It is Matusadona’s landscape, which sits like a carefully painted backdrop to the park’s abundant wildlife, which will stay with you long after you leave. At Matusadona, the blues of the lake reflect up into yellow grasses and green shrubs before fading into the dusky purple hues of the Zambezi Escarpment. Throw a few great, grey elephants into the foreground and sprinkle in some buffalo and a crocodile or two (probably even more) and you’ve got yourself the kind of beauty typical of Matusadona.

When the Kariba Dam flooded the middle Zambezi Valley in the late 1950’s to create Lake Kariba, the valley’s impressive wildlife was concentrated on its islands and southern shore. In this magnificent area, where water and wilderness meet, Matusadona National Park was formed and quickly became one of Africa’s best spots for walking safaris and lion watching; with some lion prides even preying on hippo for a feed.

The park’s remote location, bounded by two rivers, makes Matusadona truly wild and inaccessible. Despite its remoteness the park offers some truly luxurious lodges and houseboats to enjoy the area from and the shoreline of the lake is one of the best places for game viewing. Elephants, buffalo and other herbivores congregate by the water to take advantage of the sweet grasses by the lake’s edge with lions following close behind them.

For the adventurous, walking or canoeing with a professional guide comes highly recommended and allows for thrilling encounters with the park’s ‘big five’. Highlights of visiting the area also include the smaller things, and a cornucopia of aquatic birdlife flanks the shoreline. A huge number of African Fish Eagles call Matusadona home, as well as herons, storks, plovers, waders, geese, pratincoles, darters, cormorants and numerous raptors.