Mana Pools National Park is a World Heritage Site; a unique wilderness and one of the most iconic wildlife parks in Africa. It is also an extremely fragile and threatened ecosystem. It is essential that all of us recognise this and do our utmost to protect it. To facilitate this, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zim...

The Zambezi Society recently announced that as a result of its representations to ZimParks (The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority) on behalf of the visiting Public, the Authority has reinstated “unguided” public walking in Mana Pools National Park, with immediate effect. Here is the statement issued on 8th July...

According to a survey of 3 008 park reviews collected through the SafariBookings.com website, Mana Pools ranks fourth in a list of Africa s 50 best Parks for African Safaris! The top three Parks were the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), MalaMala Game Reserve (South Africa) and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. In total, 138 parks from ei...

The inconsiderate behaviour of tourists has led Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools National Park to lose its unique selling point – unescorted walking. Until now, the game sanctuary has been one of a very few in Africa that has allowed visitors to wander about unguided in big game territory. The practice has been marketed as one of the park&rsqu...

NOTE: To date (June/July 2016) ZimParks has not yet announced its fee structure for 2016. This is due to delays in the implementation of its new online booking system. We will publish the correct 2016 fee structure as soon as it is officially announced. However, in the meantime, the tariffs for most things remain the same as for 2015 (see below)...

The US$150m (R1.7bn) upgrades at Victoria Falls International Airport are scheduled to be completed by the end of September. The airport is 22km south of Victoria Falls town. “This airport upgrading project is set to provide the perfect backdrop for inbound tourism to the region as well as become the region’s top meetings, incentive...

Conservationists in northern Zimbabwe are using a gun that blasts a burning solution of chilli pepper to keep elephants away from a busy town. On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Chirundu provides a ready feast for elephants: heaps of badly-disposed-of food in rubbish dumps and next to houses, says Aaron Young, who is part of a pioneerin...

A VISIT IN THE GREEN SEASON. ZIM4x4 made its customary rainy-season visit to Mana Pools early in January, and - unlike last year - we hit the sweet spot. Although it rained fairly constantly for our first 24hrs there, it then cleared up nicely. The sun came out and began to dry the roads, and soon we were able to get a good distance u...

First feedback from visitors to the Victoria Falls area indicates that the newly-introduced KAZA UNIVISA (which was launched in November last year and allows entry to both Zimbabwe and Zambia for a single visa payment of US$50) is working well – PROVIDED that your travel focus is the Victoria Falls/Livingstone/Kazungula area. Visitors fro...

Wild Zambezi is delighted to see that Luke and Suzanne Brown from Vayeni have included no less than seven Wild Zambezi network partners in a 2014 list of their favourite 13 safari camps and lodges in Zimbabwe! Here are the relevant extracts from their article:- Zimbabwe is home to some of Africa’s top camps and lodges and now is a fanta...