Zimbabwe

Hwange National Park is about one hour south of the Mighty Victoria Falls, in the northwest corner of the country bordering Botswana. On the edge of the Kalahari Desert, it covers a vast 14,651 km² plateau, 1,000m above sea level, and features desert sand to sparse woodland, as well as grasslands and granite outcrops.

The flora of the park is mostly Acacia woodland underlain by Kalahari sands, which have blown across from the Botswana desert over many decades. The miracle of Hwange is the life brought to it from its 63 man-made waterholes, without which its natural arid climate would render it an unpopulated, sandy mopane forest. Rivers and their tributaries drain the north and north-west of the park and the far south, but there are no rivers in the rest of the park. Two years following its establishment as a national park in 1928, the borehole drilling project started in earnest, pumping calcium rich waters to the surface from 60 meters below ground level. Now, with 480 km of game viewing roads network connecting waterholes and outstanding animal concentrations, the park is easily accessible and the most visited park in Zimbabwe though thankfully not overcrowded – save for its 30,000 elephants!

But there is much more to Hwange than the elephants. All Zimbabwe’s specially protected animals are found here and it is the only protected area where gemsbok and brown hyena occur in reasonable numbers; added to which the population of the Cape wild dogs in Hwange is thought to be of one of the larger surviving groups in Africa. More than 100 different species of mammals and 400 species of birds fill this national park with life. Major predators include the Southwest African lion – whose distribution and hunting in Hwange is strongly related to the pans and waterholes – African leopard, spotted hyena and South African cheetah. It is not uncommon to come across good herds of buffalo and you may be lucky and see the magnificent sable or roan that live here too. The different habitats of the park, from wide open grasslands to thick forest, provide exceptional opportunities to see a great range of game on drives.

Mana Pools National Park, centred on the mighty Zambezi River, has some of the most spectacular river scenery and game-viewing in the country.
Situated in the North of the country, Mana Pools is a superb wildlife reserve lying at the heart of an important conservation area, a large parks and wildlife estate that stretches from the Kariba Dam in the west to the Mozambique border in the east.

The name “Mana” means four in the local Shona language, denoting the four big pools surrounding the park’s headquarters, a veritable oasis for hippopotamuses, crocodiles, elephants and innumerable aquatic birds. It is a small park covering just 2,190km², but contained within there is an extraordinary density of wildlife, notably lions, leopards, spotted hyenas and of course elephants. This is also one of the very best locations in Africa for wild-dogs.

Over the millennia, the Zambezi’s meandering waters have been responsible for depositing the unusually rich soils that line the river across the area encouraging the creation of broad grassy floodplains and impressive stands of open mahogany and ebony forests. The river has formed islands, channels and sandbanks in the valley, enabled small ox-bow lakes to shape in the mineral-rich volcanic soils, which together contribute to the magnificent scenery of Mana Pools.

Mana Pools is renowned as one of the very best locations in Africa for walking safaris, including on foot approaches to larger wildlife including elephants and lions. Some of the guides here have been in the park for decades and have personal relationships with individual elephants and other animals. It is also famous for its epic canoe safaris along the Zambezi River, which can get rather exciting at times as the resident hippos can be quite unpredictable.

Mana Pools National Park was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984, even before Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, the Khami Ruins and Matobo Hills National Park.

The crowning glory of Zimbabwean natural beauty and known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya or “Smoke That Thunders”, Victoria Falls was named in honour of the queen of England by David Livingstone, the first European to discover them in 1855.

A UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, this 1700m wide waterfall drops up to 5 million litres of water every second 70 to 108 meters down into the narrow Batoka Gorge whilst sending giant spray clouds high into the air.

Beside the fantastic viewing of the Falls, the Victoria Falls bridge and David Livingtsone’s Statue, the destination offers a wide range of activities to distract the safari lovers from game viewing:
For those seeking an adrenaline buzz: bungee jumping from the Zambezi bridge, the gorge swing, the flying fox, and white water rafting trips downstream in the gorge all offer some of the most adrenaline drive activities in the world.

A number of operators offer flights over the mighty falls with microlights, light aeroplanes and helicopters.

Other activities on offer are horse-riding, elephant-riding, walking with Lions, canoeing or visiting the crocodile farm and diving with crocodiles.
More relaxing activities include rain forest walks, and sunset cruises which are a must.

Game drives are conducted in Zambezi National Park.
African traditional dancing, craft markets and gastronomy complete the cultural picture.

With 2,000 km of shoreline, Lake Kariba is the 4th largest man-made lake in the world and the 2nd largest in Africa. It was built to generate hydropower from the powerful Zambezi river and Nyaminyami – the River God.
There were many stories and even legends attached to the dam construction. Matusadona was proclaimed a non-hunting area on the 7th November 1958 before the dam was built. By the opening of its operations in 1959, as water levels rose dramatically, a huge rescue operation called “Operation Noah” had to be organized: it saved some 5,000 animals of 35 different species from drowning, but only on the Zimbabwean side.

Located on the shores of the lake, the Matusadona National Park hosts most of these animals who had to adapt to the initial flooding and annual fluctuation. Matusadona now has three distinct ecological areas: the lake and shoreline grassland; the Zambezi Valley floor, a mass of thick jesse and mopane woodland; and the Escarpment area of Julbernadia and Brachystegia woodlands. The Jesse/ Mopani area is sparsely grassed, but provides habitat for browsers, most notably the black rhino. Elephants range throughout the Park, seeking the shade of the Jesse in the heat of the day.

With a ready supply of regenerative grasses as a source of food and an abundance of water from the lake, buffalo, waterbuck, zebra, and even impala have thrived and with them the predators. Matusadonh a is an Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ) and home to several relocated rhino’s. The lake is teeming with massive Nile crocodiles, herds of swimming elephants, and the lake shores of Kariba include sightings of the big five. The bird life is exceptional with a very large population of fish-eagles, and the aquatic animal population is equally interesting.