Between Zimbabwe and Zambia the Zambezi River has carved a deep, broad valley through some of Africa’s oldest rocks. This area of flat valley floor and abrupt great-rift walls is the region most often referred to as the Zambezi Valley. During your Zimbabwe tour you will see that it is an area of heart-stopping beauty, vast sweeping savannas graced with stately trees, backed by the distant fringe of the escarpment, heron blue in the soft air. Well watered and much of it inaccessible, it is a natural haven for wildlife. Between Kariba and the Mozambique border all of the Zimbabwe side of the valley is devoted to wildlife use of one kind or another.

Named for a sub-chief of the Rozvi tribe, who were all slaughtered by the Matabele chief Mzilikazi, Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe’s oldest, largest and best known game reserve. It was regarded as one of the finest conservation areas in Africa. Only a quarter of the area is accessible to visitors in the more diverse and interesting northern part of the park, making for a spectacular Zimbabwe holiday. Covering just over 14,600 square kilometres and bordered by Botswana in the west and the railway line to Bulawayo in the east, this huge park has a relatively low rainfall of between 570 and 650 mm per annum. Covered centuries ago by wind-blown Kalahari sands, most of the area consists of scattered woodland scrub and grassland in an endless mosaic.

The Smoke that Thunders ...derived from the towering column of spray when the Zambezi River runs high, this is the name that Zimbabwe’s local people have given to this awesome natural phenomenon. The name is probably more appropriate and descriptive than “Victoria”, which has a far too calm and composed ring to it to do justice to the masses of thundering, swirling water of these spectacular Falls. But all Dr David Livingstone probably thought of when he named the Falls after his Queen in 1855 was his royal duty. Five separate falls make up this incredible spectacle that plunges more than 100 m into a sheer-sided chasm which separates Zimbabwe from Zambia.