Mana Pools National Park
Expert Reviews (10)
Zimbabwe Parks
Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.
8 people found this review helpful.
River wild
Mana Pools was once one of those ‘best-kept secret’ parks, celebrated by locals and aficionados for its scenic grandeur, hair-raising safari yarns and general wilderness appeal, but relatively little known to the broader safari industry. In recent years, however, its profile has risen. Several new lodges have opened, both along the Zambezi waterfront and inland, and it has received an upsurge in interest in the media – notably in 2018, when an episode of the BBC’s Dynasties series saw David Attenborough tell the story of a pack of African wild dogs in the park.
Wild dogs have indeed been extensively researched at Mana Pools, which gets its name from four permanent pools trapped beside the river on the floodplain (‘Mana’ meaning four). On my last visit, in November 2019, I was lucky enough to spend several days following the movements of one particular habituated pack, much of the time doing so on foot. In the process, I was reassured to find that this remote park remains as wild as ever, with its breath-taking river frontage, alluring winter-thorn groves and looming escarpment views unspoilt by any recent developments.
Beside the wild dogs, the park is known for the great aggregation of game along the river during the dry season, with buffalo, hippo and alarmingly tame elephant wandering casually through the lodges and camp sites. Certain individual elephant bulls are celebrated for their trick of rearing up on hind legs to get at winter-thorn pods, and have been much photographed as a result. Several lion prides operate along the river front, and also around the Salt Springs area inland, where clashes with the local buffalo produce some dramatic confrontations. Spotted hyenas are numerous, and both leopard and cheetah also occur, though neither is easy to find. Notable herbivores include eland and nyala – though giraffe and wildebeest are conspicuous by their absence.
Mana Pools is not a park for racing around on game drives and ticking off sightings: it is more about relaxing by the river, soaking up the wilderness and eschewing the vehicle to head out on foot. Indeed, this is one of Africa’s very best parks for walking safaris, offering an excellent chance of encountering elephant, buffalo and even lion. Canoeing is also a must, where available, with great game viewing from the water’s edge and guaranteed close encounters with hippos and crocs. Birdlife is prolific throughout, with Lilian’s lovebird and Narina trogon among local specials, plus African skimmers and easily photographed carmine bee-eater colonies along the river. Nights can be noisy, with hippos grunting from the river while lions and spotted hyenas add their voice inland. The park is largely closed during the rains, when roads are flooded and access difficult.
Mark is a travel writer who grew up in Africa and has written over 700 titles for CNN Traveller, Travel Africa, BBC Wildlife and others.
5 people found this review helpful.
Justifiably one of the world’s great wildlife hotspots
Mana Pools is hard to beat. Sure, rhino have become locally extinct in the area, but almost everything else you could hope to see is stunningly visible in these 2,196km² of riverine forest, savannah and baobab-studded bush on the banks of the mighty Zambezi.
You’re almost guaranteed to see lion here and have an excellent chance of seeing both painted dogs and cheetah. Leopard are more elusive but still frequently seen. A highlight for many visitors comes with the obligatory introduction (at a respectful distance) to tuskers so massive that they seem to have walked straight out of the journals of Livingstone. The famous Boswell, in particular, is blessed with a talent for rearing circus-like onto his rear legs to reach for the highest branches.
African Bush Camps (employing some of the best guides in the safari industry) has two properties overlooking the great river and on the evening I arrived the local pride had killed a buffalo virtually on the doorstep at Nyamatusi Mahogany Camp. One of my favourite camps on the entire continent is the secluded Kanga Camp. Since this classic tented camp is located beside a waterhole that at times offers the only reliable water within a 30km radius it is usually teeming with wildlife. One day I resisted the temptation to go out game-driving and instead spent an entire day on the verandah; between dawn and dusk we clocked up a grand total of 1118 animal sightings without leaving the sofa. Then, ten minutes after we closed the books on that running tally I found myself staring into the eyes of #1119 – a huge male leopard that gazed back at me from a distance of about six feet.
Needless to say, I’ll never forget Mana Pools!
Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.
5 people found this review helpful.
Hungry hippos
Canoeing down the Zambezi River through Mana Pools National Park would have to rate as one of my all-time favourite African wildlife experiences. Gliding along this magnificent stretch of one of the world’s wildest rivers in a small fiberglass canoe past pods of grunting hippos makes you realise how insignificant you are in the world. Few other places in Africa feel as unspoilt as this section of the Zambezi River. Under the soaring, purple-hazed Zambian escarpment the river languidly flows past small herds of elephants and buffalo as they graze on grassy floodplains and lush forests which line its banks. It really is a visual feast – you don’t know which way to look. It was here I spent a sleepless night as a plague of mice raided our food supplies and scurried around our tents as hippos bellowed and groaned in the distance, I watched helplessly as an elephant lumbered through our campsite sideswiping a tent with its occupants still asleep inside and I held my breath as a territorial hippo lunged at my canoe from one direction while a pre-historic looking Nile crocodile slithered off the bank on the other and disappeared into the murky waters beneath me. Was I terrified? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely!
