©️ Anthony KASCHULA – Walking Guide
The capital is Harare, with Bulawayo the second largest city and Victoria Falls the hub of tourism in the northwest and a population estimated at between 14-16 million.
Zimbabwe’s main languages are English, Shona and Ndebele.
Zimbabwe is central within southern Africa; it has no coastline, with neighbours Zambia in the north, Mozambique in the east, South Africa to the south and Botswana to the west.
If you have never been to Zimbabwe before, you’re in for a treat: it is one of the most beautiful, enigmatic and diverse countries in Africa and its most important treasures lie in its great wilderness areas. Almost 50,000 square kilometres – around 30% of Zimbabwe’s total land area – is protected as wildlife estate without equal. These spectacular and varied landscapes teem with a rich array of African flora and fauna.
All across Zimbabwe there are pristine wilderness areas, botanical gardens, forest sanctuaries, lakes, savannah plains, forested hills, and vibrant modern cities which all come together to make Zimbabwe a land of stunning contrast and endless delights. Then there are the people! Zimbabweans are known for their warmth and hospitality and wherever you decide to go you will be met with friendly faces and welcoming attitudes.
Zimbabwe boasts Hwange National Park, one of Africa’s top safari destinations. At 14,500 square kilometres it is home to over 100 mammal species including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores and 400 bird species. Hwange is most famous for its elephant – somewhere between 30 and 50 thousand depending on the time of year.
Forming the northern border of the country is the Zambezi River, boasting Victoria Falls, a World Heritage Site and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Above the Falls the river winds sleepily past the Zambezi National Park where elephant and lion roam today as they have for thousands of years. Below the Falls, the river is trapped in the chasm of the Batoka Gorge and thrashes wildly between rocky cliffs before it escapes into the inland sea which forms Lake Kariba and beyond the Magnificent Mana Pools.
Malaria preventative medicines are necessary in most of Zimbabwe, particularly in the big game areas in the Zambezi Valley and Lowveld.
Please consult your own physician before coming to Zimbabwe. A pyrimethamine/dapsone combination drug taken once a week is generally used locally, and Chloroquine is first choice of malaria treatment in Zimbabwe.
Bilharzia is present in many dams and rivers and it is advisable to make minimal contact with this water. However, Bilharzia is easily curable by Biltricide or similar medication.
AIDS is prevalent in Africa but may be avoided by refraining from irresponsible sexual behaviour. All Medical Blood Bank serum and blood is tested prior to use.
MEDICAL AIR RESCUE AND AMBULANCE SERVICES are available in most areas of Zimbabwe. Insurance cover for this is available – please speak to your Tour Organiser or Operator who can assist in obtaining this cover.
Private as well as Government clinics, hospitals and Medical Practitioners are available at the main city/town centers.
All Zimbabwean Guides are First Aid Trained as a pre-licensing requirement.
Gonarezhou National Park, in Zimbabwe’s South-East Lowveld, covers just more than 5 000 km² of some of the most spectacular scenery in the region incorporating the iconic Chilojo Cliffs, wide meandering rivers and extensive woodlands. Widely known for its unique wilderness character, the Park’s reputation as a premier destination for quality wildlife sightings is also growing. Home to about 11 000 elephants, the Gonarezhou truly deserves its vernacular name as ‘Place of Elephants’.
©️ Anthony KASCHULA – Walking Guide
©️ Luke BROWN
Victoria Falls presents a spectacular sight of awe-inspiring beauty and grandeur on the Zambezi River, forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Called locally ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ – ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. One of the seven natural wonders of the world Victoria Falls is known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world.
Livingstone beautifully described what he saw in his diaries: “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”
Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as, at the height of the rainy season, more than five hundred million cubic meters of water per minute plummet over the edge, over a width of nearly two kilometres, into a gorge over one hundred meters below.
The wide, basalt cliff over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a placid river into a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic gorges.
Facing the Falls is another sheer wall of basalt, rising to the same height, and capped by mist-soaked rain forest. A path along the edge of the forest provides the visitor prepared to brave the tremendous spray, with an unparalleled series of views of the Falls
The small, but very scenic, Zambezi National Park is a great destination for a day trip from Victoria Falls. For a real bush experience you can stay in one of the lodges overlooking the Zambezi River inside the park. Elephant and buffalo are regularly seen, as well as giraffe and zebra. There is a good variety of antelope including waterbuck, impala and sable.
Four of the Big Five are present, but only elephant and buffalo are likely to be seen. Rhino is absent. Leopard is rarely spotted, while sightings of lion are becoming more common. African wild dog also occur in the park, and the best chance to spot them is during the denning season, from May to August. The river teems with crocodile and hippo.
The park has the very scenic Zambezi River as its northern border. The Zambezi River Game Drive runs the length of the park, along the river for about 50km. The vegetation is mainly mopane woodland and riverine forest with some amazing trees, including apple-ring, fig and ebony.
©️ Duncan WATSON
©️ Duncan WATSON
The Park hosts over 100 mammal and 400 bird species, including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. All Zimbabwe’s specially protected animals are to be found in Hwange and it is the only protected area where gemsbok and brown hyena occur in small numbers.
Grazing herbivores are more common in the Main Camp Wild Area and Linkwasha Concession Area, with mixed feeders more common in the Robins and Sinamatella Wild Areas, which are more heavily wooded. Distribution fluctuates seasonally, with large herbivores concentrating in areas where intensive water pumping is maintained during the dry season.
The population of the Cape wild dogs to be found in Hwange is thought to be of one of the larger surviving groups in Africa today, along with that of Kruger National Park and Selous Game Reserve.
