Vic Falls & Mega Zimbabwe Wildlife Safari

You will be picked up at the airport by your guide, and we will load your luggage into our comfortable, airconditioned vehicle. We will drive to town and get to know each other on the way. Remember to look out of the windows too; on this road we have seen some amazing wildlife over the years, including African Elephants, African Buffaloes and many other smaller creatures and fantastic birds!

Although we don’t have a long time in the car, it might be a good idea to learn a bit more about where we are on the way to our accommodation. Zimbabwe, or “Zim” as most people call it, was included in Conde Nast Traveller’s Top 20 Best places to travel in 2017, as well as being voted number 3 of the “Top 10 Countries to Visit in 2019” by Lonely Planet. It was also recently listed at number 9 on “The Coolest places to visit in 2019” list in National Geographic Travel.

Renowned for being one of Africa’s most beautiful destinations with a superb year-round climate, the country’s tourism is bouncing back in a big way! The country boasts 10 national parks, 9 recreational parks, 4 botanical gardens, 4 safari areas and 3 wildlife sanctuaries. These areas are collectively called the Wildlife Estate which covers an area about 47,000 km2 (18,000 sq mi), which is equivalent to an astonishing 12.5% of the total land area of the country. There are around 200 species of mammals that can be found in Zimbabwe, including Africa’s famed Big Five (Lion, Leopard, African Elephant, African Buffalo and rhino), Cheetah, African Wild Dog, Brown Hyaena, Giraffe, Hippopotamus and many species of antelope and smaller mammals. The country also boasts many reptile species, almost 700 bird species (including 10 globally threatened species as well as specials like African Pitta, Dickinson’s Kestrel, Roberts’s Warbler, Chirinda Apalis, Blue Swallow, Swynnerton’s Robin, Boulder Chat, Southern Hyolita and Miombo Rock Thrush), 131 fish species (including the highly prized tigerfish) and many other fascinating species of fauna and flora.

Upon reaching the town of Victoria Falls we will check into our comfortable guesthouse or small hotel. The town itself offers some excellent accommodation and restaurant options as well as an eclectic variety of African curios and authentic art sold by friendly Zimbabwean locals who are wonderfully welcoming and eager to help you enjoy your stay. The town is rightly known as “Africa’s adventure capital”, and there are many adrenaline-inducing activities on offer in and around town, including white-water rafting, river-boarding, kayaking, canoeing, bungee-jumping, gorge swings, abseiling, horse riding and many more.

Depending on our arrival time we will have lunch or a quick snack, and then proceed to our first exciting activity of this tour, a boat cruise on the mighty Zambezi river! We will make our way to the river and board one of the many comfortable cruisers that do this trip on a daily basis, with staff that know the river intimately. We will be provided with some snacks and drinks while slowly cruising the river for a few hours, a truly unforgettable experience and a great way to start our “Zim” safari!

Remember to look not just at the superb sunset (awesome photos guaranteed!), but also the fauna and flora on the water and at the water’s edge. On previous cruises we have seen African Elephant, African Buffalo, huge Nile Crocodiles, Brown-necked Parrot, Western Banded Snake Eagle, Western Osprey, African Skimmer, African Finfoot and White-backed Night Heron to name just a few. After our cruise we will return to our guest house or hotel and have dinner, before we settle in for a good night’s sleep after our first day.

DAY 2:
Victoria Falls, and afternoon optional adventure activity
We will meet up and enjoy a cup of coffee and breakfast, before making our way to the famous Victoria Falls where we will spend the morning enjoying one of the natural wonders of the world and walking in the riverine woodland around the falls.

In 1851, Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone first heard of the great waterfall, but it was only in 1855 that he set out to visit it. He spent the night on Kalai Island a few kilometres upstream of the falls, having come down river by foot, and the next morning set off in a small canoe to approach the thundering smoke he had seen from afar. He landed on the biggest island on the lip of the falls, now called Livingstone Island and from there obtained his first view of the Falls. He wrote, “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”.

Victoria Falls – known to locals as Mosi-oa-Tunya, or ‘The Smoke That Thunders’ – is one of the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A staggering 750,000 m3 of water thunders down the cliff face per MINUTE when it is in full flow around April each year, making it the largest waterfall in the world by volume! However, no amount of cold facts can prepare you for the sight of this unfathomably vast and powerful body of water that plunges into the Zambezi gorge. It truly is majestic and unforgettable, and a must-see for adventure and wildlife travellers from all over the globe.

