Southern Africa Explorer: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia Safari

More water tips over the edge of Victoria Falls than any other waterfall on the planet. Over a mile wide and over 100 meters deep, these falls are a symbol of Southern Africa’s natural extravagance. After an early-morning arrival and some relaxed time at the lodge, you confront the falls from the air, a helicopter flight creating the ultimate view of this remarkable spectacle. The Zambezi River thunders into a chasm, the water returning as the spray and the sun create 360-degree rainbows in the mist. Touch down after the flight and the rest of the afternoon is at your leisure, the baboons, and hippos of Victoria Falls providing continual excitement around the lodge.

Today brings a different perspective on the falls as the narrow walking trail takes you across the opposite side of the chasm. At some points, the views are exquisite and allow you the full width of Victoria Falls. At other points, the spray is engulfing, a raw insight into the power of these cascades. Visit Victoria Falls at your leisure as the trails are self-guided. You can spend the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge, before a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River for time to spot hippos out in the water with your wine glass in hand. While Victoria Falls provides a spectacle, the surrounding atmosphere is very relaxed here, making it an ideal starting point for a long Southern Africa adventure.

This morning you fly east, following the Zambezi River to Mana Pools National Park, where elephants and buffalos swim past your lodge verandah. Exquisite safari sightings are found here, the giants of Africa complemented by large herds of zebra, kudu, duiker, and impala. Touch down and spend the day exploring on a game drive, taking a picnic to a viewpoint overlooking a lagoon. Permanent water makes Mana Pools a haven for all manner of species, both the cute wanderers and the snarling predators. Other than rhinos, this park has a complete collection of the famous mammals and today’s game drive brings a wonderful introduction to the safari experience.

First steps are tentative on the open plains, your heart pumping quickly as you walk into this big game paradise. Zebra sees you coming and do not run away while buffalos stare right back at you. The size of kudu and eland can be properly appreciated as skilled trackers lead you away from the spoor of lions and leopards, but take you close to all manner of ungulates. You will take a three to four-hour walk for a unique way to feel fully enveloped by the world of wild mammals. After lunch, you will find a new perspective as you paddle across the lagoons and channels in your canoe. This activity encounters the biggest and most dangerous of animals, including elephants and lions. With ten meters of water as your safety zone, you can look directly across at these mammals, their manes flowing and trunks swirling. A canoe safari epitomizes the experience in Mana Pools, where the memories are dominated by feelings of intimacy.

Manes ruffle on the breeze of the Hwange plains, the lions’ dark brown color blending into the dust. Hyenas roam, snarling and snapping at herds of blue wildebeest, seeking to separate young calfs. Leopards are harder to spot, lurking in the trees, blue eyes shining beneath the canopy. This is one of the best parks in Africa for following the predators and today’s game drives do exactly that, getting you close to pride of lions and solitary hunters. In Hwange, you will not just glimpse these carnivores as rather you will watch them on a hunt and find them chomping through bloodied carcasses, and hear them shouting a warning to rivals. Fly to the park on a scheduled light aircraft flight and the rest of the day will be all about your encounters with these famous carnivores. To give an indication onto the authenticity of the safari here, sometimes the lionesses decide to sleep in the shade of your safari vehicle.

Hwange dazzles with diversity and dances with originality. Over 100 mammals can be seen here, and your days spent here will bring you close to many of them. This is Zimbabwe’s largest national park, and it is the mix of habitats that creates the breadth of safari encounters. Black-backed jackals scavenge with the vultures that swirl above the woodland while packs of African wild dogs cross dusty plains beneath the gaze of the giraffe. Elephants congregate in the hundreds, their nomadic footsteps taking the herds to a series of permanent waterholes. Leopards and cheetahs are regularly spotted, perhaps even the lesser-known predators like serval and caracal.

Over these two days, the safari program is flexible, although most Hwange safaris are dominated by game drives. The drives enable you to tour the waterholes, where scenes of drama continue at all hours of the day. Predators lay ambush as baby elephants chase off impala, hippos barge about as hartebeest tentatively drink. This is iconic big game safari, amongst the very best of Africa, with the option to also incorporate nighttime drives and game walks into your itinerary. The atmosphere is wild and enchanting with so much happening every time you venture out. When you return to the lodge, your safari experience continues from your private verandah with so many animals wandering on the plains below.

Begin the day with an early start to game drive west through Hwange, exiting the park and crossing into Botswana, where the Kalahari Desert gets harsher and drier. Out of nowhere will come a landscape of white as you will be on the edge of the world’s largest salt pans, a landscape too fragile for a vehicle. Allow the heat of the day to pass at a legendary camp that is enveloped by the solitude of the pans and then explore on a quad bike, crossing the endless mirage of white to watch the odd elephant cross the horizon.

