Visit the beautiful and remote Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas in northern Zimbabwe. This untamed landscape has great concentrations of game such as buffalo, elephant, cheetah, leopard and Nile crocodile.
Mana means "four", and refers to the four large permanent pools formed by the meanderings of the middle Zambezi River. This stunning area encompasses 2 500km² of river frontage, islands, sandbanks and pools is flanked by forests of mahogany, wild figs, ebonies and baobabs.
Mana Pools National Park is one of the least developed national parks in Southern Africa. It boasts Zimbabwe's biggest concentration of hippo and crocodiles, and large dry season mammal populations of elephant and buffalo. Zebra, kudu, eland and nyala are common here.
The park is a good bird-watching venue and is the only park in the country where you can hike on foot. Fishing and canoeing are also on offer. You can take a guided canoe safari downriver towards Moçambique, which is a real African adventure, where you have to dodge territorial hippos and camp on sandbanks that are visited by elephants at night. This really is as wild a place as you will find in Zimbabwe.