Southern Africa, Zimbabwe

Hwange National Park

Zimbabwe’s largest national park—it’s almost a thousand square miles larger than Connecticut—is also its oldest and most carefully protected game refuge. Located near Victoria Falls, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, Hwange’s varietal, very African landscapes—vast savannahs, acacia-dotted scrublands, and mopane forests—support more than 100 mammal and 400 avian species, including all of the famous Big Five; its elephant population is one of Africa’s largest.

Hwange’s excellent game viewing centers around marshy areas called vleis, where animals congregate, peacefully, if warily, to drink the park’s life-sustaining waters. We watch in quiet exhilaration as elephant families interact and carefully avoid mammoth hippos, lions look on regally, and hyenas sneak in for a sip.