Beyond the Falls
You’ve ticked Victoria Falls off your bucket list, but Zimbabwe still has a wealth of game reserves worth exploring. Not only do these wildernesses shelter a great diversity of animals, but less crowding and excellent guiding at some impressive lodges make appreciating them that much sweeter.
Matobo National Park
Although not known as a big game reserve, this UNESCO World Heritage Site just south of Bulawayo is venerated for its dramatic rock formations: red-tinged rock outcrops; gigantic, grey, smooth-surfaced “whalebacks”; and towering **kopjes** of balancing granite boulders and pillars. This visual drama is compounded by the thrill of getting close to some of the world’s highest concentrations of leopard and rare black eagles, as well as the chance to explore caves and rocky overhangs which preserve ancient San paintings (over 2,000 sites have been recorded here). Also here, is the high-altitude grave of arch-imperialist, Cecil John Rhodes, at a thrilling location known as the View of the World.
Built between huge granite boulders on a 300-acre concession within Matobo, rooms at Camp Amalinda (www.campamalinda.com) are thatched chalets incorporating the very rock that makes this park famous. Even the enormous pool is a depression in the granite whaleback that forms part of the property.
Mana Pools National Park
Mana is Shona for “four”, which refers to four large pools, remnants of ox-bow lakes carved out by the Zambezi River thousands of years ago. Here, in the Middle Zambezi Valley in northern Zimbabwe, hippos, crocs, and large numbers of aquatic birds flourish. And yet, Mana Pools remains a well-guarded secret. It is a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of Africa’s best parks for walking safaris thanks to relatively relaxed big game and sparse undergrowth.
Another exciting way to experience the region’s natural abundance is by floating down the river in a canoe, particularly between Mana Pools and Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park. It can be a heady adventure, tactfully paddling past river-crossing elephants, and avoiding wallowing hippos and lurking crocodiles as you go.
Just beyond Mana Pools’ western boundary Ruckomechi Camp (www.wilderness-safaris.com) comprises ten large reed-and-thatch tented chalets sheltered beneath a grove of acacia and mahogany trees. There are various spots from which to enjoy the view, whether lazing in a hammock, sunbathing alongside the infinity pool, or gazing up at the stars from a cushioned deck.
Each of the six big tented chalets at Kanga Bush Camp (www.africanbushcamps.com) has views of remote, isolated Kanga Pan, a year-round water source regularly visited by thirsty animals. One adventurous add-on is an overnight sleep-out on a platform with a mattress, raised on stilts beneath wild fig trees, 1 km from camp.
Kanga’s colonial-style Zambezi Life Stylesis a semi-permanent camp set up on the banks of the Zambezi, channelling the atmosphere of Hemingway-era mobile safaris. Operational during the Mana Pools safari season (May – November), there are just six tents with outdoor bucket showers, and marvellous proximity to the water, which you can explore by canoe.
Matusadona National Park
Lake Kariba is a name familiar to most, yet few know of Matusadona, a reserve along the lake’s southern shore. Sunsets over the lake, with the Matusadona Mountains in the background, are spectacular, with incredible birdlife year-round. From November to April, great numbers of migratory birds also arrive just as resident species don their breeding plumage. Also at the shore are large buffalo herds, along with elephant, hippo, waterbuck, sable and roan antelope, lion, leopard, hyena, cheetah, as well as a few black rhino. You can spot many of these animals from the water on boat or canoe trips as you explore the lake’s narrow creeks and inlets.
On a private concession on the lake’s edge, tented Changa Safari Camp (www.changasafari.com) is designed to merge with its surroundings, incorporating natural materials, thatch roofs, and the shelter of trees and surrounding bush. It has been dutifully decorated with locally made furniture and authentically rustic-looking detailing in natural material, so you never forget you’re in Africa.
Another option is Musango(www.musangosafaricamp.com), a small safari camp in a beach-like setting on an offshore island close to the reserve. Its chief draw is owner, Steve Edwards, an esteemed guide who formerly served as Matusadona’s head warden. He manages the camp and comes with considerable knowledge – he’ll even show you where he discovered dinosaur fossils.
Hwange National Park
Bordering Botswana, Hwange is Zimbabwe’s biggest reserve, with terrain ranging from semi-desert scrub and saltpans in the south, to forests, savannah, granite hills and Mopane woodlands in the north. Once the royal hunting grounds of the Ndebele warrior-king Mzilikazi, it’s been a national park since 1929. It’s a prolific Big Five destination, said to have the highest diversity of mammals of any national park in the world, not to mention one of the biggest elephant populations anywhere. Over 400 species of birds (including some 50 varieties of raptor) have been recorded here. Best viewings happen during the August – October dry season, when the wildlife congregates around the shrunken water holes.
In a large, game-rich private concession within Hwange, Makalolo Plains Camp (www.wilderness-safaris.com) consists of ten very comfortable tented rooms overlooking the Somavundla Pan, where elephant herds and predators are easily spotted. A touch more exclusive are the six tented chalets at newer, smaller, smarter Little Makalolo, in a teak forest 20 minutes away. Also facing a busy watering hole, it’s arguably Hwange’s most comfortable safari camp, with the benefit of exceptional guiding, either by vehicle or on foot. Elevated hides with only mosquito nets between you and the stars are also available for sleep-out adventures.
Within a camelthorn acacia grove at the edge of the long dry Sumamalisa Vlei to the east of Hwange, Somalisa(www.africanbushcamps.com) is an intimate bush camp of six tents spaciously laid out in a horseshoe pattern. Instead of electricity, at night it’s lit up with paraffin lamps to romantic effect.
Regularly touted as Zimbabwe’s best tented safari camp, The Hide (www.thehide.com) lies in Hwange’s northeast, and boasts a dependable on-site waterhole luring animals so you can scrutinize them from the comfort of a wooden deck, your bath, or the pool.
Gonarezhou
The “place of many elephants”, Gonarezhou is a gigantic swath of Zimbabwean lowveld in the southeast, adjoining South Africa and Mozambique. Besides an unspoilt wilderness of acacias, ironwood and mahogany trees, it’s the impressive red sandstone cliffs of Chilojo that get much of the attention. Beneath these are the Runde River Valley floodplains, knotted with lagoons and cut through with riverine forest.
Three major rivers – Runde, Save, and Mwenezi – flow through the reserve, creating pools and natural oases that lure animals and birds. Gonarezhou forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which includes the Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Gaza Park.
Still relatively unknown, Gonarezhou suffered greatly in the past due to poaching, conflict across the Mozambican border, and a devastating drought in the 1990s. But there’s a revival, and although the elephants have traditionally had cause to be distrustful of humans, they’re steadily becoming habituated to safari vehicles. There are around 10,000 of them within the park, plus a healthy wild dog population.
Elevated atop a cliff, Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge(www.chilogorge.com) has fantastic views over the Save River below and Ghonarezhou beyond. Lying just outside the park, the lodge was relaunched after a complete refurbishment in 2012, and it’s looking great.
Within Malilangwe, a vast private wildlife reserve bordering Gonarezhou, Singita Pamushana (www.singita.com) is hands down Zimbabwe’s most lavish game lodge. Overlooking the Malilangwe River and sheltered by a canopy of trees, the lodge virtually disappears into its environment. While accommodations and amenities are ostentatious, there’s no denying the effortless connection with the primordial land you’ve come to visit.
Highly personalised guiding includes morning and afternoon drives, boat safaris and fishing trips, black rhino tracking, excursions to rock art sites, and a private hide in the bush where you can stay overnight.
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