SOUTHERN AFRICA bull elephant rising onto his hind legs to reach high pods( a behaviour for which Mana Pools has become famous), and the flick of a kudu’ s ear at fifty paces all combine to create a safari experience that feels thrillingly raw and immersive.
Accommodation ranges from luxury tented camps such as Nyamatusi, Kanga and Chikwenya to more rustic exclusive-use campsites and the famously simple public campsites at Nyamepi, where the river becomes your front garden and hippos your nightly neighbours.
Lower Zambezi: Zambia’ s wild-water world Cross the river, and Lower Zambezi National Park offers a greener, water-shaped counterpart. Established as a national park in 1983, it protects a remarkable floodplain and escarpment ecosystem rich in biodiversity. The dramatic Muchinga
Escarpment rises to the north while the Zambezi forms the park’ s southern boundary.
Lower Zambezi’ s signature is its connection to the river. The park helped define the modern canoe safari experience, and remains one of Africa’ s finest destinations for it. Gliding silently through reed-lined channels with a guide at the stern, travellers can drift past elephants feeding on island grasses, crocodiles slipping from sandbanks, and pods of hippo that occasionally require a careful change of direction.
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