Zimbabwe and Botswana Game Tracker

An early morning start will see you leave Johannesburg and travel to the Kruger National Park, South Africa’s premier wildlife destination. You will traverse the mopane-rich northern part of the park on morning and afternoon game drives, tracking the Big 5 and predators like rare wild dog. 

You will enter Zimbabwe at the Beit Bridge border post and continue to your overnight stop, Great Zimbabwe Hotel. Settle into your airy room overlooking a lush and colourful garden courtyard. The next morning, it’s off to explore the ancient stone structures of Great Zimbabwe, a World Heritage Site. This ruined city was constructed between the 11th and 15th centuries and was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's late Iron Age. 

Matobo National Park is one of Zimbabwe’s smaller parks, with its signature feature being the collection of granite outcrops that have been weathered into stacks of bare, balancing boulders. Your home for the next two nights is Hermits Peak Guest Lodge, which blends in with the magnificent granite landscape. You’ll spend your time on game drives and guided walks, visiting Cecil John Rhodes’ grave and ancient bushman rock paintings. Matobo is a stronghold for Verreaux’s eagles as well as black and white rhinos.

Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe’s biggest conservation area and home to around 50 000 elephants – the second largest population in the world. You will explore the wonderful Hwange on a guided full-day excursion in an open-sided 4x4, spotting other big game like lion, buffalo and giraffe on the way. On this leg of your trip, you’ll spend two nights in a comfortable, thatched chalet at Miombo Safari Camp. With a wonderful forested setting on the edge of Hwange, Miombo provides a relaxed atmosphere and features a convivial firepit, swimming pool and viewing deck that looks over the camp’s private waterhole – a firm favourite for the area’s ellies.

After a roughly three-hour drive (excluding stops for sightseeing and souvenir shopping), you’ll reach the biggest curtain of falling water on Earth: the colossal Victoria Falls. Enjoy a spectacular guided walk of the Falls and other optional activities like white-rafting (seasonal), bungee jumping, or a scenic helicopter or microlight flight over the waterfall. It’s no mystery why Victoria Falls is known as Africa’s ‘adventure capital’! If you’re visiting during high-water season (between about March and July), you’ll be able to witness the majesty of ‘The Smoke That Thunders’ in full flood. The Victoria Falls Rainbow Hotel provides your accommodation for two nights.

You’ll leave Vic Falls and reach the banks of the mighty Chobe River after about an hour’s drive. Forming a natural border between Botswana and Namibia, the Chobe River is a haven for our planet’s biggest herds of elephant. A highlight of any Chobe safari is an afternoon boat cruise along the river, watching enormous herds of ellies drink and bathe. If you’re visiting during the dry season (about May to October), you’ll see inconceivable numbers of these gentle giants crowding the riverbanks. You will overnight at Thebe River Safaris Lodge overlooking the river.

Today you will travel through the beautiful Kasane Forest Reserve and make your way to an overnight stop at Nata Lodge, situated on the edge of the Makgadikgadi region.

It’s time to exchange the 4x4 for a mokoro – a traditional dug-out canoe that’s the quintessential ‘game drive vehicle’ in the Okavango Delta. Local guides will take you deep into the heart of the Delta until you reach your tented camp set on a remote island. The Delta is a delicate green oasis for big game like elephant, lion, leopard and buffalo, and an astonishing array of birds. You will explore the area on guided bush walks and even get the chance to swim in its clear waters. 

You will head back to Maun, the gateway to the Delta, in the afternoon. There will be an optional scenic helicopter flight over the Delta available.

Leaving Maun, you’ll travel south across the vast plains of the Kalahari Desert until you reach the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. This incredible community-based wildlife project was established to help save the disappearing rhino, restore an area formerly teeming with animals, and provide economic benefits to the local communities through tourism and the sustainable use of natural resources. You’ll go on an afternoon game drive in the sanctuary and hopefully spot some of the resident rhinos. Khama Rhino Sanctuary provides accommodation in comfortable chalets.

Crossing back into South Africa the next day, you’ll journey to Johannesburg where the tour ends.