Sue is an award-winning writer who specializes in African travel and conservation. She writes for national newspapers, magazines, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet.
4 people found this review helpful.
Magical Mana
Mana Pools is a close contender for my favorite park in Africa. I could sit by the Zambezi River all day just watching the wildlife come to me: Boswell, the bull elephant whose party trick is to stand on his hind legs to eat from the trees, is one of the local stars, as is Mitch, a very mellow hippo who lay down near our campfire over breakfast.
The scenery is gorgeous, with tree-studded floodplains and the broad Zambezi lying in the shadows of the escarpment of the same name. The four pools after which the park is named (Mana means four in Shona) also attract a wealth of wildlife and birdlife. And it offers a rare freedom in the bush, with a chance to canoe, drive and walk even without a guide. I wouldn’t recommend this, however – unless you really know what you’re doing and are confident in interpreting animal behavior, exploring with a guide is always far more interesting and relaxing.
Mana is also one of the best places to see painted wolves, also known as wild dogs or painted dogs. Three of the local packs featured in BBC’s Dynasties series, raising the profile of these endangered and elusive predators. If you’re as obsessed as I am about them, check out African Bush Camps’ three camps in the park: Zambezi Expeditions, Nyamatusi and Kanga – in the Dry season, they offer the chance to track the wolves on foot with expert guide and photographer Nicholas Dyer.
Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.
4 people found this review helpful.
The Holy Grail of Zimbabwean Wildlife Areas
World-heritage listed Mana Pools occupies the southern section of the Lower Zambezi–Mana Pools Transfrontier Conservation Area. This is an iconic park with incredible concentrations of diverse wildlife. All the cats and wild dogs occur here in abundance. The sight of a cheetah tearing across the floodplain or a pride of lions splashing through a crocodile-infested channel to hunt buffalo and waterbuck on the park’s many islands is a sight that makes my heart pound every time. Africa’s fourth largest river, along with its massive surrounding floodplains and sprawling albida forests full of elephants during the dry season, dominates this game-rich area. The open nature of the terrain alongside the river and the high densities of wildlife during the dry season (July to October) make Mana an ideal area for experiencing a guided walking safari. If walking isn’t your cup of tea, then game drives, boat cruises and canoe safaris might whet your appetite instead.
Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.
2 people found this review helpful.
Perfect for vehicle-free wildlife-watching
Mana Pools is the park which sends Zimbabwe’s faithful fans really misty-eyed. What makes it remarkable are its waterways. Separated from Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park by the Zambezi, it’s a superb place for a canoe adventure. And when I say adventure, I mean adventure – the type that could, for all you know, include all-too-close encounters with hippos, crocodiles or herds of wading buffalo.
On my own gentle paddle, there were no such mishaps. My guide had a knack for instilling confidence and my early worries that my canoe was a little too light and unstable soon faded as we got into the rhythm of things. We saw hippos aplenty as we cruised along; they would stare and grumble at us before disappearing beneath the glossy water.
To make a great wilderness experience even better, you can explore Mana Pools on foot on a guided bush walk, admiring the park’s superb, mature mahogany, leadwood and baobab trees and spotting elephants and the tracks of wild dogs.
Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
1 person found this review helpful.
A beautiful riverside environment in the tranquil Zambezi Valley
Although not as popular as Hwange because of its proximity to Victoria Falls, I think Mana Pools definitely has the edge on jaw-dropping scenery. The lazy meanderings of the Zambezi provide a lovely river frontage flanked by forests of wild fig and ebony trees, and the mountainous Zambian escarpment is a beautiful backdrop. On our visit, the river couldn’t have been a better environment for game viewing. We saw large groups of herbivores congregating on the floodplains, while the only sounds that disturbed the peaceful setting was the splashing of a lone bull elephant in the shallows, and the thud of a crocodile as it slithered into the water. The park is also home to a number of predators including lion, cheetah and spotted hyena, but despite them being difficult to see, it’s not often that a visitor leaves Mana Pools without seeing at least one of the carnivores.
Dale is a multi-award-winning writer and photographer with more than 500 published magazine articles featured in magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa, and CNN Travel.
Chilled out tuskers
I have stayed in both luxury accommodations and basic tented camps alongside the great Zambezi River in the UNESCO world heritage Mana-Pools National Park, and have come to the conclusion that both have their merits.
Of course, if staying in an upmarket lodge, one can expect scrumptious food, fantastic guided game drives, and hikes. The rooms/glamping tents are beautiful, and wildlife often saunters past your mosquito-screened windows.
If camping, expect to be thrilled, especially at night when the big-game can and typically does, hang around your fragile domicile.