Remember to bring your cameras – it’s impossible to take too many photos of Vic Falls! Also remember to hire a raincoat when entering the small park connected to the falls; even in the dry season the spray form the falls can make you quite wet. We will hike along the footpaths of the park, looking for some of the special bird species that occur in the small park, including the beautiful Schalow’s Turaco, loud Trumpeter Hornbill and quite rare Collared Palm Thrush. There are also Bushbuck and smaller mammals in the park.

We will have lunch somewhere in town close to the falls after an exhilarating morning. The afternoon is all yours! The town of Victoria Falls is rightly known as Africa’s “adventure capital”, and there is a lot to do here. You can choose from a wide variety of optional activities this afternoon, including
• A helicopter or microlight flight over the falls and surrounding area (highly recommended)
• Bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls bridge
• White water rafting on the Zambezi river
• Birdwatching in the area (over 450 species have been recorded here)
• Abseiling at the Victoria Falls gorge
• Canoe trips on the Zambezi river
• Zipline and gorge swings

After your exciting afternoon we will once again meet up at the guesthouse or hotel and get together for dinner, chatting about our wonderful day and exchanging stories and photos. Then it’s time for bed, because tomorrow we go to our first proper park of the safari!

DAY 3:
Victoria Falls to Hwange National Park
We will enjoy an early breakfast this morning, and then depart the town of Vic Falls. We are heading south, in the direction of a park that we all love here at the Nature Travel group; Hwange National Park.

Covering more than 14,600 km2 (5,863 square miles), “Wankie” as it is affectionately known, is Zimbabwe’s largest national park and Africa’s 10th biggest. It is almost as big as Belgium, and bigger than all of Zimbabwe’s other parks combined! Hwange was once the royal hunting grounds of the Ndebele warrior king Mzilikazi, and was declared a game reserve in 1928. With neighbouring HG Robins’ game sanctuary, it became a national park under the National Park Act in 1949. It was named after a local Nhanzwa chief, Hwange Rosumbani.

Its sheer size means that its scenery, vegetation and game vary hugely. Hwange has two distinct geographic zones. The northern area, part of the Zambezi watershed and the area where we will focus our safari’s attention on, is dominated by mopane woodland, which is distinctly different from the rest. Elsewhere the Kalahari scrublands drain into Botswana’s Makgadikgadi depression. This habitat is characterised by marshy depressions, vleis (a wet, marshy area) and open grasslands.

We enter the Hwange National Park at the Nantwich gate and should reach our chosen lodge in time for a late lunch. We will check into our accommodation and enjoy a short siesta or a walk around to get acquainted with our surroundings and to stretch our legs. The lodge is one of Hwange’s “classic” lodges, with a distinct old-school feel, boasting beautiful grounds with big trees and sprawling lawns, a swimming pool, a great bar and restaurant area, and excellent, personal service. The lodge is situated in the rugged northern Basalt area of the park, an area rich in natural water with seeps and springs dotting the area.

We will head out on a late afternoon game drive, ticking the first mammals on our safari list. Hwange boasts 19 large herbivores, 8 large carnivores and many other smaller species of mammals, and is truly one of Africa’s great wildlife reserves. You will see why we love Hwange so much on this first drive; this is what Africa must have been like 150 years ago, with unspoiled bush and plentiful game.

After an exciting game drive we will return to camp to relax and have dinner. Remember to look up at the stars tonight before going to bed; they are truly spectacular out here in the African bush.

*Please note: there is an option to do a walking safari instead of a game drive on one of the mornings or afternoons at Hwange. It is the perfect way to truly “be one” with the African bush. The armed guides are all excellent and experienced, and will open your eyes to a new and fascinating world of smaller creatures and interesting flora around you. But don’t worry, you will probably still see big game! Please let us know well in advance if you would like to partake in this exciting activity.

DAY 4:
Hwange National Park
Our day will start with an early breakfast and then we are off again to enjoy wonderful Wankie! We will have morning and afternoon game drives and lunch back at the lodge.

Hwange has more animals and a greater variety of mammal species (over 100) than any other park in Zimbabwe, as well as more than 420 species of birds. All of the country’s protected animals are to be found here and it is the only park where Gemsbok and Brown Hyaena occur together in reasonable numbers. The population of African Wild Dog to be found in Hwange is thought to be of one of the larger groups in Africa. Leopard, Spotted Hyaena and Cheetah also occur in good numbers, and the park has huge numbers of African Buffalo, often is massive herds. Hwange supports a population of almost 500 Lion, and in 2015, Hwange’s Lions gained international fame with the controversial death of Cecil, a much-loved Hwange Lion killed by a trophy hunter from the United States. While White Rhinoceros are apparently no longer present in Hwange, Black Rhinoceros are sometimes spotted by a fortunate few.

