A UNESCO World Heritage Site on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, offering perhaps the best game viewing in Zimbabwe.
Considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Zimbabwe’s national parks, Mana Pools offers some of the most spectacular river scenery and game viewing in the country. The name Mana means ‘four’ in the local Shona language, denoting the four large oxbow pools – carved out by the Zambezi – that surround the park’s headquarters. It’s the water provided by the river and these pools that draws so much game to a relatively small park. Though covering only around 2,500 square kilometres, Mana Pools is positively teeming with wildlife, notably large populations of hippo, impressive herds of elephant, as well as buffalo, lion, leopard, spotted hyena and even African wild dog. It’s also one of the few places in Africa where you’re likely to see elephants go up on their hind legs to pull seedpods down from a winterthorn tree – an irresistible delicacy for peckish pachyderms. But it’s not just the wildlife that makes Mana Pools special, it’s how you go about seeing it. The park is known as one of the best locations in Africa for walking safaris, including on-foot approaches to larger wildlife like elephant and lion, but is perhaps most renowned for its epic canoe safaris along the Zambezi River, which can get rather exciting given the unpredictability of the resident hippos.
Access to the park is limited during the wet season from December through to March and many of the camps close during this time.