Lake Kariba Houseboat Cruise & Victoria Falls

This morning you visit Victoria Falls, walking the rainforest rim on the Zimbabwe side, the bank with the most expansive, front-on views of the cataract. With your guide you move from viewpoint to viewpoint, gazing across the chasm at vast curtains of water thundering into the gorge, feeling the ground tremble and, in high water, being drenched by drifting spray as rainbows shimmer in the mist. Your guide brings the geology, history and ecology vividly to life. The afternoon is free to browse the markets, take an optional adventure, or relax. As the day softens, you enjoy a sunset cruise on the broad upper Zambezi, gliding past hippos, crocodiles and drinking elephants as the sky blazes orange and the river turns to gold, drink in hand. It is a magical evening on the river. Rest well, for tomorrow you fly to Lake Kariba and board your houseboat.

After breakfast you take a light-aircraft flight to Lake Kariba, one of the world's largest man-made lakes, a vast inland sea created by damming the Zambezi. On arrival you board your comfortable houseboat, are welcomed by the friendly crew, and settle into your cabin as the boat casts off. As you drift out onto the shimmering expanse of the lake, the scale is breathtaking, water stretching to the horizon, wild shores in the distance, and the eerie, beautiful skeletons of petrified trees rising from the shallows. Lunch is served on deck as you cruise, and the afternoon is pure relaxation, watching the shoreline slide by, the wildlife and birds, and the ever-changing sky. As the famous Kariba sunset blazes across the water, you moor in a quiet bay for the night. Enjoy dinner on deck under the stars. Rest well, lulled by the lapping water.

Today you drift along the wild shoreline of Matusadona National Park, where the bush meets the water and wildlife abounds. From the deck you watch elephant come down to drink and bathe, herds of buffalo grazing the shore, waterbuck, impala and zebra, crocodiles and hippos in the shallows, and, with luck, lion along the water's edge. In the cool of the morning and afternoon, you head out on smaller tender boats for closer game-viewing trips, gliding quietly into bays and up rivers alive with birds, from fish eagles to herons and colourful bee-eaters, for an intimate, serene perspective on the wild. Keen anglers can try for the legendary tigerfish. Between activities, laze on the sun deck, swim in the pool and soak up the peace. As another spectacular sunset blazes across the lake behind the petrified trees, moor for the night. Rest well on the water.

Today you savour the lake at its own gentle pace, with more chances to explore its wild shores and simply unwind. Morning and afternoon tender-boat trips take you close to the wildlife-rich shoreline of Matusadona for game viewing and birding, or up quiet inlets among the ghostly petrified forests, whose drowned trees stand as beautiful, eerie sculptures rising from the water, especially striking in the golden light. Anglers can enjoy more tigerfishing, while others relax on deck, swim, read and drink in the vast, tranquil beauty of the lake. The pace is wonderfully slow, the wildlife and scenery endlessly rewarding. As the sun sets on your last evening, the sky flares one final time in extraordinary shades of orange and crimson, reflected across the still water behind the petrified trees, a fitting farewell. Enjoy a special dinner on deck under the brilliant stars. Rest well on beautiful Lake Kariba.

After a final relaxed breakfast on deck, watching the wildlife and drinking in the beauty of the lake one last time, you disembark and are transferred by light aircraft towards Victoria Falls or Harare for your onward international departure. You leave having enjoyed a wonderfully different Zimbabwe journey, blending a world wonder with pure, wild relaxation on the water: the thunder and expansive views of Victoria Falls, a golden Zambezi sunset cruise, and idyllic days drifting across vast Lake Kariba, watching elephant and buffalo along the shores of Matusadona, fishing for tigerfish, gliding close to the wild by tender boat, and marvelling at Africa's most spectacular sunsets behind the ghostly petrified forests. The images stay vivid long after you land, the falling water and rainbows, the wildlife at the water's edge, and the blazing skies reflected across the still lake. Zimbabwe offers spectacle, wildlife and deep tranquillity in abundance, and you depart already dreaming of a return.