There is no doubt in my mind that Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe is one of the best places we have visited. Despite having the “Big five”, you are allowed to walk and animals are everywhere, including your campsite. Among several close encounters, we vividly remember the time a buffalo bull was killed by lions a few metres from the entrance to our bungalow posing some problems to our planned movements!

Despite this, we were not prepared to have an elephant welcoming comittee outside the reception!

It was also curious to see that the pachiderms in Mana Pools are exempt from the majority of the rules as can be seen below:

But, who can argue with them?