Canoe Safari in Zambia

My sole excursion into Zambia (other than a short walk across the bridge from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe) was a canoe safari along the Zambezi River. This trip lasted three days (from June 30 to July 2, 1998) and it was a wonderful way to experience this part of Africa. I cannot recommend it highly enough! Anyone who has spent any time in a vehicle on the African roads, especially in the parks, will appreciate a few days floating down a river. While the paddling was a bit of challenge on one day (because of a stiff breeze on the nose of the canoes), for the most part it was quite easy. The schedule would actually allow one to drift downstream at the pace of the river's current (about 5 km an hour), but we took frequent detours from side to side and into channels off the main river.

From the river we could see Lower Zambezi National Park on the Zambia side and Mana Pools National Park on the Zimbabwe side. Mana Pools in particular looked like an interesting place and came highly recommended by other travelers I spoke to in Africa.

We spent nights on the Zambia side in three separate camps: Kayila Lodge (one of the best spots of the entire trip and which featured a bathroom with running water built inside a huge baobab tree); Chongwe River Camp (pretty basic); and Mwambashi River Lodge in Lower Zambezi National Park (an excellent camp).

For reviews of game parks in other countries see: Botswana Game Parks, Kenya Game Parks, Namibia Game Parks, South Africa Game Parks, Tanzania Game Parks, Uganda Game Parks and Zimbabwe Game Parks.