Mana Pools & Lake Kariba Safari Tour – Zimbabwe Guided Wilderness & River Adventure

 Mana Pools National Park offers something found almost nowhere else in Africa — the rare and extraordinary privilege of walking unaccompanied among dangerous wildlife. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, set along the southern banks of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, is celebrated for its wildness, its staggering biodiversity, and experiences that simply cannot be replicated elsewhere.

The name “Mana” means “four” in the local Shona language — a reference to the four ancient oxbow pools carved out by the Zambezi River over thousands of years. Long Pool, the largest, stretches six kilometres through open Albida woodland and draws vast elephant herds, pods of hippo, and Nile crocodiles to its banks daily. On the old river terraces, visibility in the open woodland is excellent, and visitors are uniquely permitted to walk unguided — making for some of the most intimate and heart-stopping wildlife encounters on the continent.

The herbivore cast is remarkable: elephant, eland, buffalo, impala, waterbuck, zebra, warthog, and hippo are all regular sightings. Lion, leopard, spotted hyena, and cheetah complete the predator picture — and while their secretive nature can make them harder to find, very few visitors leave Mana Pools without a sighting of at least one. Over 350 bird species ensure rewarding game drives and walks at every hour of the day.

The tour also takes in the vast, shimmering expanse of Lake Kariba — one of the world’s largest man-made lakes — where elephant and buffalo gather along the shoreline and the sunsets over the water are among the most spectacular in Southern Africa.

Wilderness camping throughout. Maximum 6 vehicles. Off-road trailer friendly.