Reviews of Matusadona (From 8 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent Game-Watching on Lake Kariba’s Remote and Tranquil Southern Shores

Overall rating

4/5

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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.

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Expert

Stephen Cunliffe –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.

1 person found this review helpful.

Lake, Lavish Lodges & Lions

Overall rating

4/5

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I really like this wildlife-rich park on the fringe of the enormous Lake Kariba with my favourite activity being the sundowner boat cruises to view animals coming down for a late afternoon drink. Most tourist activity concentrates on the lakeshore area and there is good reason for this: during the dry season, this lush-green, grassy shoreline attracts hungry herbivores in their thousands, and lions are often close behind. I am also a big fan of spending a week on a houseboat and slowly puttering along the Matusadona shoreline where, more than once, I’ve been treated to the incredible sight of a growling and snarling pride of lions noisily gorging themselves on a downed buffalo that they ambushed the night before. A wide range of comfortable lodges on the surrounding islands and mainland offer visitors a chance to explore the park by boat, canoe, or on foot. For an off-the-beaten-track wilderness experience second to none, I highly recommend hiring an experienced walking guide to take 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.

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Expert

Paul Murray –

UK

Visited: Dry season

Paul is a travel writer, author of the Bradt guidebook to Zimbabwe and is closely involved in promoting tourism to Zimbabwe.

1 person found this review helpful.

Covered in Dung

Overall rating

4/5

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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!

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Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Dry season

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

A Wildlife Nirvana on the Shores of Lake Kariba

Overall rating

4/5

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Matusadona is one of southern Africa’s most remote and beautiful national parks. It extends southward from Kariba, the world's largest humanmade lake, and most game viewing takes place on the wide grassy floodplain that divides the lakeshore from the wooded mountains of the Zambezi Escarpment. As with so many national parks in Zimbabwe, elephants are particularly prominent in Matusadona, where they often gather on the floodplain in the afternoon to drink and bathe, as the sun sets orange behind the dead trees that protrude distinctively from the lake’s surface. Other wildlife typical of the floodplain includes large herds of buffalo, plentiful hippo, families of warthog, and grazers such as impala, waterbuck and greater kudu.

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 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.

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Expert

Sue Watt –

UK

Visited: Multiple times

Sue is an award-winning writer who specializes in African travel and conservation. She writes for national newspapers, magazines, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet.

A Locals’ Secret With Spectacular Sunrises

Overall rating

4/5

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Matusadona and the vast human-made Lake Kariba are popular holiday spots for local Zimbabweans but remain something of a secret to international visitors. Yet, it’s a park that hosts four of the Big Five (rhino being absent) and offers mesmerizing scenery – sunrises and sunsets are spectacular, with the tops of drowned trees sticking out like sun-bleached skeletons from the water.

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 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.

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