Five Star Guiding at Mana Pools
It may be stating the obvious but your African safari experience depends to a large degree on the quality of your guides. They are, after all, responsible not just for finding animals and talking about them but also for your safety whether in a 4X4, on foot or on the water. Safari guides need to read a wildlife situation accurately and know what to do if things look like they could go wrong – or are going wrong. They also should know the details too – animal footprints, bird calls and plant names – and it can’t hurt if they can also whip up a cold G&T at sunset.
The Real Deal: On foot in Africa with a professional safari guide.
Of course there are great guides all across Africa but if you are looking for the most experienced and the most highly trained, then look no further than the guides of Zimbabwe. Licenced to lead safaris by vehicle, on foot or by canoe, Zimbabwe guides undergo several years of training and apprenticeship before they qualify as professionals.
And if you want to put these guides to the test, then you need to go somewhere like Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools.
Accommodation at Mana Pools takes advantage of waterside locations for great wildlife viewing.
Set in the Zambezi River valley, Mana Pools National Park is one of the wildest and least developed conservation areas in Southern Africa. The ‘pools’ refer to four permanent lakes in the park but this is a landscape that is dominated by the rise and fall of the Zambezi River. Flood season turns the area into a vast wetland, attracting animals and birds in great numbers – and even more so as the water recede in the dry season.
Mana Pools is proper big game country. There might not be rhino but there is everything else: large populations of elephant, buffalo and hippo plus the big predators: lion, crocodile, African wild dog, cheetah and leopard.
Mana Pools has a healthy reputation as a home for predators – especially lions.
It’s also a destination with one of the widest ranges of safari experiences for its visitors. You can sit back on 4X4 game drives at Mana Pools as well as explore by canoe but it’s being on foot that reveals the most about this national park.
Walking safaris at Mana Pools is a deeply immersive experience, and your guide – armed and with back-up – will lead you on a journey of sensory rediscovery. The eye-catching clues of an animal’s passage, the revealing calls of monkeys and birds and the smells of the Zambezi – wet sand, dry sage and perhaps the scent of a wild dog pack, gathered together before a hunt. And if there is an on-foot encounter with a large animal – or several – then the skill and experience of Zimbabwean guides means you enjoy the moment instead of dreading it.
Walking safaris at Mana Pools put you into the natural environment.
Zimbabwean guides don’t come much more skilled and experienced than the ones at Bushlife Safaris. Lead by a husband and wife guiding team, this is an award-winning operator specialising in walking and canoeing safaris as well as traditional 4X4 game drives. They run two tented camps in a private reserve bordering the national park as well as a solar-powered mobile bush camp dedicated to walking safaris. A multi-day canoeing adventure with camping on the banks of the Zambezi River completes the offerings.
This is old-school safari: a dawn wake-up call with coffee and homemade biscuits, a campfire to warm your hands on and a morning walk with your guide. Then back to camp for a grand brunch and a rest before choosing your next activity – a game drive or canoe trip for the afternoon. Their guides are highly experienced and such is their reputation that Bushlife Safaris worked with the BBC on a wildlife series featuring their signature animal – the African wild dog.
Other top operators in Mana Pools include Kavinga Safari Camp, its seven tented suites set above the Ruckomechi River with glorious views of the Zambezi valley and Kanga Camp, part of the African Bush Camps portfolio. Kanga lies in a private concession overlooking a well-used waterhole where you’ll find a photographic hide as well.
You’ll also enjoy the warm welcome at Ruckomechi Camp, one of the pioneer camps at Mana Pools and in operation for several decades; it’s run by Wilderness Safaris, one of the major players in the Southern African safari business, and recommended for its great mix of water and land-based adventures.
Camps set next to the Zambezi River offer another dimension to your safari.
Mana Pools is a fly-in destination and best visited in combination with local destinations such as Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park. You’ll be most comfortable there during the dry and mild months of May to August when it’s also the lowest malaria risk. It’s hotter from September to November but still mostly dry and this is when the wildlife viewing is usually at its most impressive.
If you’d like to find out about Mana Pools National Park for yourself, have a look at a couple of our sample itineraries or simply contact us with your requirements and we’ll take it from there.
