Lower Zambezi National Park

 

A riverine haven

This is a small (but perfectly formed!) park on the banks of the River Zambezi where game-viewing by boat is a wonderful experience. The Lower Zambezi valley stretches from Lake Kariba dam to the Mozambique border and this park protects a large section of the Zambian side. The gentle gradient across this region means that the Zambezi flows fairly languidly at this stage and spreads out widely across the valley floor.

Much of the park is dominated by broad-leafed, thick woodland, which does not make for particularly easy game-viewing. However, during the dry season, the game is very much concentrated around the more exposed, riverine plain. The river is a busy place in this lovely park. It is home to hundreds of hippos and crocodiles as well as the unusual Cape clawless otter and the leguvaan or large water monitor lizard.

The game-viewing is fantastic and the only big game species that you will not see are rhino (owing to poaching), cheetah and giraffe. Buffalo and elephant are here in droves, often either in or beside the river, grazing the verdant banks and islands. There are enormous herds of impala in the valley along with kudu, eland, waterbuck, bushbuck, zebra, wildebeest and sometimes duiker and grysbok. Lion, leopard and spotted hyena are the major predators.

 

Kingfishers and other avian gems

There are over 350 recorded bird species in the Lower Zambezi National Park and again, the river is a focal point for many of them. The resident kingfishers are a regular sight; there are pied, giant, woodland, malachite and brown-hooded kingfishers to name but a few. Other regulars along the river are darters, cormorants, egrets and storks with watchful fish eagles a familiar sight as they survey their surroundings from a tree-top perch. If you are lucky, you might see African skimmers, spoonbills and ospreys too.