12 things you’ll love about the Greater Mana Expedition at Sapi and Mana Pools  Zimbabwe

​By Roxanne Reid
In the far north of Zimbabwe lies a wilderness like no other – the longest continuous wildlife corridor along the Zambezi River. Now you can go on a six-night safari to explore the area on foot, by vehicle and canoe. If you love adventure, here are 12 things you’ll love about the Greater Mana Expedition at Sapi and Mana Pools Zimbabwe.

​The unspoiled Greater Mana area through which the expedition roams includes both Mana Pools National Park (also declared a Ramsar Wetland) and the Sapi Concession to the east of the park. Together they make up an untouched and scenic UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here you can channel explorers like David Livingstone or Frederick Courtney Selous by joining the Greater Mana Expedition for six nights and seven days. You’ll delve into this wilderness on foot, by open 4x4 vehicle and by canoe along the Zambezi River. You’ll revel in a world that’s fuelled by your guide’s knowledge and passion for all wildlife, birds, plants and tracks. Cut off from city life and modern-day conveniences, you might watch elephants stand up on their hind legs to reach delicious pods of the ana tree, African wild dogs lope through the bush as they run down their dinner, or lions snooze in the shade on the open floodplain.

We were lucky enough to experience this rollicking adventure for ourselves and it will be hard to forget. For more about the camps, the food and the way of life while you’re on this active safari, see my post Greater Mana Expedition camps: Sapi and Mana Pools Zimbabwe. But now here are some of the highlights to show you why you’ll love it.

1. Landscapes and riverscapes

​The Greater Mana area is a place of riverine forest, floodplains and sandy islands, of mopaneveld and extensive areas of jesse bush – a Shona word for mixed deciduous thickets of leadwoods, rain trees, purple cluster pears, African mangosteen and more.

There are gorgeous views out over the Zambezi River, gatherings of large ana trees (Faidherbia albida) that are much loved by baboons, impala and elephants for their ‘apple-peel’ pods. These attractive trees are the lifeblood of the valley, highly nutritious and still green in the dry season. If you’ve seen photos from Mana of elephants standing on their hind legs to get at high pods, this is the tree they’re raiding. 

There are gorgeous big baobab trees, Zambezi strangler figs, sausage trees and mahoganies, in the shade of which you’ll see lots of antelope or perhaps a predator or two. Through it, the river threads like a ribbon, presenting meandering vistas of islands, elephants, buffaloes and hippos with the Zambian escarpment of grey-blue mountains as a backdrop.

Long after you get home, you’ll be seeing these captivating scenes in your daydreams.

2. Remote wilderness
The Greater Mana area is a two-hour flight from Victoria Falls by small plane (about 90min from Harare), followed by a two-hour journey by land. It’s about as remote as you can get in Zimbabwe, an almost unbroken strip of protected, pristine wilderness along the Zambezi River. ​

​If this excites your sense of adventure, you’ll love the Greater Mana Expedition. Your camps are unfenced and wildlife is free to stroll around as they have always done. Your guides are there to protect you in the darkness as you walk from your tent for breakfast or dinner, but you might have the thrill of lying in bed and hearing animals snuffling, hippos grunting, elephants breaking branches. 

It’s all part of the special magic that is integral to this glorious wilderness area. But if any of this frightens rather than excites you, if the idea of finding a scorpion in the dining tent freaks you out instead of prompting excited questions about their lifestyle, then perhaps this safari adventure is not for you and you should find something tamer, less heady.

3. The professional guides
During our six days with guide Lovemore Chiwara, we saw three of the Big Five (lions, elephants, buffaloes), wild dogs, bush pigs, hippos, crocs and countless antelope and smaller animals. 

​We saw an ant lion kill and Lovemore thrilled us with his knowledge about all creatures, plants, tracks and more. But we quickly learnt that the buzz you get from the Greater Mana Expedition is less about what you see, more about what you experience (see point 4 below) and learn from your guide. 

Here are some other snippets that Lovemore shared.

• A buffalo produces 200 litres of saliva a day to help with digestion.
• Male elephants produce 1 litre of sperm when in musth.
• You can estimate the shoulder height of an elephant by measuring the length of the back foot and multiplying by 5.5.
• The leadwood trees of Mana Pools absorb too many mineral salts so to survive, they divert them to one branch. That branch dies while the rest of the tree lives.
• Lions can eat as much as 25% of their body weight in one sitting.
• In short bursts, lions can cover 22.5m in just one second. (Remember that the next time you get out of your vehicle where you’re not allowed to!)

• The face of the African harrier hawk (which used to be called the gymnogene) changes from yellow to pink when they’re agitated.
• You can count the growth rings on a tortoise shell to estimate its age just like those of a tree.
• Hyena tracks are easy to differentiate from those of wild dogs because there’s no space between the pad and toes, whereas wild dog tracks have more gap. The hyena pad is also slightly offset at an angle.
• The bark and branches of the rain tree (appleleaf) are used by the local people for gathering fish – they act as a paralytic, after which the fish can be scooped up for eating.

4. Activities
This is what sets the Greater Mana Expedition apart from most ordinary safaris – the chance be active. 

​More than 80% of this wilderness is untouched by tracks for vehicles, so it’s a special treat to explore a tiny portion of it on a walking safari to get closer to nature, hear the birdsong, smell the bush. Find bits of broken ivory and guinea fowl feathers lying scattered on the ground, follow the tracks of lions and hyenas, get close to a suckling waterbuck or some elephants lolling about in the water of a pan. See and smell plants up close, learn about the aphrodisiac properties of the snowberry bush. 