African Elephants have been enormously successful in Hwange and the population has increased to far above that naturally supported by such an area. It is a controversial subject and it remains to be seen what will be done about it… At the moment, Hwange remains the best place in the world to see these huge and fascinating creatures. Some of the herds number in the hundreds!

Other game often seen in Hwange are Giraffe, Plains Zebra, Common Wildebeest, Greater Kudu, Impala, Sable and Roan Antelope, Waterbuck, Common Eland, Common Warthog, Bat-eared Fox and many others. If our afternoon drive extends into dusk, we might be lucky and see some of Hwange’s nocturnal species. On previous trips we have seen some remarkable creatures, including Serval, Common Genet, Temminck’s Ground Pangolin, Southern Lesser Galago, African Civet, Aardwolf, Cape Porcupine and the mythical Aardvark.

We will return to camp in the early evening to relax and have dinner with the sounds of the crackling fire and Africa’s night sounds in the background. We will then retire for a good night’s rest.

DAY 5:
Hwange National Park
This morning we will have some coffee and a quick breakfast before setting off for another day of morning and afternoon game drives. We will once again return to the lodge for lunch and a short siesta (or a splash in the pool) in the heat of the day.

We should see some great numbers of game and a wide variety of species, with the highest numbers of animals spotted in the dry season (July to October) when the wildlife congregates around the shrunken man-made water holes (Hwange has no natural surface water), ensuring spectacular sightings, including exciting predator-prey interactions. Some of the waterholes have viewing platforms and hides where we can get out of the vehicle and stretch our legs a bit. The underground hides also give a completely different perspective of the wildlife around us. The hides and platforms are naturally also superb spots for anyone who is keen on wildlife photography. The road network is also quite good, with all of them linking the most important viewing areas and of course the waterholes, ensuring a great time on safari for us!

Hwange is not all about predators and pachyderms though, and is also a birder’s paradise. Over 420 species have been recorded in the park, including about 50 raptors. Several special species occur here, and during our time here we hope to see Lesser Spotted and Martial Eagle, African and Eurasian Hobby, Dickinson’s Kestrel, Cape and Egyptian Vulture, Secretarybird, Grey Crowned Crane, Kori Bustard, Southern Ground Hornbill, Bradfield’s Hornbill, Three-banded and Bronze-winged Courser, Red-billed Spurfowl, Meyer’s Parrot, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Southern Pied Babbler, Southern Hyliota, Arnot’s Chat, African Golden Oriole, Red-billed and Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Racket-tailed Roller, Dusky Lark, Mosque Swallow, Violet-eared and Black-faced Waxbill, and Miombo Tit to name but a few.

After our afternoon game drive we will return to camp or the lodge to freshen up and have dinner together. We will sit under the African sky and reminisce about our wonderful time so far and maybe start planning our next safari!

Africa has often been recognised as the continent with the most remarkable sunsets and Hwange is no different. Remember to take some photos – you will treasure them forever. We will then head to bed and good night’s rest; remember to listen out for the roar of a Lion or a nightjar’s call before falling asleep… isn’t Africa fantastic!

DAY 6:
Hwange National Park to Matobo National Park
We will start the day with an early breakfast, and then pack our bags and check out after two wonderful days in Hwange.
We will say our goodbyes to the lodge staff and hop into the vehicle for our drive southeast. It will take us about 6 hours to reach our destination, the Matobo National Park, a place of outstanding beauty. We will enjoy a packed picnic lunch in a nice spot somewhere on our travels today.

We will drive through Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, just before reaching Matobo. Historically Bulawayo has been the principal industrial centre of the country; its factories produce cars and car products, building materials, electronic products, textiles, furniture, and food products. Bulawayo is also the hub of Zimbabwe’s rail network. It is an attractive city with wide streets lined with colonial buildings and good tourist facilities. It is home to the country’s main museum, the Natural History Museum, as well as the Bulawayo Art Gallery, a railway museum, theatres and the Mzilikmzi Art and Craft Centre.

We will reach our spectacularly located lodge in the mid-afternoon, check in and be awestruck with our views over the spectacular landscape around us. The lodge appears as if carved out of the rock and blends in beautifully. There are rock pools and a sun deck where you can relax, as well as excellent cuisine and top notch service.

