Welcome to the Lower Zambezi. In the lexicon of naïve questions asked by first-time African safari goers, ‘How do you keep the grass and trees so neat?’ is near the top. We do appreciate it comes from the purest of hearts though. Safari guides have heard them all, and gently explain it’s the impalas. They’re particularly neat grazers and browsers. Also very attractive. And very fast. Especially when a pride of determined lionesses is in churning hot pursuit.
And hot it is. Here in Zambia’s sultry Lower Zambezi National Park – directly across the river from Mana Pools in Zimbabwe – its beauty is in its undeveloped, classically African, bush. Impressive elephant herds feed and drink under dense canopies of immense riverine trees. You’ll see them on the islands too. Also buffaloes, moving across shallow river channels. A thrilling prospect, given the flotillas of fearsome crocodiles in lurking attendance. An African safari tour in the Lower Zambezi is wild. It’s unforgiving wilderness that harks back to a far less gentle era.