​Go out on the river in a motor boat or canoe to get closer to elephants walking across the water to feed on an island in the Zambezi and see hippos, crocs and water birds. Your canoeing doesn’t have to be too strenuous – start your trip at Acacia Camp and paddle 15km downstream to River Camp, finishing in time for a drink by the fireside before dinner.

​All this is not to say that game drives aren’t enormously rewarding. They are, especially as they cover more ground. Venture through mopaneveld and jesse bush into the Mana Pools National Park or through the Sapi Concession for a chance to see lions, wild dogs, and elephant bulls feeding on the pods of giant ana trees. 

We got a little cultural knowledge thrown in for good measure, from medicinal uses for various plants to a visit to the 1200-year-old baobab tree where Chief Chikwenya was buried in the 1940s. She was lowered from the top into the hollow inside, using sticks pegged into the walls as a ladder.

5. Wildlife
Despite the lure of adventure, the main magnet here is probably the wildlife, especially in the dry season when animals are drawn to the river and pools to drink. 

​It’s one of Africa’s most well-known wildlife areas where you have a chance to see everything from elephant and buffalo to lion, leopard, spotted hyena and wild dog; from zebra (Selous subspecies of Burchell’s) to impala, nyala, waterbuck, kudu and the biggest antelope of all, the eland. Sadly, there are no longer rhino in the area. Also missing are giraffe, which have been kept out by the escarpments on either side of the Zambezi floodplain, and wildebeest because there’s not enough grass for them.

​We were wowed by three lion sightings, including a big male. We also saw lots of breeding herds of elephant with tiny calves, a big herd of buffalo, three bush pigs in the early morning, as well as seven wild dogs of the Nyamutsi pack, which we followed for a way on foot – that’s the joy of being on the Sapi Concession. It was a special moment, but didn’t last long as they were moving too fast for us.

​Some of those we saw included racket-tail roller, bateleur, ground hornbills singing a duet, a pied kingfisher hovering and diving to catch a small fish, brown-hooded and striped kingfishers, fish eagles perched on a tree, egrets and herons nesting in a tree overhanging the water, a flock of about a dozen openbill storks flying over, as well lots of bee-eaters, crowned hornbills, palm swifts and the rare Böhms spinetail (swift). ‘People come from South Africa especially to see it here,’ Lovemore said. ‘You can identify them in flight because they fly like bats.’

​Other specials of the Greater Mana area include Pel’s fishing owl, African skimmer, rock pratincole, Arnott’s chat and broad-tailed paradise-wydah.
​
7. Pools and pans
Unlike pools at Hwange National Park where the water is pumped, here in the Greater Mana region the pools and pans are all natural. Those that hold water all year round are a draw card for wildlife, making them good places for people who want to see animals. The pools from which the national park takes its name are the remains of ancient channels of the Zambezi River. Mana means ‘four’ in Shona – Mana, Chine, Chisasiko and Long pool. 

Another pretty pan is Mutawatawa Pan in the Sapi Concession, where we saw lots of birds, impalas and waterbuck, as well as two lionesses and a young male resting in the shade.

8. Sunrises and sunsets

Almost every day on the Greater Mana Expedition you’re treated to a beautiful sunrise over the river. Sunsets are equally spectacular, with a fiery crimson ball dropping to the horizon before sinking out of sight in a pink afterglow.

9. Stars

At the day draws to a close you may be tired from your exercise, drained by the heat or excited by the prospect of another superb meal. But take the time to look up and you’ll notice lots of stars in clear, dark skies. Although the Greater Mana isn’t an official dark sky reserve (there’s only one in Africa), it is a wilderness area so there’s very little light pollution.

One of the best places to see open skies is along the river; just check with your guide where you may walk to stay safe from hippos and crocs that come on land at night.

10. Food and unique set-ups

Two particular treats were a dinner in the dry riverbed at Skybeds Camp, all romantically lit by paraffin lamps, and a lunch set up on an island on the Zambezi opposite River Camp with calmly foraging elephants not far away. Three cheers for the chefs and staff who work so hard to set up such enchantments.

11. Camps and camp staff
All three camps (read more about them here) make an enjoyable place to retreat at the end of a long and exciting day. Acacia Camp (nights 1 & 2) and River Camp (nights 5 & 6) are both on the river, while Skybeds (nights 3 & 4) is inland along a dry riverbed but offers the joy of a mozzie-netted bed on top of your unit where you can sleep under the tree canopy and the stars. 

When you’re on a safari for six nights, you need to really get on with your guides, safari mates and staff. I’m not sure how Great Plains Conservation has picked their guides and staff, but they’ve come up with a wonderful crew from chefs (see point 10) and knowledgeable guides (see point 3) to the rest of the camp staff who have a great sense of humour. They’re happy to answer probing questions and are unfailingly pleasant and helpful – a huge part of what makes the Greater Mana Expedition so much fun.

Should you go?
Overall, this was a great safari experience, providing the excitement of exploring a remote wilderness area, tracking animals on foot, and a hint of old-fashioned romance in the way of bucket showers and paraffin lamps.

Note that it operates on set departure dates between May and November (it’s closed in the hot, wet season) and is only open to adults and kids over 12 years old. 

If you’re not on your first safari in Africa – in other words, if you can see beyond the Big Five to the joys of delving deeper into tracks and plants and smaller animals – and you’re looking for an active adventure, a voyage of discovery with professional guides who are encyclopaedias on legs, then this expedition is for you.

Note: I was a guest of Great Plains Conservation Zimbabwe’s Greater Mana Expedition for six nights, but I was given free rein to write what I chose. I paid for all travel costs.

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