Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders”, UNESCO World Heritage Site) — 1.7km wide, 108m high, the largest waterfall by volume in the world — is audible from 40km away and visible from 50km as a permanent column of spray. The footpath through the rainforest on the Zimbabwean side gives views of all five distinct falls.

💡 Victoria Falls produces so much spray that a permanent rainforest grows on the gorge rim directly opposite — the only rainforest in the area, fed entirely by the waterfall mist. In peak flow (April–May) the spray is so dense that the falls themselves are invisible. The dry season (August–October) gives the clearest view.

The Victoria Falls Bridge bungee jump (111m, the highest commercial bungee in Africa, with the Zambezi gorge below and the spray of the falls alongside) and the Devil’s Pool — a natural rock pool at the lip of the main falls where swimmers can lean over the edge during the low-water season (September–January).

💡 The Devil’s Pool sits on the Zambian side of the falls (accessible by boat from Livingstone) — a submerged rock barrier allows swimmers to lie at the very edge of Victoria Falls and look 108m straight down to the gorge below. Only accessible in low water season (September–December). An extraordinary and genuinely alarming experience.

2h from Victoria Falls. Hwange National Park (14,600km², Zimbabwe’s largest park) — artificial waterholes pumped from underground allow year-round game viewing that concentrates herds of 100–200 elephants in the dry season. Sable antelope, wild dog and the largest population of lions in Zimbabwe.

💡 Hwange has no permanent natural water — the wildlife depends entirely on artificial waterholes pumped since 1969. Approximately 45,000 elephants use the park (the largest single concentration of elephants in Africa), drinking 200 litres per elephant per day from the pumped holes.

Walking safari with an armed ranger — the closest possible wildlife experience, on foot at 10–30m from elephants, giraffe and buffalo. Full-day 4WD game drive through the main Hwange circuits (Main Camp, Sinamatella, Robins) for lion, cheetah and the extraordinary dry-season concentrations of game.

💡 Hwange wild dogs (painted wolves) are among the most endangered large carnivores in Africa — approximately 120 individuals in the park. The Painted Wolf Foundation works directly with local communities in the Hwange corridor. Hwange has one of the most stable and well-studied wild dog populations on the continent.

4h from Hwange. Lake Kariba (5,580km², created by the Kariba Dam in 1959, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world) — houseboat safaris on the lake with elephants drinking from the shore, tiger fishing (the most aggressive freshwater fish in Africa), and the extraordinary sunsets over the Matusadona mountains.

💡 Operation Noah (1959–1964) rescued 6,000 animals stranded on islands as the Kariba reservoir filled — one of the largest wildlife rescues ever attempted. Elephants were towed behind boats; black rhinoceroses sedated and transported. The operation is documented in the book “Noah’s Flood” by Rupert Fothergill.

6h from Kariba or 4h from Bulawayo. Matobo National Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site) — a 3,100km² landscape of granite domes (balancing rocks, some 50m high, balanced on points no larger than a dining table) with San Bushman rock art in hundreds of caves and Cecil Rhodes’ grave on World’s View.

💡 The Matobo “World’s View” — a smooth granite dome with views 360 degrees over the boulder landscape — is where Cecil Rhodes asked to be buried in 1902. The grave is still there. An extraordinary choice by a man who shaped an entire continent, buried in an ancient African landscape above the treeline.

Walking rhino tracking in Matobo — black and white rhinoceros in a landscape of granite boulders, tracked on foot with an armed ranger. The Nswatugi Cave (the finest San rock paintings in Zimbabwe, 2,000-year-old giraffes and hunting scenes in red ochre, still vivid). Fly from Bulawayo (BUQ) or Victoria Falls (VFA).

💡 Matobo has the highest density of vervet monkeys, leopards and black eagles (Verreaux’s eagle, the largest eagle in Africa) in the world. The combination of San rock art from 2,000 years ago and rhinos walking past the caves at dawn is entirely unique.