Welcome to Zimbabwe! Your flight will arrive in Harare today, from where you’ll take a small charter aircraft to the beginning of your canoeing safari, known as Vundu Camp. The first night will be just to arrive, settle in and prepare for the canoeing.On Day 2, you’ll launch your canoe early in the morning. The safari takes place over three days, travelling downstream, staying at different camps each night and through the Mana Pools National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has over 2,500km² of untouched nature to explore. It’s home to over 100 iconic African mammals, particularly hippos and more than 450 bird species. The river itself is home to 75 species of fish, including the famous tiger fish and enormous vundu and several types of crocodile.You’ll be canoeing for approximately 15km a day, stopping at specially erected canvas camping sites all the way along. Fear not: this is not basic camping! Each tent is a large walk-in unit with beds and furniture and each has its own en-suite sink and shower facilities and a long-drop toilet is dug for each camp. Each site is designed in such a way that there is no evidence of it ever having existed once it’s taken down. The camps are fully equipped with a kitchen accompanied with an experienced bush cook, bar facilities and dining area as well as waiter service.

You’ll be canoeing for approximately 15 km a day

Meal Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

You’ll come on shore for the next part of your exploration of Mana Pools, now staying at the luxurious tented lodge of Nyamatusi Camp (DLB&B). The camp’s name, lightly translated, means ‘wild game’. You’ll spend your time here exploring the wilderness in the most unintrusive way possible: by walking. At times, you’ll follow elephant tracks that criss-cross the floodplain and at other times walk off the tracks to follow other animals.There are only six tented suites at Naymatusi so this is an intimate experience with a high staff to guest ratio. There’s a swimming pool, bar, wine cellar and even a pizza oven. Each suite has its own plunge pool for cooling off in as well as a private deck for watching the wilderness unfold throughout the day.

Nyamatusi Camp

http://africanbushcamps.com/camps/nyamatusi-camp

Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe

+27 (0) 21 201 6787

The camp is entirely solar powered and built as far as possible from locally available and natural materials. You can enjoy some ‘catch and release’ fishing, specialised birding safaris or just watch the river and its residents ebb and flow around you.

Meal Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After a final early morning walk into the wilds from Nyamatusi, you’ll take a charter flight from the Mana Pools airstrip direct to Victoria Falls International. From here, you’ll be met from the plane and taken by road across the border at Kasane into Botswana. After roughly three hours’ drive through Chobe National Park, you’ll come across your home for the next three nights, Ghoha Hills Nogatsaa Pans (DLB&B).

Ghoha Hills Nogatsaa Pans

http://ghohahills.com/nogatsaa-pans

Nogatsaa, Botswana

+27 (0) 63 613 9144

This ultra-ethical and sustainable lodge offers a lot more than just game viewing: there’s visits to San rock art paintings (many millennia old), a spa, and excursions to the baobab theatre, a particularly special collection of these magnificent ‘upside-down’ trees.Whilst here, you’ll go on drives into the park which will include some of the most spectacular game viewing on the continent: the country of Botswana is nearly 80% desert (the Kalahari) and while many of the larger animals are specifically adapted to this harsh environment, during the dry season, the most plentiful water available is along the Zambezi corridor. This means that everyone comes here for a drink (and might find themselves dinner or find themselves made into dinner in the process).

Meal Inclusions: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After a final game drive from your camp this morning, you’ll take a charter flight from the Mana Pools airstrip direct to Victoria Falls International. You’ll be met here by a transfer and taken to your lodging for the next three nights, Victoria Falls River Lodge (DB&B) where you’ll be staying in a Starbed Treehouse Suite. Situated on a separate island in the middle of the Zambezi, the double-storey Starbed Treehouses have a spacious sitting area, en-suite bathroom with twin vanities, twin rain-showers and a private rooftop sitting area, with a starbed that’s open to the African sky.

Victoria Falls River Lodge

http://victoriafallsriverlodge.com/

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

+263 77 465 9532

During your time at Victoria Falls, you’ll start with a guided walk through the rainforest that surrounds the falls, then go on a helicopter flight over the falls themselves, take a guided walk underneath the famous steel railway bridge over the gorge, enjoy a high tea in colonial-era splendour at the Victoria Falls Hotel, rope swing across the Batoka Gorge and end the stay with a dinner cruise as the sun sets over the Zambezi.On day 13, as the saying goes…all good things must come to an end and so here is the last day of your safari. You’ll be collected from Victoria Falls River Lodge and will then fly from from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg, where you’ll meet your flight home.Safe travels!

Meal Inclusions: Dinner & Breakfast