The 424 km2 (164 sq mi) Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys steeped in history. Huge granite masses, seamed, split, shaped and sculptured by time and the elements, form an array of giant whalebacks and castellated kopjes that dominate the park’s topography. Much of the country’s history has been written and played out within the confines of the Matobo Hills – from the time thousands of years ago when ancient bushmen used the rocks as a canvas for their unique and extraordinary art, to more recent times, when black and white met in war. Today, thankfully, the Matobo Hills are a place of peace and were awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2003, principally for the incredible amount of rock art found here.

We will chill out at the lodge and go on a late afternoon walk around the lodge grounds, looking for birds and smaller creatures.
We will get together for drinks accompanied by incredible sunset views. Then we move into the beautiful boma area for dinner, followed by a good night’s sleep. Listen out for the strange, dog-like bow-wow-wow call of the Freckled Nightjar as you fall asleep… Magical!

DAY 7:
Matobo National Park
We have a full day to enjoy all that Matobo has to offer. First up is breakfast with a view, and then we are off! We will enter the park and go on a morning game drive, returning for lunch and some time to relax around the lodge. If you are feeling particularly energetic you could hire one of the lodge’s mountain bikes and go for a ride in an area around the lodge that has no big game or dangerous animals; a rare privilege and a fantastic activity!

The reserve is home to an impressive range of African wildlife that we will search for today, including the highly endangered Black and White Rhinoceros (the park has Zimbabwe’s last significant population of these animals), Giraffe, Cheetah, Spotted Hyaena, Hippopotamus, Sable Antelope, Common Eland, Tsessebe, Impala, Plains Zebra, Klipspringer, Common Warthog, Common Rock Hyrax and Nile Crocodile as well as Africa’s largest concentration of Leopard and Verreaux’s Eagles.

Over 200 species of trees have been recorded in the park, along with almost 100 mammal species and 175 bird species, and 39 snakes! Some of the top birds we will search for include the aforementioned Verreaux’s Eagle, African Hawk-eagle, Black-chested Snake Eagle, Wahlberg’s Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Lanner and Peregrine Falcon, Black-winged Kite, the mackinderi subspecies of Cape Eagle-owl, Freckled Nightjar, Coqui Francolin, Miombo Rock Thrush, Boulder and Mocking Cliff Chat, Black-collared Barbet, Red-billed and Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Mottled Swift and Cape Batis among many others.

There are several important archaeological sites in the park, along with many caves containing thousands of rock paintings. Cecil Rhodes, Leander Starr Jameson, and several other leading early white settlers are buried on the summit of Malindidzimu, the ‘hill of the spirits’, also called World’s View.

We will go on a sundowner drive to Lightning Rock late this afternoon; the views are ridiculously fantastic! Then we will have dinner at the lodge again, socialising into the evening as we enjoy the warmth and crackle of the fire. Bed time will leave us happy and relaxed out here in the bush; this is Africa!

DAY 8:
Matobo National Park to Mana Pools National Park
We start our day with an early breakfast and then we have to say goodbye to the fantastic staff at the lodge, pack our bags and jump into our vehicle. We then make the short transfer to the airport in Bulawayo, from where we board a short flight to Mana Pools.

The transfer from Matobo to our next park on the shores of the Zambezi river will give us a chance to learn a bit about our next destination, the remote wilderness that is Mana Pools National Park.

Located in northern Zimbabwe, the life-giving power of the mighty Zambezi river makes Mana Pools National Park one of Zimbabwe’s most lush and flourishing regions. The Zambezi defines this 2,196km²(848 sq mi) park, which takes its name from four main pools (Mana means “four” in the local Shona language) formed in the river’s floodplain. These pools are the remnant ox-bow lakes that the river carved out thousands of years ago as it changed its course.

Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 in combination with the adjacent Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas, it is known for its natural beauty and as undoubtedly one of the continent’s premier game-viewing areas. Mana Pools national park also a Ramsar-designated important wetland, and is actually contiguous with the Lower Zambezi National Park across the river in Zambia.

Upon arrival at one of the two airstrips in the park you will be met by your guide and transferred to the camp where you will be staying for the next two nights. The camp offers uninterrupted views of the Zambezi river and escarpment beyond, and inspires a feeling of remoteness, making you feel like the only person in the park. Keep your binoculars at the ready though, but you may not need them as the animals tend to wander right into camp!

