The Lower Zambezi Valley is a huge rift in the earth's crust, through which a mighty river flows. Over millennia, mineral-rich volcanic soils deposited by the Zambezi have nurtured lush vegetation, while old meanders and oxbow lakes add to the attraction for wildlife.

There are national parks on both sides of the river – Mana Pools National Park on the Zimbabwean bank, and the Lower Zambezi National Park on the Zambian side. The landscape is beautiful: tall leadwoods, ebonies, acacias and figs stand on a carpet of rich grassland. But the main attraction is the area's game, which congregates near the river during the dry season.

Lower Zambezi's safari camps and lodges

We concentrate on the safari camps which are within, or beside, the Lower Zambezi National Park itself – as we believe that these offer the best game and safari experience. These include:

Chiawa Camp

Still run by the Cumings family, who founded it in the last 1980s, Chiawa Camp is one of the best-run safari camps that we know. It's very smooth, with professional staff and high standards all round, and real flexibility for its guests. (Read more about Chiawa Camp… )

Sausage Tree Camp

Sausage Tree is probably the Lower Zambezi's most stylish camp, and also owner-run. It's a lovely small lodge, which takes a very individual in its approach to its visitors and consistently gets first-class reports back from our travellers. (Read more about Sausage Tree Camp… )

Old Mondoro Bushcamp

The quintessential Lower Zambezi bushcamp, Old Mondoro is on the east side of the national park. Its been constructed in a very open, airy way, so guests feel so close to the bush and the wildlife. A few days at Old Mondoro works well with a stay at either Chiawa or Sausage Tree Camp, but it's not for our more nervous travellers. (Read more about Old Mondoro… )

Chongwe River Camp

Overlooking the national park from its western boundary, Chongwe River Camp has been getting better and better for the last decade, and is now an excellent camps for a serious safari. Owner-run, it's new Albida Suites are particularly spectacular, and its new, small satellite camp, Bushbuck Camp, is an excellent spot for keen walkers. (Read more about Chongwe River Camp… )

Chongwe River House

Chongwe River House is a huge, four-berdoomed house that comes with its own chef, housekeeper and safari guide. Its design is amazing: very original without a straight line or 90ºcorner in the place! It opened in April 2006 and is a great options for small groups or families travelling together. (Read more about Chongwe River House… )

Two further camps

On the far eastern side of the park, Ana Tree Lodge is in a great location, but currently isn't even close to the standards of the other lodges in the park. Watch this space.

Nearby is the new Zambezi Kulefu Camp, which has been completely re-built for 2008. We stayed at the old camp and visited the building site here in September 2008. We'd expect this newcamps to be high-quality and very similar to its sister-camps in Botswana and Tanzania, for example Stanley's Camp and Swala Camp.

The wildlife of Lower Zambezi National Park

Like the nearby South Luangwa National Park, The Lower Zambezi protects a slice of a huge rift valley which, geologically, is related to East Africa's Great Rift Valley. In fact, most of the park consists of the hilly higher-ground on the sides and top of the escarpment – where the bush consists mainly of thick, broad-leafed miombo woodland. However, with little water here the dry season sees the game concentrate on the flat alluvial plain, beside the deep, wide, permanent Zambezi River.

Here the vegetation is very different: rich soils nurture tall, strong trees typical of riverine areas, including ebonies, leadwoods and fig trees. Winterthorn woodlands – where the apple-ring fruits are so popular with hungry elephants – seem to stretch endlessly, carpeted of grasses. The beauty of these areas is that bush growth under the trees is usually sparse or even absent; this allows un-obscured views of game, and makes a great environment for walking safaris.

The Lower Zambezi National Park has strong populations of big game. Buffalo and elephant are common, and move freely between Zimbabwe and Zambia, often grazing on the islands in the middle of the river. The Lower Zambezi's antelope species are dominated by large herds of impala, but there are also good populations of kudu, eland, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck, bushbuck and the odd duiker or grysbok. Giraffe are completely absent (there is no record of them ever having lived here) as are cheetah and black rhino – the latter due to poaching.

The major predators are lion, leopard and spotted hyena – and in our experience it's an excellent park for game-viewing. The varied terrain (with many large trees) seems to suit leopards, whilst the large herds of buffalo attract large prides of lion. Wild dogs occur, and generally also den in or near the park, although sightings tend to be sporadic.

The birdlife is rich – 378 species have been recorded here, including many species of eagle, heron, stork and bee-eater. Just considering the kingfishers, you'll find pied, giant, woodland, malachite and brown-hooded kingfishers are all common here. Similarly, darters, cormorants, egrets and storks are common, and fish eagles are often seen perching in trees that overlook the river. The Lower Zambezi is rich in wading birds, both resident and migrant; uncommon residents include ospreys, spoonbills and African skimmers.


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