Welcome to Mana Pools
- Africa’s finest and most exciting National park
- Breath-taking scenery along the Zambezi river
- Africa’s most remarkable walking safari’s
- Unique and diverse habitats
- One of the best places to see Wild Dog
- Some of Zimbabwe’s top guides in Mana Pools
- Extraordinary safari camps
- Luxury camps : Ruckomechi, Little Ruckomechi, Kanga Camp
- Mid-range camps : Goliath Camp, Vundu Camp, Little Vundu, John’s Camp
- Adventurous Camps : Zambezi Expeditions, Chitake Springs, Ruwesi Canoe Trail
Mana Pools National park, a World Heritage site, is Africa’s most sensational safari area! A bold claim we realize but the combination of some of the best game viewing, the best professional guides, breathtaking scenery, the stunning lower Zambezi river and the most incredible walking safaris really do make this national park stand out. The river frontage which sits just in front of large areas of open, Winter Acacia woodland with their cathedral-like statures is like no other safari habitat. Sadly the feeling you get when you are there for yourself is not something we can accurately describe for you, but it is something incredibly special.
It is the walking safaris here that set it apart. Several of Africa’s absolute top guides are found here, having lived in Mana for Decades in some instances and as a result, know individual Bull Elephants and Lion very well indeed. So much so that remarkable close experiences on foot with both species, Wild dog too, are regular but not for the person of a nervous disposition. There are several "mobile camps" namely Chitake Springs Mobile camp and Ruwesi Canoe trail that take the raw wilderness experience of Mana Pools and push it to a whole other level that I believe is absolutely unique to Mana Pools. Being 5 meters from big bull Elephants, huge herds of Buffalo or even predator kills on your own two feet will have your heart racing at a thousand miles an hour. This is all only possible because of the extraordinary skill of guides that have worked this park and these animals for years and years. Vehicle safaris, Boat and canoe safari’s make up the rest of the activities with 2 camps being able to offer night drives as well.
The camps themselves either sit in the riverine area of the Zambezi River or set back into the bush along one of Mana’s four natural and large permanent “pools” that help make this area so prolific for game viewing. There is no average or poor camp here nor any low-cost options. Deciding between them is usually budget or your safari personality driven but you can be sure of a great experience regardless of where you choose to stay.
Mana pools is not open year-round as the soil type when wet becomes a sticky bog. Ideally, the best time to visit this park is a little after dry season begins, around the end of June / middle July to give a bit of time for the bush to dry up inland and nudge the game to toward the permanent pools and the river. Equally, mid-October to November whilst sensational for game viewing in extraordinarily hot. Enough to have a very serious conversation with us here at Tailormade Africa about your heat tolerances. Only a handful of camps have swimming pools and permanent plumbing for endless cooling showers.
Mana Pools is better suited to clients that have been on safari before or at the very least you need a strong sense of adventure as it really a wild frontier and you feel it when you are there. Mana Pools is so good that we recommend you plan your entire Zimbabwe safari around it, the rewards for doing so are potentially life-changing.
