The Many Faces of Mana Pools
Mana Pools National Park appears on the map as a lumpy rectangle running southwards from the Zambezi River. Its size is modest, compared to giant Hwange National Park, but Mana Pools remains one of Zimbabwe’s best big game destinations. Renowned for its predators and herds of elephant and buffalo, this national park punches well above its weight but to enjoy the maximum that Mana Pools has to offer, it pays to know how it works. For there are many faces to Mana.
Evening drinks & dinner on the Zambezi River – pure wilderness, pure Mana Pools.
The park is dominated by the Zambezi River, its northern boundary. The thundering white water of upstream Victoria Falls has now given way to a much larger, slower river, lazily making its way through the Zambezi Valley. It is a river that echoes to the snort of hippos, the trumpet of elephants and the splash of crocodiles, and it’s no surprise to learn that most of the camps and lodges in Mana Pools are found along the river banks.
There are, however, two ways to experience the Zambezi. The first is what you’d expect: a safari lodge set on the river banks, offering a mix of 4X4 game drives, motor boat safaris and guided walks – the classic Mana Mix. You’ll have your own suite, a private viewing deck looking over the river, a plunge pool – that sort of thing.
Bush camps are a favourite way to experience Mana Pools – simple, comfortable, genuine.
And then Mana Pools offers another way to explore the Zambezi – by canoe. Multi-day guided canoeing safaris have long been part of the Mana Pools experience, and the standards of accommodation, food and comfort on these tours are very high. Each day is an adventure, ending in the late afternoon at a semi-mobile camp, complete with hot-water showers and your own solar-powered suite. Time paddling on the river is balanced with 4X4 and walking safaris with your guide.
Canoe safaris are a local speciality, whether it’s an afternoon or a week on the river.
But there is more to Mana Pools than the Zambezi River: the word ‘mana’ means four, and is a reference to the four permanent pools of water that lie a few miles back from the river. Heavily utilised by wildlife, lions use the pools as ambush points, and wild dogs include them as part of their hunting territory. Naturally, these pools and the area around them form the focus of the safari lodges located near them, with 4X4 drives the main activity in this part of the park, supplemented by trips to the Zambezi River area with access to water activities.
Waterholes set away from the river make a unique backdrop to your table for two.
Go deeper into the interior of Mana Pools National Park and now you find some of the most remote accommodations – specialist safari camps set next to waterholes where the emphasis is on drives and walks, with seasonal canoeing on offer as well. And that word ‘seasonal’ is an important one. The final piece of the jigsaw when planning to go to Mana Pools is your choice of when to go.
The different types of accommodation listed above – those by the Zambezi, the lodges by the pools and the remote ‘inland’ camps – each have a seasonal aspect to them, either improving your experience or impacting on it.
Thirsty animals become prey to lions, using Mana’s water sources as ambush positions.
Let’s make it easy: Mana Pools has two seasons: a dry one from June to end October, and a wet one from November to late May. A dry-season safari is by far the most comfortable in terms of weather and temperature (though September and October are very warm) and delivers the best game viewing for water-based lodges. The four pools at Mana are extremely busy with animals in the late dry season, as is the Zambezi River, but be aware that low water levels will restrict boating activities.
Chances are that wildlife around the deeper-based camps has little access to water in the dry season and so will generally move northwards to the river. But the arrival of the rains has the opposite effect: animals no longer need risk crocodile attacks and big cat ambushes at the permanent water and they move southwards into the deeper bush and its seasonal waterholes – exactly where the more remote camps are. Bear in mind too, that some camps may close during the heavy rains of February and March.
Zimbabwe’s dry season offers the best conditions for travel & wildlife viewing.
When to go also depends on what you want most out of Mana Pools. Canoe safaris are, obviously, a lot more enjoyable in the dry season, and the low water levels make the river safer in the sense that animals like hippo are more easily seen. If however, you are a dedicated birder, then wet-season Mana Pools is a birding destination par excellence, and the abundance of new-born animals means easy pickings for predators – big cats, wild dog and hyena.
Mana Pools combines with Victoria Falls for a very different side to the Zambezi.
Offering a range of accommodation at different price points, Mana Pools is a fly-in destination and best combined with other destinations in Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls is the most popular, especially as it gives you easy access to Botswana and the Chobe River, but Zimbabwe is home to plenty of other top wildlife reserves. Combining Mana Pools with Victoria Falls and the https://www.safari-online.com/destinations/zimbabwe/hwange-national-park/ is the classic itinerary – add on a stay in Matobo National Park for the country’s best rhino encounter, or treat yourself to a trip to Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe’s ‘hidden gem’ wildlife destination.
