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Mana Pools National Park is a breathtaking wilderness haven and World Heritage Site situated at the northern tip of Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River. The Park takes its name from the four main pools on the old riverbed, with Mana meaning “four” in the Shona language. The pools support a variety of game and numerous species of bird life, along with the unique vegetation of the Zambezi valley, dominated by Nyala berry, natal mahogany and winterthorn trees.
Whilst Mana Pools is bordered by Rukomechi to the south and the Sapi River to the east, it actually forms part of a Parks and Wildlife Estate that stretches from the Kariba Dam in the west to the Mozambique border in the east. There are no physical boundaries and wildlife can freely move through the area, even crossing the Zambezi River into Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park without clearing customs.
The Park offers an abundance of big game including elephant, buffalo, kudu, eland, sable, zebra and waterbuck. Marine fauna like fish, hippo and crocodile are prolific. Lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and wild dog are all present although less frequently seen. Mana Pools also abounds with over 300 species of bird life. During August to December the banks of the Zambezi are burrowed by nesting carmine, white-fronted and little bee-eaters. Colourful kingfishers include the malachite, brown-hooded, chestnut-bellied, woodland, pied and giant. Black-winged stilts, African skimmers, goliath herons, little and black egrets are also found here.
