide will remain at the border post until everyone is safely in Zimbabwe. That evening, while enjoying a delicious dinner, the guide will explain the rest of the tour and the itinerary to you.

Today we are joined by a Zimbabwean tour operator and specialist tour guide who will accompany us into the majestic Motopos National Park.  The day will be spent game viewing in the park, enjoying its incredible scenery and the highlight of the day is a visit to the last resting place of Cecil John Rhodes, one of Africa’s legends.

Today we leave the national park and make our way via Bulawayo town to the little town of Masvingo to restock and refuel around lunchtime.  Our afternoon is spent at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins.  We will be privileged to spend the night camping here in this tranquil setting, so close to where our predecessors built this great walled city.

We head north to our destination – Mana Pools National Park, camping one night en route, allowing us to visit the Chinhoyi Caves the next morning after shopping in Chinhoyi

We make our way to Mana Pools where we spend the next three nights on the banks of the Zambezi River at Nyampi Camp

It’s easy to reconnect to the natural world in this pristine African wilderness. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Mana Pools offers 2,500km² of untouched nature to explore. Home to over 100 iconic African mammals, and more than 450 bird species, it has the highest concentration of hippos and crocodiles in the country.  Mana Pools is remote and remains one of the few real wilderness areas left in the world. 

We are once again hosted by specialist Zimbabwean tour operators and guides who are able to add so much value to our experience. As the sun sets on our first night at Mana, the evening campfires start, hippos bob to the surface of the mighty Zambezi, and while ghostly elephants drift through cathedral-like trees, bright red carmine bee-eaters dazzle on the riverbank upstream. It's a time for fireside tales while in the distance lions roar. 

We have two full days of game drives in Mana Pools and, as mentioned before, finding any viewpoint that overlooks the Zambezi floodplain is bound to be as rewarding as any game drive. For the birders and photographers, there is no place better or more rewarding.

Named after it's four large pools (Green Pool, Chisasiko, Chine and Long Pool), the Park is a network of waterways and sandbanks, surrounded by lush vegetation, stands of mahogany trees and a healthy population of wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, lion, leopard and wild dogs and various aquatic birds.

Birding enthusiasts will be in birders paradise where the diverse habitats and pristine environment of Mana Pools provide the perfect setting for birdwatching. From the riverine forests along the Chitake and Mhara rivers to the tall Rain Trees and ancient Baobabs, the varied landscapes provide a collection of habitats that attract a wide range of bird species. 

Mana Pools National Park also has a very interesting policy. One may leave your vehicle and walk around, although this is not advisable. There is, however, the opportunity to do guided walks.

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Today is our final day in one of Earth's most beautiful and authentic wildlife destinations.

After breakfast, everyone heads off on their last day of exploring, photographing, scanning for wildlife and revelling at the astonishing birdlife to be found in the floodplains and woodlands.  

Our last evening is enjoyed on the Zambezi River at Sunset.  Dusk in Mana Pools is like a watercolor shroud. As the sun sets into purple, blue, and gold, the warble of a fish eagle gives way to the piping call of a fiery-necked nightjar, the whoop of a hyena, and the eerily childlike cry of a bush baby.  We have been treated to sights that seemed impossible anywhere else - elephant's balancing on their hind feet stretching their trunks to pluck the last remaining dry-season leaves from massive trees, the sound of yips, yelps, screams and squabbles of one of the most endangered animals in Africa, the African Wild Dog with their large mickey mouse ears - this is Africa's final stronghold for wildlife  

Our destination for the next two nights is a shady campsite set on the green lawns under shady trees on the lakeshore in the little tourist town of Kariba.

The property is fenced and so safe for children during the day, but extreme caution should be exercised at night when hippos emerge from the lake to graze on the lawns.  In spite of the electric fencing, the hippo's wander around the entire site every evening while grazing on the beautifully kept green lawns. 

Tonight we enjoy dinner in the camps restaurant feasting on Kariba Bream.

Today we have a well - deserved rest as we are not moving camp and are in semi-civilization in Kariba town. The staggering thing about Kariba town is that it is a settlement in the middle of a wildlife corridor. Be prepared to give way to animals, including elephants, lumbering along the roads in the inhabited sections of the town at any time during the day or at night. 

There will be time to refuel and restock. For those of you who would like to visit to visit the largest dam in the world, the Kariba dam wall is close by.  For those of you who wish to fish, please contact us beforehand so that we can make the necessary arrangements (optional activity)

We end off the day with a sundowner cruise on Lake Kariba.

Today we make our way out of the valley over numerous low level river crossing bridges and a magnificent mountain pass with wonderful views of Lake Kariba.  It is a very long day’s drive so we make an early start.  Our destination for the night is the little lakeshore town at the south western end of Lake Kariba called Binga.  

Binga is a fishing, boating and cultural town on Lake Kariba's southern shore.  The town provides a cultural hub for the Tonga people who originally lived along the Zambezi River and who were re-located inland and to the south, when Lake Kariba was built.  

Batonga traditions and culture are of great interest to visitors and before heading to Hwange, we refuel and visit the markets where traditional Tonga basket ware, beadwork, drums and carved stools are part of a thriving industry.

Our campsite for the last two nights of the tour lies just outside of Hwange National Park.  Hwange town provides another opportunity to refuel and restock before arriving at Tuskers, a few kilometres off the main Bulawayo to Vic Falls road. 

(Although not actually in the Hwange National Park, our campsite at Tuskers, is a mere 40minute drive to the Main Gate entrance)

As Hwange is the largest national park in Zimbabwe, and one of the largest in Southern Africa, there is no time to be wasted, and we spend the whole day game viewing on the park’s good road network. There are numerous hides and, at certain times of the year, Hwange boasts the world’s largest elephant population, with up to 70 000 elephants in the park.

Please note that we will not be game viewing in a convoy but rather everyone will go their own way on the good road network. It would be advisable to have a GPS with Tracks 4 Africa as park maps are not available.

We return to camp in the evening for our last bushveld dinner together.

After a hearty breakfast, we say our goodbyes. For those of you in a rush to get home, you can leave Zimbabwe and enter Botswana at the nearby Pandamatenga border post (100km south of Kasane).  If you have more time on your hands, you might want to head up north and visit Victoria Falls.