Other major predators include the lion, whose distribution and hunting in Hwange is strongly related to the pans and waterholes. Since 2005, the protected area is considered a Lion Conservation Unit together with the Okavango Delta.
African leopard, spotted hyena and cheetah are also present in Hwange National Park.
Elephants have been enormously successful in Hwange and the population has increased to far above that naturally supported by such an area.
Mana Pools National Park is a 219,600 ha wildlife conservation area and National Park in northern Zimbabwe. It is a region of the lower Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the flood plain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season. As the lakes gradually dry up and recede, the region attracts many large animals in search of water, making it one of Africa’s most renowned game-viewing regions.
The park was inscribed, in conjunction with the Sapi Safari Area (118,000 ha) and Chewore Safari Area (339,000 ha) as a single UNESCO World Heritage site (for a total of 676,600 ha) in 1984. The Mana Pools were designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance on 3 January 2013.
Mana Pools National Park is a World Heritage Site based on its pure wilderness and beauty. It is home to a wide range of mammals, over 350 bird species, and aquatic wildlife, and is one of the world’s wildest and best preserved natural ecological areas.
© Ian HARMER
The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys south of Bulawayo. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth “whaleback dwalas” and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Matobo is a corruption of a Venda word, “matombo” which means stones in Tshivenda. It was named by the ancestors of Kalanga and Venda people who are the original native peoples of this land.
The border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique runs north / south along the highest peaks of the Chimanimani’s. These mountains are really for those who like to explore by foot and feel the grandeur and majesty of being alone in a wild place. ZPWMA say they have a deliberate policy to limit development within the National Park to preserve its natural, pristine beauty and the wild landscapes of this mountainous area.
For walkers’ familiar with the south-western Cape the Chimanimani feels and looks very similar, the difference being that Chimanimani has far fewer visitors and a much greater sense of isolation and a feeling of being very much in touch with wild nature.
The Chimanimani National Park also includes the Eland Sanctuary. It is a mountainous terrain with peak heights of 2,436 metres (7,992 feet) and is the source of many streams and springs and natural falls such as in the Bridal Veil Falls in the Eland Sanctuary and spectacular views of the Pork Pie Mountain Range.
Wildlife in the Chimanimani National Park is not abundant, but includes species such as eland, sable, bushbuck and blue duiker, and less frequently seen are klipspringer and leopard.
© Moira CUNNINGHAM
©️ ALERT
An often over looked Zimbabwean treasure, high rising escarpments and deeply eroded river valleys and sinking savannah provides unrivalled scenery. Chizarira is about 2, 000 square km’s and is Zimbabwe’s fourth-largest national park and perhaps the most remote!
Home to four of the Big Five and ambitions plans of re-introducing rhino. There is a good mix of mammals, including water-buck, duiker, zebra, bushbuck, eland, kudu, reedbuck, warthog, impala, klipspringer, sable as well as a variety of smaller carnivores, spotted hyena, side-striped jackal, genet cats, civet cats and African wild cats.
Lake Kariba lies between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was formed by damming the Zambezi River in the Kariba Gorge, roughly 400km downstream of the Victoria Falls. The main purpose for the construction of the dam was to generate hydroelectric power which is still a joint venture between Zimbabwe and Zambia today. The lake covers about 5,200 square km and is about 280 km long. The for waters rise at Devil’s Gorge.
©️ Duncan WATSON
Matusadona National Park gets its name from the rolling Matusadona hills that form part of its water rich landscape. Flanked by Lake Kariba in the north, and two perennial rivers, the Ume and the Sanyati, this remote and rugged park is the first in Zimbabwe to fall under the African Parks mandate. Proclaimed a National Park in 1975, it was once a conservation stronghold for African elephant and black rhino, and a sought-after tourism destination. But over the years, financial resources slowly diminished and poor management impacted the parks’ wildlife.
Limited road networks and manpower left some areas entirely unpatrolled resulting in rampant poaching which virtually eliminated the black rhino population and severely reduced the elephant population. While Matusadona’s wildlife has suffered, fortunately its integrity as a wilderness landscape has remained undiminished, providing an exceptional opportunity for this park to be restored.
Visas are required by most visitors to Zimbabwe. These can usually be obtained at port of entry. Citizens of the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Israel, Japan and most EU countries receive their visas at the airport or border post upon payment of the visa fees. Citizens of other countries might need to obtain a visa prior to travelling. Be sure to check the requirements with your local travel centre in good time before you depart for Zimbabwe, as visas might take some time to process.
It is important to keep photocopies of all your travel documents (passport, visas etc). These should be kept separately from the originals, in case the bag containing your original travel documents is lost. Travel insurance is highly recommended when travelling to Africa. Ensure that your insurance covers everything you might need in case of an emergency, including medical evacuation cover.
Tipping is customary if you are satisfied with the level of service you receive. Lodge staff and guides appreciate local currency or any hard currency you may be carrying. The amount of the tip depends upon the staff member’s role, and the number of people travelling in your group.
Once you fly into Africa from an international departure point, you might require internal flights to reach your final destination. Short-distance flights to remote destinations generally make use of “bush airstrips”. These accommodate scheduled and non-scheduled charter flights, with light aircraft seating between 4 and 12 people. Depending where you wish to go, helicopter transfers might also be arranged. Ground travel from airstrips usually takes place with 4 x 4 vehicles.
The Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority operates under an Act of Parliament, the Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975.
Z.P.G.A. is a non-profit Association governed by its members through an agreed constitution.