The Ultimate Zimbabwe Safari

Rising from the plains of the north, Joburg is a modern metropolis, the powerhouse of South Africa, its veins coursing with rivers of gold. Yet for all the country’s natural wonders, it is human history that is writ large in Johannesburg: moving museums chart the difficult story of Apartheid, while the Cradle of Humankind is home to the largest concentration of ancient human fossils ever discovered, a fascinating glimpse into where human life began. 

The local Lozi name it the “Smoke that Thunders”: a wholly fitting epithet for Africa’s liquid marvel, where the Zambezi River roars 300ft down a chasm on its zigzagging course between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The world’s greatest sheet of falling water is an epic sight, its power and beauty unrivalled, a place rich in wildlife and geological history, where ancient basalt rock is drenched beneath those famous mists, curling up from the gorge like the soul of the river itself.  

Hwange sprawls as one of southern Africa’s greatest and largest national parks, a vast haven of wildlife that counts a host of characters in its bounds, from cheetahs to brightly plumed roller birds. Elephants, too, are one of the park’s greatest treasures: to watch them cross Hwange’s yawning plains and gather in great herds at one of the water pans is an unforgettable sight.

Arching along the border with Zambia, Kariba is an oasis in the heart of the plains. By day it is a magnet for herds of rhinos and elephants, who come to drink from its frayed shoreline, but as the evening draws in, the lake is transformed by its legendary copper-coloured sunsets: to see the ghostly black silhouettes of drowned forests set against flaming-red skies is a truly moving experience.

Life-giving waters stream through the remote plains of Mana Pools National Park, forming a sprawling web of channels, swamps and lagoons that make it a haven for wildlife. Game drives here might throw up sightings of herds of Cape buffalo, stalking lionesses or Nile crocodiles basking on muddy banks. Such is its ecological value that the park was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, and still promises some of the greatest, wildest game viewing in the country.