Destination Zimbabwe

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VICTORIA FALLS

The Local people call it "Mosi-oa-Tunya", the smoke that thunders, a waterfall in southern Africa on the Zambezi River at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. 1 700 metres (5 600 ft.) wide and 108 metres (360 ft.) at its deepest point – Rainbow Falls – with a plume of spray that can be seen 30 km away. This vapour adds moisture in the form of humidity to the air in the “splash zone,” so that a unique, small rainforest ecosystem clings to the edge of the Falls, with some 70 shrub and 150 herbaceous species, as well as trees like pod and Natal mahogany, ebony, Cape and strangler fig and Transvaal red milkwood. The Victoria Falls National Park and the Zambezi National Park both extend outwards from the Falls. Key mammal species: bushbuck, banded mongoose, vervet monkey, baboon. Key bird species: trumpeter hornbill, Schalow’s turaco, Taita falcon, Verreauxs’ eagle, peregrine falcon, augur buzzard.  

ZAMBEZI NATIONAL PARK

The Okavango Delta, a World Heritage Site, is rightly considered one of the most incredible wilderness sanctuaries in Africa. It is one of the largest inland delta systems in the world, an area of 16 000 sq. km (6 000 sq. miles) filled with water channels, lagoons and islands. What makes this area truly remarkable is that it is a wetland paradise located deep within the arid Kalahari Desert. Each year, floodwaters flow from their catchment areas in the moist central African highlands over 1 000 km (620 miles) away into the Delta to create the miracle that is the Okavango. This unique area sustains a huge diversity of fauna and flora, so that game viewing is excellent right through the year. 

LAKE KARIBA

With 2,000 km of shoreline, Lake Kariba is the 4th largest man-made lake in the world and the 2nd largest in Africa – so it’s a truly impressive place to explore, especially by boat.

Lake Kariba is the name given to the huge body of fresh water which spread 5 200 sq km over the Zambezi River valley after construction of the first major hydro-electric dam was completed in 1959, across Africa's fourth largest river.

Its vast expanse of water forms a boundary between Zimbabwe and Zambia; its extensive and attractive shorelines are home to large populations of wildlife and its islands are dotted in a picture-postcard deep blue sea against a backdrop of high escarpment mountain ranges on each side. Big sky sunsets over the lake are legendary, with the calm water turning to golden shot silk in the dusk and the bare branches of its famous drowned trees silhouetted in the foreground.

MATUSADONA NATIONAL PARK

Situated on the sparkling shores of Lake Kariba, the beautiful Matusadona National Park was proclaimed a non-hunting area in 1958 and as such is wonderfully rich in wildlife and vegetation. The park encompasses Lake Kariba's most beautiful southern shorelines, creeks and bays, a vast flat bush-covered plateau cut by numerous riverlines and the wild, wide, 600m-high Matusadona mountain range which divides the Zambezi valley from the upland farmlands behind. The Park lies about 20km across the lake from the town of Kariba, and is bounded by two spectacularly beautiful rivers, in the west, the Ume, which meets the lake in a wide estuary and in the east, the Sanyati with its magnificent, steep sided, rocky gorge.
Many of the wild animals rescued from the rising waters of the newly-formed Lake Kariba by conservationist Rupert Fothergill and his teams during the much-publicised Operation Noah in 1958 were released into the Matusadona National Park. Today, it is an Intensive Protection Zone for the endangered black rhinoceros and one of the few places in Southern Africa where visitors may be lucky enough to see this magnificent animal in the wild. This park is a treat for visitors wanting to see Africa's other big mammals including elephant, buffalo, hippo, lion, leopard, cheetah, zebra and various antelope species.

The population of woodland birds, raptors and waterfowl to be found in the Matusadona National Park is staggering: there are more than 240 species.