These pans are so flat, and the views are so limitless that they reveal the planet to be round. As you are taking in that perspective, some unique animals will emerge. Meerkats thrive here, and a whole mob has been habituated to human presence, so you can expect them to cuddle up to you on a cold desert day. Brown hyenas are one of Africa’s most endangered carnivores, a shy forager that gathers in groups of ten or more, much more endearing than the more common spotted hyena. Return to the camp and spend the night marveling at the sky, horizon to horizon of stars shining from above.

Zu/’hoasi Bushmen have forged their survival on this remote landscape for thousands of years, and they are rich in culture and knowledge. Their understanding of the desert will be passed over to you on this day of exploration as you follow the barefooted laconic guides to walk across the Kalahari, learning how to track particular animals and discovering traditional hunting techniques (note that you will not go on a hunt as this is a multi-day activity). Spend time in a small village and discover their unique social structure, going with some of the locals to forage for food and building equipment. A day with these remarkable people shows that these ancient tribes have much more to teach the world than the Western world has to show them.

Keep driving west to continue your adventure in the Kalahari. In the heart of the desert is one of Africa’s largest game reserves, a place of surprise and unpredictable encounters. Harsh environments like these cannot support the same quantity of animals as somewhere like Mana Pools or Hwange. Instead, the game reserve is a place of the specialists, desert-adapted species that are always on their nomadic journeys. Finding them is relatively simple as the game drives follow the path of water. This is a landscape where you could go an hour without seeing anything, just the resplendent desert extending in every direction. But then you will cross a ridge and nature’s theater will play out before your eyes.

Zebra slurp from a waterhole, watched by hyenas from afar as lone elephant bulls clear a waterhole of impala, the antelope not wanting to challenge the aggression of the cast-out pachyderms. Black-maned lions move menacingly in the open, causing herds to scatter, yet sometimes they move craftily, solemnly crawling along, seeking to get close enough to prey on a buffalo herd. Safari scenes are vibrant and dramatic on these desert plains, the lack of food and water putting everything in competition. So even after watching the kill, the experience continues as hyenas harass and jackals scavenge. Two days is a fabulous insight into this landscape and a final chance to get lost amidst the four-legged giants of Africa.

Namibia’s landscapes defy the imagination and today’s unique aerial safari connects some of them. Fly out of the Central Kalahari and feast your eyes on the dusty desert, the plane low enough to spot wandering elephants. Cruise over the world’s second largest canyon and then touch down beside it, a jagged mile-deep scar that cuts a fierce path through a desolate landscape. After a brief walk on the edge of Fish River Canyon, you will fly over the Namib Desert and admire how the red dunes collide with the blue Atlantic waves, such a feast of impossible color beneath the wingtips. These are the world’s longest barrier of dunes and thousands of miles of kaleidoscopic red that nobody has even crossed, never mind conquered. You will touch down amidst the dunes and spend a night at a lodge in the Namib Desert, the scale of the dunes more visible now that you are down at ground level.

Sossusvlei is Namibia’s iconic image, a parched clay bed surrounded by the flowing red of the dunes and hidden in the heart of the desert. Less than a mile away is Deadvlei, where even taller dunes look down on the blackened frames of lonely dead trees. Today you will leave before dawn, arriving at Deadvlei before sunrise, which is magnificently witnessed by climbing the ridge above the pan. Visit Sossusvlei then return to the lodge towards late morning, getting out of the sun before midday. The rest of the day is at your leisure, a relaxed afternoon ensuring that you are energized for the final stages of this Southern African adventure.

Landscapes collide along the coast of Namibia and the contrasts are spectacular. Today you will drive through the desert and beneath the rugged peaks found towards the Atlantic beaches. Your base for the final two nights is Swakopmund, an intriguing colonial town that feels a little like Germany with palm trees. The setting is otherworldly, and the excursions take you along the Skeleton Coast, where the world’s largest colony of Cape fur seals congregates at Cape Cross. Further along the coast are shipwrecks half buried in the sand, the hulls rusted as they poke above the unstoppable desert. Soon they will be completely buried and the legacy of those who called Namibia the Skeleton Coast will disappear. These two days are relaxed, and there will also be plenty of time to enjoy the beach as you dip your feet into the cool waters of the Atlantic.

Walvis Bay is just an hour from Swakopmund and offers international flight connections. The city is the most convenient place to exit Namibia after this 16-day safari across Southern Africa to bring you home.