The Long Stay in Hwange and Mana

Met at the gate, walked through customs, then a short walk to the door. Every southern route runs through here. A heated pool, a good dinner, and an early flight north.

Twelve tented suites raised on decks over the Zambezi, inside Zambia's smallest park. This is the only wildlife area in the country holding white rhino, and you track them on foot alongside the government scouts who protect them. The falls from the Zambian side, a sunset cruise, Livingstone town and its museum, a village and the curio shops beyond it. An infinity pool over the river for the hours in between.

A private concession in the southeastern corner of Hwange, on the edge of the Ngamo Plains, looking over a pan that pulls game year round. The concession controls who comes in, which is why encounters here run long. Wild dogs den in this country and the lions are resident. Eight tents, a sunken hide at the waterhole where you sit at eye level with whatever is drinking, and a star bed out at Scott's Pan for a night under open sky.

The eastern boundary of Mana Pools, with an open floodplain in front and the Rift Valley escarpment across the water. Albida and Natal mahogany hold deep shade through the heat, and when the albidas drop their pods in the dry season the elephants come for them. Mana is walking country, some of the best on the continent. Guides take you out on foot along the river and through the riverine bush. Canoe the Zambezi, cast for tiger fish, or sit still and let it come to you.