We will unpack, have a meal and get to know the fantastic staff at the lodge. Then it’s time for the first game drive in the park.
After the drive we will get together for relaxation time, dinner and socialising into the night in the bush in Africa, with the sounds of hippos in the mighty Zambezi for company.

DAY 9:
Mana Pools National Park
We have our first full day to explore Mana Pools today. We will start with breakfast and then do our first activity, returning to the lodge for lunch and a siesta. In the afternoon there will be another activity.

There are many fantastic positives about Mana Pools, but one of the best for us is that you can be as active and busy as you want to be here. Feel like doing nothing and simply lying next to the pool in the camp with a book? Perfect! Maybe you are in the mood for a canoe trip on the Zambezi, gliding past hippos and elephants on the shore. Or how about a guided walk in to the pristine wilderness with some of Africa’s best and most experienced walking safari guides? You can also try your hand at fishing for tiger, bream (tilapia), vundu, and many other species on a catch and release basis from the banks of the Zambezi river. This place is special!

The park is truly beautiful, with the highlight of course being the Zambezi river and its associated pools, wetlands, islands and floodplains. But there is also savannah areas dotted with Acacia and Baobab trees, riverine forests and hills in the distance. You are guaranteed some superb photographs.

The park is home to most of Africa’s classic big safari animals, and we will look for these during our time here. All the other members of the Big Five are all here, with good numbers of Lion and Leopard especially. African Buffalo and African Elephant are abundant, and large herds of both roam around the floodplains. Some of the big elephant bulls return to the same spots year after year and the excellent local guides have developed an unbelievably close relationship with some of these “personalities”. Black Rhinoceros are present, but rarely seen.

The river, naturally, teems with massive Nile Crocodiles and noisy pods of Hippopotamus. Although the park does have Cheetah, they are rarely seen. Other mammals we will look for include the beautiful African Wild Dog, Spotted Hyaena, Waterbuck, Common Eland, Plains Zebra, Impala, Common Warthog, baboons, monkeys and more.

We will return to the camp in the late afternoon and freshen up. Then we’ll have a fantastic dinner, chatting about our wonderful day in Mana Pools. Remember to look around the camp grounds for the resident Honey Badger when you walk to your accommodation tonight!

DAY 10:
Mana Pools National Park
We have another full day in the park today, following the same protocol as yesterday. We will definitely enjoy a game walk during our time here. Walking is a very exciting way to experience nature and wildlife up close, and something you will never forget. Simply put, it beats a safari from a vehicle hands down!

Another brilliant feature of Mana Pools that we will discover during our time here is the absolute remoteness of the park. It is relatively underdeveloped compared to southern and east Africa’s other famous wildlife reserves, so enjoy the African wilderness!

We are not here only for mammals and the landscape! Due to the wide range of habitats in the park, over 380 birds have been recorded in Mana Pools, some of them really special. During our time here we will look out for Western Banded Snake Eagle, Red-necked Falcon, Dickinson’s Kestrel, Pel’s Fishing Owl, African Skimmer, Rufous-bellied Heron, White-backed Night Heron, Little Bittern, Long-toed and White-crowned Lapwing, Crested Guineafowl, White-browed and Black Coucal, Thick-billed Cuckoo, Racket-tailed and Broad-billed Roller, Lilian’s Lovebird, Southern Carmine, White-fronted and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Bearded Scrub Robin, Eastern Nicator, Black-throated Wattle-eye, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Purple-banded, Shelley’s, Variable and White-bellied Sunbird, Red-throated Twinspot, Orange-winged Pytilia and many others.

We will again return to our lodge after another great day on safari in Mana Pools and relax. We will chat about trips we have done and upcoming bucket list trips we would like to do. After dinner we are off to bed for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow the final park of our Zimbabwe safari awaits.

DAY 11:
Mana Pools National Park to Matusadona National Park
Today we start with breakfast and one more morning safari activity. We return to the lodge, check out and head to the airstrip again. You will have a short flight to the airstrip on the shores of Lake Kariba in the Matusadona National Park, in a southwestern direction. Here you will be met and transferred to our chosen camp where you will spend the next two nights.

The Kariba dam flooded much of the middle Zambezi valley from 1958 to 1963, creating the world’s greatest man-made lake, the 5,580 km2 (2,150 sq mi) Lake Kariba. The valley’s wild game was concentrated on its islands and southern shore, where the Matusadona National Park was officially created in 1975.