I recall one evening not sleeping a wink because I had been stupid enough to erect my tent beneath the shade of a tree, the fruits of which, I discovered, much to my chagrin, were the favored food of elephants and hippos. They munched, belched, and farted, and broke branches throughout the night, and just when I thought I might be able to sleep through some of it, a huge tusker started headbutting the tree in order to knock more fruit to the ground. It was like trying to doze through a giant hail storm. I had bags under my eyes in the morning. But to be honest, it was so exhilarating, I’ll never ever forget it.
Mana-pools is a beautiful park. There are riverside forests and open planes too, as well as the river and a series of small lakes (after which the park is named).
You’ll likely see lions and hyenas (sometimes right next to your accommodation) as well as the usual Safari staples. Wild dogs are commonly seen. But for me, the stars of the Mana-pools show are the big bull elephants that are super chilled and unconcerned with humans (even if you are on foot).
Some of them have picked up the habit of rising up on their back legs (like a circus performing elephant) to reach leaf-laden branches, the spoils from which they will often share with their ladies.
Brian is an award winning travel writer, author of safari books and regular contributor to magazines such as BBC Wildlife and Travel Africa.
Wild adventures in a land of giants
Mana Pools is a pristine wilderness half the size of Surrey that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The mile-wide Zambezi runs along its northern border, forming a natural barrier between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Back in camp at the end of the day you can sit with a sundowner and watch the sky change color from apple green to burning orange behind the 4000ft contours of the escarpment on the Zambian side of the river. No wonder many visitors consider this park to be the most beautiful in Africa.
Mana means ‘four’ in the local Shona language and refers to a quartet of oxbow lagoons created by the river’s former meanderings, but the park’s greatest glories are the open woodlands that grow at the edge of the floodplains. Here, all around, giant trees reach for the light: sausage trees, massive strangler figs and groves of evergreen Natal mahoganies. But most impressive of all are the majestic glades of winter thorns.
Arching overhead like the tracery of a medieval cathedral, their interlocking branches create endless aisles of dappled shade beneath which, in the company of legendary walking guides such as Stretch Ferreira, you can go looking for lions and wild dogs or close encounters with the park’s big tuskers.
The elephants like to hang out in the jesse – the dense scrub that blankets the park’s hinterland. But during the day as the heat builds up there is a general movement toward the woodlands. First come the breeding herds and then the solitary bulls, lured by the opportunity to feast on the winter thorns’ nutritious seedpods. Then, with luck, you might meet some of the best-known individuals, such as Boswell, who has learned to stand on his hind legs to pluck the choicest pods with his trunk.
Although the Zambezi Valley has lost all its black rhinos and large numbers of elephants to the poachers, it is still in good shape despite President Mugabe’ years of misrule, with a choice of genuine bush camps such as Rukomechi (ideal for canoe trips on the Zambezi) and Vundu Camp.
Harriet is a zoologist with more than 20 years’ experience. She has the privilege of working with the world’s top wildlife photographers and photo-guides.
Mana from Heaven
Mana Pools is about as wild as it gets – particularly as you are allowed to walk here. It never feels very busy, so long as you avoid southern African school holidays. Mana Pools is one of the most beautiful reserves in all of Africa, with its mighty Zambezi River frontage, the eponymous pools and the hauntingly photogenic glades of large riverine trees. Add to this beautiful scene groups of elephant moving through the sunlit forest. If you’re really lucky, you might also see one of the old bulls standing on his hind legs to reach the branches of the trees to eat. It is thought there are just a handful of bulls who have learnt this trick. I have also always been lucky with wild dogs here – though somewhat frustratingly, each time they have materialised on the last hour of the very last game drive.
Safari Tours to Mana Pools NP
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8-Day Mana Pools - 4x4 Safari with Driver
$2,640 pp (USD)
Zimbabwe: Private tour
Mid-range Guest House & Tented Bush CampYou Visit: Harare (Start), Mana Pools NP, Harare (End)
Mana Pools Tourism Services
5.0/5 – 17 Reviews
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![13-Day Luxury Zimbabwe Safari]()
13-Day Luxury Zimbabwe Safari
$15,557 pp (USD)
Zimbabwe: Private tourLuxuryLodge & Tented Camp
You Visit: Victoria Falls Town (Start), Hwange NP, Lake Kariba, Matusadona NP, Mana Pools NP, Victoria Falls (End)
Wayfairer Travel
4.9/5 – 132 Reviews
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![5-Day Mana Pools National Park Safari Experience]()
5-Day Mana Pools National Park Safari Experience
$1,600 pp (USD)
Zimbabwe: Shared tour (max 6 people per group)BudgetCamping
You Visit: Harare (Start), Mana Pools NP, Harare (End)
Khangela Safaris
4.9/5 – 13 Reviews
