Diverse Zimbabwe

You’ll start your journey in Victoria Falls, home to one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. Marvel as the Zambezi River suddenly drops away, leaving hundreds of feet of torrential water and spray cascading into the gorge below. You’ll stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel, a luxurious outpost of old world, colonial charm and Edwardian elegance ideally located for exploring the Falls. If you can pick up your jaw from the floor, there are plenty of other activities on offer in and around Victoria Falls town, from white water rafting and sunset cruises on the Zambezi to bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls Bridge. Helicopter rides and horseback safaris are among the other activities on offer in the area.

Your surroundings will move from the majestic to the surreal as you’re taken from the Victoria Falls to the Matobo Hills, a truly stunning region of bizarre, moon-like granite rock formations. This otherworldly landscape is home to an appropriately spectacular array of wildlife, including white and black rhino, leopard, zebra and giraffe, all of which can be spotted on a game drive from Camp Amalinda, your home for the next two nights. You can even tour the area with a local archaeologist for a real insight into its history, or pay a visit to some local Matalebe people to get a feel for how people live in this alien world.

Zimbabwe’s largest and oldest national park, Hwange is home to some of the country’s widest variety of game – including one of the largest elephant populations in the world. Other game on show include buffalo, lion, giraffe, and wildebeest, and The Hide Safari Lodge, where you’ll be staying for three nights, offers professional guides leading game drives, pan sits, hide sits and bird watching. The lodge itself is located on the edge of an active waterhole, and – being blissfully removed from the technological trappings of the modern world – there’s not much to do other than sit back, relax, and take it all in.

From Hwange, you’ll be flown to the Eden that is the Mana Pools National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its natural beauty and fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities. Unspoilt even by the standards of Zimbabwe’s national parks, the Mana Pools region boasts beautiful natural landscapes carpeted with forests of mahogany, fig, ebony and baobab, and is home to the country’s biggest collection of hippopotamuses and crocodiles. Other animals that roam the park include lion, elephant, buffalo and hyena, which you may be lucky enough to see on a guided game walk with your camp, the Mana Pools Safari Company.

From Mana Pools, you’ll be flown to the pristine watery wilderness that is Lake Kariba. Home to a rich variety of bird and marine life and a variety of big game, you can explore the lake’s vibrant wildlife on foot, on boat, or on a game drive, and the Changa Safari Camp, your home for the next three nights, is the perfect place to do it. The spooky, partially submerged petrified forests are worth a look, while particularly adventurous visitors might try their hand at fishing on the lake for the notorious tiger fish.