Day 1 — Nata, Botswana (6 September 2027)

We meet at Nata — a good stopping point with a solid restaurant on site, so day one is about easing into the trip, not rushing dinner. Overnight at Nata Lodge.

Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 2 — Into Hwange, Zimbabwe

A short run to the border at Pandamatenga, paperwork done, and we’re into Hwange by midday. We head straight for one of my favourite exclusive campsites — the kind of waterhole hide where day visitors arrive at 8am, glance at a lone buffalo herd, and drive off none the wiser. Stay the night and you get the full story: lions calling all night, and by morning coffee you can watch three of them stalking that same buffalo herd from three sides. It’s a spot that keeps delivering trip after trip — past groups have watched elephant come in to drink at sunset and, on one memorable evening, a leopard catch a crocodile clean off the dam wall. We’re here for two nights.

Distance: ~292km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 3 — Hwange exclusive camp, night two

A quiet second night at the same waterhole camp — short drives, long sundowners, and sightings that only happen when you’re not racing the gate before dark.

Game-drive distance: ~60km (no relocation — second night at the same camp)  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 4 — Hwange game drive, then Sinamatela

A full day of game viewing across Hwange before we settle in at Sinamatela for the night — one of the park’s standout camps, with a wide-open view across the plain that really makes you feel like you’re in Africa.

Distance: ~60km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 5 — On to Lake Kariba

We leave Hwange (with a quick supermarket and fuel stop in Hwange town if anyone needs supplies) and tackle the one road there is to Binga, on the shores of Lake Kariba. It’s not the smoothest drive on the trip — you take your time and pay attention — but I’ve done it three times in a single year and I’m still very much alive, so it’s nothing to lose sleep over. We overnight at a lodge right on the water.

Distance: ~270km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 6 — Matusadona, night one

A gravel-road run brings us to Matusadona — a small peninsula on Lake Kariba that I keep coming back to. The access road has recently been upgraded, cutting what used to be a six-hour crawl down to about two, so we arrive with plenty of afternoon left. Elephant and rhino are regulars here — genuinely wild, free-roaming rhino, increasingly rare to see anywhere else in the region — and it’s one of the most magical spots on the whole trip, with genuinely some of the best sunsets you’ll see anywhere.

Distance: ~250km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 7 — Matusadona, night two

A second night at Matusadona — a short drive in the park, then it’s fig trees and sundowners for the rest of the day.

Game-drive distance: ~60km (no relocation)  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 8 — Toward Mana Pools

We leave Matusadona and start working east — a stretch of 4×4 track that used to mean an early start and a hard push straight through to Mana Pools in a single long day, racing a gate cut-off time. We now break that leg up with a night at a private conservancy campsite along the way, so the drive is calmer and nobody’s watching the clock.

Distance: ~150km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 9 — Mana Pools

Into Mana Pools by midday, camped right by the river. Days here are unhurried by design — game drives along the water’s edge, coffee and lunch wherever looks good. Elephant wander through camp more mornings than not; keep an eye out for a big bull known locally as Impy, who likes to hang around the site office, or the well-known Fred Astaire and Boswell.

Distance: ~290km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 10 — Mana Pools, second night

A second easy day at Mana Pools — which is exactly the point. Elephant sightings here can be extraordinary (one trip turned up what might be the biggest single herd I’ve ever seen, gathered under one tree), and lion move through often enough that daylight sightings aren’t unusual. It’s wild, and it’s real.

Game-drive distance: ~160km (no relocation — estimate, see note)  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 11 — South toward Harare

We skirt around Harare and settle at a private campsite for the night, restocking supplies along the way if needed.

Distance: ~440km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 12 — Great Zimbabwe Ruins

On to Masvingo, with a guided walk through the Great Zimbabwe ruins — a proper change of pace after days in the bush — before a night at a private campsite nearby (restaurant on site, and a supermarket in town if you need it).

Distance: ~340km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 13 — Into Gonarezhou

We head to Gonarezhou — place of the elephants — for the first of three nights at a riverside campsite among big trees. The park runs along two rivers, the Runde and the Save, and still carries visible scars from the cyclone that struck in February 2001 — but it’s recovering well every year, and remains one of the wilder, less commercialised parks on the trip.

Distance: ~270km  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 14 — Gonarezhou: Chilojo Cliffs & the river confluence

A day exploring the park: the drive up to Chilojo Cliffs — worth seeing from both the bottom and the lookout point at the top, coffee or lunch up there — and out to where the Runde and Save rivers meet, a spot with real history (it’s close to where, during the February 2001 Mozambique floods, a woman famously gave birth in a tree to escape the rising water). River crossings here depend on water levels — the old bridge is long gone, so we cross when it’s low enough to do safely. G&T by the river at night.

Game-drive distance: ~120km (no relocation)  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 15 — Gonarezhou, final night

One more day to explore the inland water spots and soak up Gonarezhou before we start heading for home.

Game-drive distance: ~120km (no relocation)  ·  Ablutions: Showers and flush toilets

Day 16 — Home via Beitbridge

An early start out of camp and across the border at Beitbridge into South Africa (or via Francistown into Botswana if that’s your way home). Once we’re through, everyone breaks off and heads their own way — trip done.

Distance: ~390km (to Musina, your farewell point)