Mana Pools National Park

Mana Pools National Park sits along the southern bank of the Zambezi River, opposite the Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia. Together the two parks form one of the largest unfenced wildernesses left in Africa. Mana — meaning 'four' in the local Shona language, after the four major pools left by the river as it shifts course over the centuries — was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 in recognition of both its ecological value and the extraordinary concentration of wildlife it supports.

What makes Mana Pools special is the way you experience it. Unlike most national parks in Africa, Mana permits unguided walking — meaning experienced operators (and self-driving visitors with the right experience) can walk freely through the floodplain, tracking elephants and lion on foot in a way that is illegal almost everywhere else. The result is the most immersive walking safari experience on the continent. The most famous photographs from Mana — elephants standing on their hind legs to reach acacia branches, wild dogs hunting in golden afternoon light through the open winterthorn forests — are not staged. They happen because the park is wide open, the animals are habituated to walkers, and the light through the canopies is some of the most beautiful in Africa.

Mana Pools is harder to reach than other Zimbabwean parks, and that is part of what keeps it wild. The road in is long and rough; most visitors arrive by light aircraft. There are very few camps inside the park boundary, all small and intimate. The activity mix combines walking, vehicle game drives, canoe safaris on the Zambezi, and — for the more adventurous — multi-day mobile fly-camping safaris that move along the river on foot or by canoe. The result is a park that feels closer to the way East and Southern Africa felt fifty years ago: empty, dramatic, and uncompromising.