This nine-night route crosses northern Zimbabwe in three parts. It opens in the remote Robins area of Hwange, the country’s largest park, where pumped waterholes gather dry-season game on Kalahari sand. It moves to the Mana Pools floodplain on the Zambezi, a park walked and paddled rather than driven. It closes at Victoria Falls, where the river drops into the Batoka Gorge along a curtain nearly 1.7 kilometres across.
You travel it on foot, by canoe and by open 4×4, with walking safaris the thread that runs through all three stops. The camps are small and built for the country they sit in: a seven-tent walking camp in Hwange, a semi-mobile six-tent camp on the Zambezi bank at Mana Pools, and a fourteen-unit tented lodge inside Zambezi National Park near the falls.
Days here are led on foot across undulating ridges of mopane woodland, open grassland and rock outcrops in the remote Robins area of northern Hwange. Guides work the springs and pumped pans, and the way to see the elephant herds is to settle at Deteema Dam or Dolilo Pan and let the sightings come rather than chase them. Buffalo move through in large herds and several lion prides hold here year-round. Hwange Bush Camp is seven Meru tents spaced under tree shade, where the guides host the meals and share the fire at night.
On the Zimbabwean bank of the Zambezi you walk the floodplain with an armed professional guide who reads tracks and browse lines, and you canoe past hippo pods and elephants feeding at the water's edge. Some bulls rear onto their hind legs to reach the albida pods overhead. Mana Pools is one of Africa's great strongholds of the painted dog, and through the driest months its four permanent inland pools draw lion, buffalo and waterbuck. Zambezi Expeditions is six canvas tents at the Nkupi site, facing the river with the Zambian escarpment across the water and gathered around a small plunge pool.
The Zambezi drops into the Batoka Gorge along a curtain of falling water nearly 1.7 kilometres across, with footpaths threading the rim rainforest to a run of viewpoints; from August the lower flow brings clearer views of the gorge and its cataracts. Days also run on game drives into Zambezi National Park, where elephant, buffalo and plains game come to the waterhole, and out onto the river by boat and canoe. Old Drift Lodge is reached by a cruise of about fifteen minutes along the Zambezi, fourteen canvas tented units on the original crossing point, each with a private plunge pool and a claw-foot bath on the deck.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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zimbabwe
Twelve nights across northwest Zimbabwe, from Victoria Falls to Hwange's plains and springs and the upper Zambezi.
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botswana & zimbabwe
Twelve nights across Botswana and Zimbabwe, linking the Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, a Hwange concession and Lake Kariba.
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zimbabwe
Nine nights in south-eastern Zimbabwe, from the Save River and Gonarezhou to rhino tracking in the Sango Conservancy.
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Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.
