Safari Parks & Reserves

Zimbabwe's second-largest national park, Gonarezhou means "Place of the Elephants" in Shona. Part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, it features dramatic Chilojo Cliffs, wild Runde and Save rivers, and pristine wilderness with very few visitors.

Okonjima is the home of the AfriCat Foundation, Namibia's most important large carnivore conservation organisation. The reserve provides a sanctuary for rescued leopards and cheetahs, offering visitors a unique opportunity to track these elusive predators on foot using telemetry equipment. Set among the Omboroko Mountains, Okonjima covers 200 square kilometres of bushveld and rocky terrain. While primarily a conservation centre, it offers genuine game viewing with wild leopards, cheetahs, brown hyenas, honey badgers, and numerous antelope and bird species. The tracking experience provides remarkably close encounters with carnivores in a natural setting.

Tsau //Khaeb, formerly known as the Sperrgebiet ('forbidden territory'), is one of the least visited and most mysterious national parks in Africa. For over a century, this vast coastal desert was closed to the public as a restricted diamond mining area, allowing its ecosystems to develop virtually undisturbed by human activity. Opened as a national park in 2008, it encompasses over 26,000 square kilometres of pristine Succulent Karoo and Namib Desert, harbouring extraordinary botanical diversity with over 800 plant species, many found nowhere else on Earth. The ghost town of Kolmanskop — a sand-engulfed former diamond mining settlement — is the park's most famous attraction.

The Palmwag Concession is one of Namibia's largest and most important conservation areas, covering over 5,500 square kilometres of dramatic Damaraland landscape. The concession protects the largest free-roaming population of black rhinos outside of a national park, along with desert-adapted elephants, lions, and Hartmann's mountain zebras. The terrain is starkly beautiful — red rock-strewn plains, deep gorges, dry riverbeds lined with ana trees, and the brooding Etendeka Mountains. Palmwag offers some of the finest rhino tracking experiences in Africa, with armed rangers guiding guests on foot to within close range of these critically endangered animals.

Khaudum National Park is a remote, wild, and little-visited park in Namibia's far northeast, bordering Botswana. Covering 3,842 square kilometres of deep Kalahari sand and dense woodland, it offers one of Namibia's most adventurous and off-the-beaten-path safari experiences. The park is home to large herds of elephants that migrate between Khaudum and Botswana, along with wild dogs, roan and sable antelope, eland, and over 320 bird species. The deep sand tracks require experienced 4x4 driving, and the park should only be attempted by fully self-sufficient expeditions travelling in convoy. For those prepared, Khaudum offers an authentic wilderness adventure with virtually no other visitors.

Nkasa Rupara, formerly known as Mamili, is Namibia's equivalent of the Okavango Delta — a vast wetland system of islands, channels, and floodplains formed where the Kwando River spreads into the Linyanti swamps. It is Namibia's largest wetland and least-visited national park. During the annual floods (typically April to August), the park's two main islands — Nkasa and Rupara — become surrounded by water, creating a miniature delta teeming with hippos, crocodiles, lechwe, sitatunga, and enormous concentrations of waterbirds. As waters recede, large herds of buffalo and elephants move in. The park is only accessible by 4x4 during the dry season and is essentially impassable when flooded.

Mahango Game Reserve, now incorporated as the Mahango Core Area of Bwabwata National Park, is one of the best game viewing areas in Namibia's Zambezi Region. This compact 245-square-kilometre reserve lines the western bank of the Okavango River near Divundu, offering exceptional wildlife viewing in a concentrated area. The reserve's riverine forests, floodplains, and baikiaea woodland support remarkable wildlife diversity. Large elephant herds cross the Okavango seasonally, and the floodplains attract buffalo, hippos, lechwe, reedbuck, sable antelope, roan antelope, and tsessebe — species rarely seen elsewhere in Namibia. With over 400 bird species, it is one of Namibia's premier birding destinations.

Mudumu National Park protects 1,010 square kilometres of prime riverine habitat along the Kwando River in the eastern Zambezi Region. The park's floodplains, marshes, and mopane woodlands are home to large herds of elephants, buffalo, hippos, and lechwe — a semi-aquatic antelope rare elsewhere in Namibia. Mudumu is particularly valued for its role as a wildlife corridor and for its exceptional birding, with over 430 species recorded. The Kwando River frontage provides beautiful boat-based game viewing. Despite its excellent wildlife, the park receives very few visitors, offering a genuine off-the-beaten-path experience.

The Waterberg Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO-designated biosphere covering 654,000 hectares of ancient mountain bushveld in Limpopo Province — one of only three savannah biospheres in the world. The Waterberg massif, with rocks dating back 1.8 billion years, creates a dramatic landscape of rust-red cliffs, wooded valleys, and perennial streams that supports exceptional biodiversity in a malaria-free environment. The region encompasses numerous private game reserves, conservancies, and wilderness areas collectively protecting Big Five wildlife including both black and white rhino. The Waterberg's proximity to Johannesburg (2.5-3.5 hours), malaria-free status, and range of accommodation from rustic bush camps to luxury lodges make it one of South Africa's most accessible yet underrated safari destinations. The region is also known for its archaeological significance, with Stone Age and Iron Age sites scattered across the mountains.

Rwanda's newest national park, Gishwati-Mukura protects two separate montane forest fragments in the northwest. A remarkable conservation success story, the park is being restored after near-total deforestation and is home to chimpanzees, golden monkeys, and L'Hoest's monkeys.

Hell's Gate National Park is one of the few Kenyan parks where you can walk or cycle freely among wildlife, making it a uniquely accessible and adventurous safari experience. Named for the intense geothermal activity in the area, the park's dramatic gorges, towering cliffs, and steaming hot springs inspired the landscapes in Disney's The Lion King. Covering just 68 square kilometres in the Great Rift Valley near Lake Naivasha, Hell's Gate features Fischer's Tower and Central Tower — towering volcanic plugs that dominate the skyline. While it lacks large predators and elephants, the park is home to buffalo, zebra, giraffe, baboons, and over 100 bird species including Verreaux's eagles and Rüppell's vultures nesting on the cliffs.

Kaokoland is one of Africa's last true wilderness frontiers — a vast, rugged region of mountainous terrain, dry riverbeds, and stark desert beauty in Namibia's far northwest. It is the ancestral home of the semi-nomadic Himba people, who maintain their traditional way of life largely untouched by modernity. The region supports remarkable desert-adapted wildlife including elephants, lions, giraffes, and Hartmann's mountain zebras that survive in the arid riverbeds of the Kunene, Hoarusib, and Hoanib rivers. Epupa Falls on the Kunene River, near the Angolan border, is one of Namibia's most spectacular natural features. Kaokoland offers raw adventure travel at its most authentic.