Situation

Manapools National Park is a park full of beauty in the north of ZImbabwe bordering Zambezi River. The river floods the areas near the shores during the rainy season and leaves several pools of water, which gave the name of the park. The park is accessible by a rasther nasty bumpy road or by canoe trips from the Zambezi.

Highlights

• Very animal rich park
• Magnificent lakeside location on the Zambezi River
• May also be explored on foot (strongly recommended: only with an armed guide!)
• Nothing but nature, nature, nature...

Fauna

Thanks to its remote location, the park is very rich in wildlife. Besides numerous elephants, which even venture into the camps, there are herds of buffalo, kudu, eland, impala, hyena, wild dogs and sometimes even prides of lions.

Accommodation

There are no hotels in the park itself, but only a few self-catering lodges run by the national park administration, which are very popular with adventurers and nature lovers and are often booked up early. Unfortunately, their current condition can not exactly be described as good (as of 2020), so we can only recommend them with reservations. In the adjacent safari areas, where hunting is partly allowed, there are also a few very beautiful, but extremely expensive luxury camps.

Eating

In Mana Pools National Park there is no restaurant and nothing to buy at all. Everything has to be brought from Chinhoy or Karoi for self-catering. By the way, it is worthwhile to lock your accommodation well at all times to avoid that baboons get hold of your provisions which are essential for your survival..... Special advise: it is not allowed to bring fruits into the park - please consider this when shopping.

Car

The park is accessible only by a punishing natural road, and if you want to keep your car in a roadworthy condition you have to drive slowly. The long access of almost 100 km always tempts to drive faster, which leads to frequent accidents and also wears out even sturdy vehicles. For this reason, the majority of car rental companies prohibit trips to this park.

Fuel

In Mana Pools National Park there is nothing but nature, so there is no gas station. The last refueling possibility is in Karoi (NOT in Makuti) and usually you have to carry a (filled!) jerry can due to the high fuel consumption with the bad roads.