Magical Zimbabwe photo journey
There is not much quite like the stillness of Mana Pools at dawn, where the Zambezi River’s golden hues blur the line between dream and reality. Lions prowl the floodplains, elephants loom in the blue light of towering trees, and wild dogs play in hidden corners, waiting to be discovered by travellers. It is no wonder that Mana Pools served as the ideal destination for an unforgettable photographic safari. And that’s exactly what Villiers Steyn delivered when he took a group of avid photographers to this magical part of Zimbabwe, for a journey filled with heart-stopping encounters. From wild dogs in mid-hunt to leopards lounging within arm’s reach, Mana Pools put on a show in its most magical way.
After a successful Africa Geographic photo safari to Chitake Springs the previous year, I decided to head back to Mana Pools in 2024 to explore a couple of new areas. Essentially, there are two main game viewing areas in Mana Pools – the floodplain along the Zambezi River, which most people are familiar with, and the lesser-known thickets inland just below the escarpment. And this is where our safari started.
Instead of returning to Chitake Springs, our photographic safari headed to Kavinga Safari Camp, less than 10 kilometres away from the springs. While I provided photographic guidance, we were again in the capable hands of guide extraordinaire Carl Nicholson, who knows this area like the back of his hand.
Want to go on a safari like this? Join Africa Geographic along with Villiers Steyn and Carl Nicholson for a photographic safari to Mana Pools. Find more details on this safari here. Enquire soon as spaces are limited.
Kavinga’s comfortable stilted safari tents are perched on a ridge overlooking a highly productive waterhole that attracts hundreds of elephants and other wildlife throughout the day. What made this stay extra special was the sunken hide right on the edge of the waterhole, allowing us to capture unique ground-level photos of everything that came down to quench thirst. There’s also a second ground-level hide overlooking a bird pond in the middle of the camp, and this one provided the most action.
“Come quick! The lions are lying on the lawn. I think you should get underground!” came the call from Kavinga guide, Dylan Browne, who has a knack for spotting anything with sharp teeth approaching the camp.
Since Kavinga is unfenced, many of the big cats in the area seem to prefer drinking the fresh water in the pond rather than the waterhole where elephants bathe every day below the tents. During our four nights here, we were lucky enough to photograph a couple of lionesses and two different leopards drinking no more than three metres away from us! The show’s star, a leopard called Poppy, was so relaxed that she hardly looked up when an elephant bull joined her for a drink early one evening.
Out on the game drive, Kavinga was equally productive. We found the local lion pride resting and playing in the white sandy riverbeds in front of camp on nearly every drive and had an excellent opportunity to photograph buffalo crossing a riverbed below a stand of ancient baobab trees. To my delight, everyone in the group was a keen bird-watcher. We all appreciated our sightings of western banded snake eagles, crowned hornbills, white-browed coucals and, most notably, Livingstone’s flycatchers.
It was hard to say goodbye to Kavinga, but with plenty of excitement, we transferred down to the floodplain where we stayed for another four nights. Our base here was Vundu Camp, tucked away in the dense riparian forest along the Zambezi River. A mere 15 minutes into our first afternoon game drive, Carl tracked down a pack of 12 African wild dogs resting in a clearing. We carefully approached them on foot and sat down nearby while waiting for them to become active.
Watching and photographing their ritualistic greeting behaviour on foot and up close was a real privilege. Soon after greeting one another, they became very active, and we struggled to keep up with them for a while. Fortunately, three dawdling pups allowed us to keep the pack in our sights, and eventually, they all slowed down to stalk a small herd of impala.
“Say goodbye to them now because soon they’ll be all over the place,” I warned my guests as the dogs lined up beside each other, all dropping their heads. And then all hell broke loose!
The pack of twelve split up in different directions, all seemingly going after various impalas. Fortunately for us, a couple of them had turned around and were now chasing impalas straight back towards us, flying like super-dogs through the air as they gained on the tiring antelopes. We lost sight of them momentarily but quickly tracked one of the adults down again. It had successfully brought down one of the impalas and was instantly joined by the pups that began devouring the carcass in the fading light. It’s an experience we’ll all treasure for the rest of our lives.
Over the following three days, we shifted our attention to elephants. We aimed to photograph them in either golden light or the iconic blue light that Mana Pools is known for, generated by enormous trees growing all over the floodplain. And boy, were we successful! Not only did we find Boswell, Mana’s most famous elephant, posing on his hind legs for us, but we had plenty of excellent opportunities to photograph bulls at sunrise and sunset, making for some beautiful photographs, not to mention more unforgettable experiences. Throughout our safari, Carl’s expertise and calm nature ensured that we were always in the best possible position.
Our bird list grew to over a hundred as we added specials like wood owl, pennant-winged nightjar, Lilian’s lovebird and African skimmer, and we spent hours photographing waterbirds at the waning Long Pool – the largest of Mana Pools’ four big bodies of water.
The cherry on top of our eight nights in Mana Pools was a lioness posing on the bank of the Zambezi in the last bit of orange light reflecting off the river at Vundu Point – the perfect way to end the ideal safari.
Join Villiers on a photographic safari
Villiers Steyn and Carl Nicholson will lead an Africa Geographic photographic safari to Mana Pools from 9–17 August 2025. You’ll immerse yourself in the best Mana Pools offers – from floodplains overlooking the mighty Zambezi River to the cliffs overlooking the dry Rukomechi Riverbed – and enjoy excellent photographic opportunities and guidance. Find more details here.
Follow Villiers on social media here: Instagram / Facebook
Resources
- Read more about Villiers Steyn’s photographic safari to Chitake Springs here.
- Check out our other safaris to Mana Pools here.
- Traveller Irene Amiet visited Zimbabwe’s famed Mana Pools National Park to photograph the other-worldly wilderness of this Zambezi kingdom. Check out her trip report here.
- Check out all of our photographic safaris here.
To comment on this story: Login (or sign up) to our app here - it's a troll-free safe place 🙂.
