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Write a User ReviewExcellent Game-Watching on Lake Kariba’s Remote and Tranquil Southern Shores
Matusadona is in a beautiful setting on Lake Kariba with numerous islands, fertile floodplains, and a majestic wall of mountains as a backdrop. Most people stay at the lakeside lodges or visit the park’s shoreline from a houseboat. These have galleys where cooks provide meals, neat cabins, and perhaps a swimming cage that is lowered into the lake. The decks provide a perfect vantage point for game viewing. I’ve peacefully watched large herds of elephant, buffalo, zebra, impala and waterbuck feed on the nutritious grasses on the shore, plenty of hippo and crocodile in the shallows, and fish eagle perched on the half-submerged trees that jut out of the lake. Sleeping while moored on the shoreline is thrilling, and is accompanied by a chorus of nighttime sounds like nightjars and owls. I’ve even heard lion padding around, seemingly just a few metres away from my cabin.
Where You Really Can Walk on the Wild Side
Many people might quake at the thought of a bushwalk in big cat country. But if the prospect appeals, Matusadona is an excellent choice. On my visit it didn’t disappoint. This beautiful, wildlife-rich park, considered one of Zimbabwe’s best places for lion-watching, can be explored in the company of an expert walking safari guide who will point out tracks and, if you’re lucky, the cats that made them. To add to the sense of impending drama, there are plenty of elephants here, as well as buffaloes and hippos.
Lying on the southern bank of Lake Kariba, Matusadona is also a good place for waterborne adventures. Setting out by boat or canoe, you may encounter two of Africa’s fiercest freshwater predators – crocodiles and tigerfish – along with one of its tastiest, bream. A good scattering of comfortable but unfussy lodges seal the park’s popularity.
Elephants on the Shore of Lake Kariba
The wonderful news is that since the involvement of the non-profit organization African Parks in 2019, the park is being restored to its former glory. Elephants are thriving and lion numbers are slowly increasing as well. Black rhino and cheetah are due to be reintroduced in 2025.
Right now, there isn’t as
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much diversity in the park as in many other wilderness areas in the region, but if you love elephants, like I do, you won’t be disappointed. One afternoon, we ended up parking on the floodplain and watching a large herd for three hours. They were drinking and bathing, the youngsters were playing in the mud, the adolescent males were fighting, babies were suckling, and one stroppy teenager was chasing birds along the shore. As the sun set on the lake, silhouetting the elephants between the stark outlines of the dead trees, the photo opportunities were out of this world. What’s more, it wasn’t just magical in the photos, it was magical in real life… In all the time we spent with this herd, we didn’t see another car.Lake, Lavish Lodges & Lions
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you on a multiday walking safari deep into the park thereby allowing you to access the wild, hilly areas where almost nobody ever sets foot. This is a true wilderness experience in Big Five country.Covered in Dung
The inland sea, Lake Kariba, forms the northern boundary of Matusadona, so you can combine your game viewing with fishing and boating trips. As lake levels rise and fall the shoreline provides excellent grazing for buffalo and antelope, so these in turn attract good populations of lion, leopard and hyena. Large herds of elephant use the lake for drinking, cooling off and recreation, while crocs and hippos can be seen along the shoreline. Matusadona’s location means this magnificent park is little visited, making it one of my favorite wilderness destinations. The sunsets on the lake with its skeleton trees in silhouette are beyond beautiful. Stay in one of the superb safari camps or on a houseboat. Preferably both!
A Wildlife Nirvana on the Shores of Lake Kariba
Matusadona is often cited as a good place to track black rhinos, and this was indeed once the case, but the last one rhino was seen here in 2016 (though plans are in place to reintroduce them in 2025). The park also hosts good populations of sable
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antelope, roan antelope and eland, but these are seldom seen on the floodplain, since they mostly stick to the densely bushed hills. The most conspicuous large carnivores are lions – we had a great sighting of a pride of around 10 individuals on the floodplain – but leopard and spotted hyena are also present, and there are plans to reintroduce cheetah.Matusadona possesses a real wilderness character. It is serviced by a handful of small camps set on the lakeshore or its islands. Most camps offer walking safaris with experienced professional guides, which greatly enhances the safari experience. Boat trips on Kariba are also very enjoyable: you should see plenty of hippos, crocodiles and waterbirds such as African fish eagle, osprey, glossy ibis, white-crowned lapwing, giant kingfisher and malachite kingfisher.
A Locals’ Secret With Spectacular Sunrises
Kariba forms the northern border of Matusadona, and I first visited, as many people do, on a houseboat. I was blown away by the beauty of the area, exploring the Eastern Basin of the lake including Gache Gache Bay, Sanyati Gorge and Spurwing Island on a tender. They’re hauntingly beautiful but there’s plenty of life here too, particularly hippos and crocs and strangely ochre-hued elephants taking their color from the orange soil. On drives, we saw plenty of antelopes, zebra, buffalo and more elephants, although the lions stayed hidden and leopards are nigh on impossible to see. It’s not
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the easiest place to get to by road – you need a 4x4 – but flying over the lake is a real treat: it’s 223km/139mi long with islands sprinkled around the shoreline.Unique Refuge by Lake Kariba
My favorite way to experience the magic of Matusadona is by water, cruising along the lakeshore into the mouth of the Gache Gache, the river that forms the park’s eastern boundary. To explore its serpentine channels is to be engulfed in a sunlit silence of reed beds and water lilies, broken only by the yelping cries of fish eagles. Wherever you look there is life: crocodiles basking with jaws agape, buffalo browsing on the torpedo grass, shy bushbuck watching from the shadows and herons stalking through the reeds. In places, long-dead trees rise from the water; drowned when Kariba was created in the 1950s, their skeletal superstructures
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provide ideal perches for cormorants and kingfishers.For a longer stay, Bumi Hills Safari Lodge, Musango Safari Camp and the small, upmarket Changa Safari Camp are among the best options. On game drives, bumping down red-dirt roads in open 4x4s, you drive through mopane woodlands coppiced to orchard height by the park’s elephants, keeping an eye open for leopards and hyenas, not to mention some 350 bird species. In April, Amur falcons, on migration from faraway Russia, hunt dragonflies along shorelines graced by big herds of impala and sudden flurries of egrets that stand out like snowflakes against the indigo lake.