This Mana Pools walking and canoe safari itinerary is for travelers who have already done the game-drive safari and now want to meet the bush at ground level. It spends seven of its eight nights inside one of Africa’s great walking parks, Mana Pools National Park, in three distinct settings: the spring-fed sand river at Chitake, the albida floodplain beside the Zambezi and the river itself, paddled over three nights with camps pitched on its banks.
Everything moves at walking pace, and everything depends on the guide. Zimbabwe licenses its walking and canoe guides through a long apprenticeship and a demanding practical exam, and on this route you walk and paddle with fully licensed professional guides, the canoe trail led by one who also holds a canoe licence. The minimum age is 14, a reasonable level of fitness is needed and there is no vehicle alternative on the river days, so choose it with open eyes. Our page on walking safaris in Zimbabwe explains the licensing path step by step.
Why this route works
The order runs from the most demanding walking to the gentlest paddling, and from inland to the river. Chitake Springs comes first because it asks the most of you, and is the most thrilling, while your legs and attention are fresh: walking through jesse thicket and dry riverbeds where prides hunt buffalo is concentrated work. The floodplain then gives two easier days in open country, an introductory paddle and a proper tented camp before the simplest nights of the trip. The canoe trail comes last because it flows one way, downstream from the park’s western end to Chikwenya in the east, and finishes close to an airstrip. Harare is the gateway because its light-aircraft link into Mana Pools is about half the length of the flight from Victoria Falls.
