Reviews of Mana Pools (From 12 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Mike Unwin –

UK

Visited: Multiple times

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

Overall rating

5/5

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Bush Vibe:

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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 breathtaking 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 campsites. 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 riverfront, 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 is difficult.

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Expert

Mark Eveleigh –

UK

Visited: December

Mark is a travel writer who grew up in Africa and has written over 700 titles for Condé Nast Traveller, Travel Africa, BBC Wildlife and others.

5 people found this review helpful.

Justifiably One of the World’s Great Wildlife Hot Spots

Overall rating

5/5

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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 number 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!

5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Expert

Kim Wildman –

AU

Visited: June/July

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.

Grunting Hippos

Overall rating

5/5

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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; watched helplessly as an elephant lumbered through our campsite sideswiping a tent with its occupants still asleep inside; and held my breath as a territorial hippo lunged at my canoe from one direction while a prehistoric-looking Nile crocodile slithered off the bank in the other direction and disappeared into the murky waters beneath me. Was I terrified? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

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.

4 people found this review helpful.

Magical Mana

Overall rating

5/5

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Bush Vibe:

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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, these camps offer the chance to track the wolves on foot with expert guide and photographer Nicholas Dyer.

4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

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.

4 people found this review helpful.

The Holy Grail of Zimbabwean Wildlife Areas

Overall rating

5/5

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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 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.

4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Expert

Emma Gregg –

UK

Visited: November

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

Overall rating

5/5

Wildlife:

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Mana Pools is the park that 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 bushwalk, admiring the park’s superb, mature mahogany, leadwood and baobab trees and spotting elephants and the tracks of wild dogs.

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Mana Pools National Park

Expert Reviews (12)