Lower Zambezi National Park

Visited: Sep. 2018 Reviewed: Mar. 22, 2022 Submitted in:

I had traveled to Lower Zambezi National Park for a 6 days vacation, while on vacation I visited 3 different lodges, some where outside the park while others inside the park, it was a great experience because I've never in my life come face to face wild animals like Lions, Elephants and Hippos without being harmed though it was scary but very nice. I never new that Lower Zambezi National Park was filled with wildlife in abundance.

This park lies opposite the famous Mana Pools Reserve in Zimbabwe, so the whole area on both sides of the river is an enormous wildlife sanctuary. This park is still relatively undeveloped, but its beauty lies in its pristine wilderness state. The diversity of animals is not as wide as the other big parks, but the opportunities to get close to game wandering in and out of the Zambezi channels are wonderful. Large herds of elephant are often seen at the rivers edge. Buffalo and waterbuck are also present. The park has a good amount of lion and leopard. I especially love the lower Zambezi because you are right on the river.

No tar, No roads , limited infrastructure. This is what greets you at lower Zambezi national park. Lush vegetation all over, trees and the Zambezi river to complete the scenery. This is what we saw hundreds of feet above on the light aircraft we had chartered. Our stay was at the chiawa camp. The camp which is positioned along the banks of the Lower Zambezi had many good reviews from fellow travellers and thus we chose it. Our arrival to chiawa was via a boat ride from our 1 hour flight from Lusaka. After arrival at the royal airstrip, we were transferred to the boat dock by vehicle, the only way to access the camp was via boat. The trip was already exciting. We took the 30 min boat ride along the Zambezi river. On arrival were greeted by roaming elephants on the riverside. This was a plus for us as we still hadn't started our excursions. We spent almost an hour interacting with the elephants before going to our tent. Spacious and along the river banks this tent is a traveller paradise. We enjoyed excellent meal and hot showers while viewing the elephants on the river banks. The camp had exceptional staff and we were asked to choose which excursion we preferred from walk excursions, game vehicle/boat drives or canoeing. We chose the game vehicle drives, our guide was paul, he had over 20 yrs experience as we came to know and was extremely knowledgeable and humorous. Unlike other parks in Africa, LZNP was different; Natural, less crowded and full of game. We saw pride of lions, leopards, buffaloes and more elephants and when I say more I mean close to a hundred. A spectacle indeed. The animals here stay away when we and other vehicles approached, this showed the uniqueness and untamed nature of the park. They were not used to this modern machines. After this excursion we were back to the camp where we were served lunch along the riverside, lions roaring sound in the background. The experience was not over yet, the boat drive we took left us wanting more, up close heart pounding encounters with 10+ metre crocs and hippos. The camp is top notch, guides - world class,the drive...well you just have to experience that for yourself :) No disappointments.