Zimbabwe Conservation Safari

Welcome to Zimbabwe! Meet your driver and shuttle vehicle for your road transfer to the boutique Batonka Lodge. A portion of your stay here benefits the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust and Anti-Poaching Unit, a non-profit dedicated to conserving wildlife and natural ecosystems in the Victoria Falls region. Spend the afternoon getting settled in, meeting the group, or stretching your legs with a walk nearby the hotel.

Transfer by road (two and a half hours) to Dete and board the custom Elephant Express railcar for a ride down the railway line on the edge of Hwange, while keeping an eye out for elephants, lions and sable. A light lunch and drinks will be served on board. You’ll arrive on the Ngamo plains and head out straight away on a game drive to the ‘Look Up Blind.’ Enjoy outstanding close-up wildlife photography, literally at toe level, and enjoy sundowners as the wildlife comes to you. Hwange is famed for its huge herds of elephants, upwards of 45,000, and also attracts a variety of other plains game including wildebeest, buffalo, kudu, waterbuck, and impala. Predators like lions, jackals, cheetahs, and wild dogs are frequently spotted. Return this evening to Camelthorn Lodge, situated in a community-owned indigenous forest on the very edge of Hwange National Park.

Today you’ll learn about the challenges and benefits of eco-tourism and conservation from the front-line villages adjacent to Hwange National Park. You will visit several villages, like Ngamo, which has already benefited from tourism and others which are only beginning to. At Ngamo School, you might have the chance to walk to school with the local kids, arriving in time for the morning assembly. Chat with the local headman, Johnson Ncube, as well as the school headmasters to hear more about the what village life is like. Head out on a game drive through the park and learn how pumped water is critical to the survival of thousands of elephants and other wildlife in Hwange. Return to camp with sundowners en route, and then savor dinner under the massive camelthorn tree at camp.

Today is all about the wildlife! Zimbabwe’s guides are the very best on the continent and they’ll lead the way today as you experience the wildlife of Hwange in a way most safari-goers only dream about. Leave the vehicle behind and set out on foot tracking elephant, wild dogs, and buffalo. Your guides won’t just lead, but also teach you about animal behavior, explain the politics within the herds, and interpret the bush around you. A picnic lunch in the bush is followed by more action this afternoon. Drives, walks, and time in the wildlife blind are all possible depending on what the day brings. Toast the setting sun with a sundowner cocktail before heading back to camp spotting nocturnal species like genets, bushbabies, wild cats, and springhares as you go.

Tea or coffee at sunrise will warm you up before heading out on a full day trip into the park for a one of a kind ‘pump run.’ Hwange’s massive elephant herds and all wildlife in the park are sustained during the dry season on a pumped water program started in the 1930’s. These ‘pump runs’ combine game viewing in remote areas of the park with an insider’s look into what it takes to manage wildlife here. You’ll be supplying maintenance support to the wells and pump attendants that directly support thousands of elephant and other wildlife. Game drive from waterhole to waterhole, always mindful of the herds of elephants that come pouring in for the water, which makes for a memorable and extremely rewarding day.

A picnic lunch allows for a midday break and another hybrid pump visit funded by safari guests. Arrive at the Cobras’ anti-poaching unit, where you’ll learn directly from the members of this unit about their lives on the front lines of conservation in Hwange National Park.

Breakfast is cooked over the campfire this morning before you depart on a scouting patrol with the Cobras looking for wildlife snares to remove. Then its off to the most remote part of the park and an exclusive adventure camp, Jozibanini. The ranger station here had been abandoned, which led to increased elephant poaching. After these incidents, Mark and his team established Jozi as an outpost camp which staff and a privileged few guests could use as a base to manage water resources and provide a safari experience unlike any other. The camp’s presence deters poachers and is actually staffed by ex-poachers who no longer need to poach now that they are employed. Join your professional naturalist guide for a walking safari, exploring around camp to track elephants and other game. The six tented rooms at Jozi sit on raised wooden decks, all fully ensuite. Guests dine outside with nothing but the African sky above. Retire for the evening to your tent where the beds can be rolled onto the deck, so you can drift off gazing skyward at millions of stars in the dark Hwange sky.

Around camp, elephant paths have compacted the soil for generations, providing the opportunity for game viewing by mountain bike. Head out for a guided ride along the elephant paths to a natural waterhole (this is a slow, non-technical ride). Enjoy a picnic lunch under a shady tree and hear how Jozi has been successful at supplying water to over a quarter of Hwange’s thirsty herds.

This afternoon head into the underground blind for a few hours of the wildest elephant show in Africa as the herds come in from miles around to drink here at sunset. Back at camp, enjoy a hearty dinner under the endless African night sky.

Depart Jozi for a wild drive through the wilderness area of southwestern Hwange to Nehimba Camp. Nehimba is situated on the edge of the mopane woodlands of northern Hwange and the terrain here is entirely different from the south of the park, with rolling hills and thick forests. The massive prides of elephant-hunting lions of this area are famous. One of the unique features here are the Nehimba seeps. This ancient source of water was once used by the San Bushmen and it’s a place where elephants still dig at the clay for water and minerals. Night drives are possible, where filtered spotlights pick out the glowing eyes of various nocturnal species like porcupines, civets, genets, and even leopards!

Bid farewell to Hwange as you head for Victoria Falls Town. Board your private boat and head upriver on the mighty Zambezi to get to your boutique lodge perched right on the banks of the river. Settle into your luxury tent and enjoy a tasty late afternoon snack on the main deck before heading out for a sundowner cruise. Even here, outside the park, wildlife comes down to the water to drink and birdlife is prolific along this mighty river.

Today, you head into Victoria Falls town for a guided tour of the Victoria Falls. One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls is one of Africa’s greatest geographical features. The falls are 5,600 feet wide and over 330 feet in height, and you’ll be inspired and amazed by the sheer size, power, and beauty of the thundering curtain of water. When the Falls are at their fullest a dense plume of spray rises 1,500 feet into the air, visible from many miles away, which is why the Falls are known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya – “the smoke that thunders.” The afternoon is yours to curio shop, go on a game drive in Zambezi National Park, or just relax at the pool in camp.

Enjoy your last morning sipping tea or coffee on your private deck as the sun rises over the the misty river and then have breakfast on the main lodge deck, taking in the sights and sounds of your Zimbabwean safari one last time. Transfer to Victoria Falls Airport to catch your departing flight or consider continuing onward with an extension to Cape Town or out to Botswana’s Okavango Delta.