The park comprises a large expanse (1,407km² / 543 sq mi) of pristine wilderness characterised by flat grassy plains and dramatic rugged mountains. The park’s boundaries are all natural: the Ume river to the west, the Sanyati river to the east, Lake Kariba to the north, and the Matusadona mountain range to the south. Loosely translated, “Matuzwi-ah- dona” means falling dung – evidence of its abundant wild animal population!
We will reach our camp, meet the staff and check in. The camp is a beautifully rustic property set on a stretch of land that becomes a peninsula during times of low water. The camp feels remote and seamlessly blends comfort and wildness, perfect for travellers looking for the traditional safari experience.

We will do an afternoon activity in the park, enjoying the spectacular scenery around us. Sunsets over the lake, with the mountains in the background, are especially fantastic! We will get together for dinner and some socialising and then we are off to bed for a good night’s sleep.

DAY 12:
Matusadona National Park
We have a full day to enjoy the park, our first of two days here. We will enjoy two safari activities per day, one each in the morning and afternoon. We have all our meals at the camp, and a short siesta after lunch as well.

There is much to do in Matusadona, including boat cruise safaris on Kariba, walks in the park with a guide and ranger, catch-and-release fishing from a boat or the shore and of course game drives.

The park has varied habitats, including the lake and shoreline grassland, the Jesse bush (trailing bushwillow) and mopane woodland of the valley floor and the Brachystegia woodlands of the escarpment.

All five members of the Big Five are present in the park, and we will keep an eye out for them, especially the spectacular, large herds of African Buffalo on the shore of Lake Kariba. The lake levels vary dramatically and during the dry season a dense growth of Torpedo Grass is exposed. This forms an important source of food for the buffalo herds, whose size is directly related to the amount of grazing available.

Other mammals we will look for during our time here include African Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Lion, Leopard, Hippopotamus, Spotted Hyaena, Common Eland, Waterbuck, Sable Antelope, Greater Kudu, Plains Zebra, Common Duiker, Klipspringer, Impala, Chacma Baboon, Vervet monkey and several smaller species like Slender and Banded Mongoose, and African Clawless Otter. There are of course also some huge Nile Crocodiles on the lakeshore. Night creatures include Honey Badger, Caracal, African Civet, genet, Scrub Hare, Cape Porcupine and more. Animals that are present but only sighted on rare occasions include African Wild Dog, Cheetah, Roan Antelope and Temminck’s Ground Pangolin.

We will return to the camp and freshen up. Then it’s time for a real treat: dinner outside with stunning views over the lake! After this unforgettable experience, it’s time for bed and good night’s rest.

DAY 13:
Matusadona National Park
Today we have another full day in the park to enjoy all its splendours. We will follow the same pattern as yesterday, with a morning safari activity, followed by lunch and a siesta, and then an afternoon activity.

The park is rich in water-associated birds, and has a total species count of 240. During or time here we will look for African Fish Eagle, Western Banded Snake Eagle, Western Osprey, Marabou, Woolly-necked and Saddle-billed Stork, African Openbill, Grey, Black, Goliath and Black-crowned Night Heron, African Darter, Reed and White-breasted Cormorant, African Finfoot, Grey-headed Gull, White-winged Tern, Long-toed Lapwing, Collared Pratincole, Malachite and Pied Kingfisher, Southern Ground Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, White-browed Coucal, Water Thick-knee, Böhm’s Spinetail, White-fronted and Southern Carmine Bee-eaters, Red-billed and Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Orange-winged Pytilia and many more.

We will then get together one final time in the evening for our farewell dinner, having made friends for life on this amazing Zimbabwe adventure. We will chat about our trip, remembering the amazing sightings, funny moments and no doubt agreeing that Africa is simply the best!
Then we are off to bed for our final night’s sleep under the star-filled skies on the lakeshore.

DAY 14:
Transfer to Victoria Falls Airport and Departure
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, as they say, and our “Zim” safari is almost finished.
After our breakfast this morning, we will say our goodbyes to the wonderful staff at the camp and make our way to the airstrip in the park.
From there we will fly to Victoria Falls Airport where we started this amazing safari two weeks ago.

Here we will say our goodbyes after our fantastic time together in Zimbabwe, and we will board our onward or homeward flights.
*Please note: Extensions to other parks and attractions in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana or further afield can easily be arranged. Please don’t hesitate to ask for our expert assistance.

Do you have a quick question about this safari? Speak to a specialist at
info@naturetravelafrica.com