We paddled about 130 kilometers down the Zambezi River from the town of Kariba to Mana Pools National Park during a fun, five-day adventure in fiberglass canoes. No, we did not do this trip on our own. We had help from Natureways Safaris, which provided the food, equipment and expert personnel to make the trip easier and very pleasant.

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Our group consisted of highly-qualified guide Norman, friendly and patient assistant guide Kenneth, shy, but fun-loving camp assistant Thomas, plus Dennis and Byron, an entertaining father-son duo of tourists from Harare, Zimbabwe.

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Like other canoe camping excursions we have done in the past, we transported all of the food, equipment, people, and any other stuff in the 5 canoes. But we didn’t forgo all camp comforts.  We took two-inch thick mattresses so we slept in comfort! 

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Kenneth took the lead as chef and prepared delicious food such as vegetable curry and stuffed acorn squash. Our evening meal was served at our campsite and we alternated between eating breakfast or lunch along the riverbank after paddling a couple of hours.  

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Two anti-poaching park rangers out on foot patrol joined us briefly one morning for breakfast along the Zimbabwe riverbank. Fortunately poaching in the area has decreased significantly since 2016, in part because of a more comprehensive, year-round anti-poaching patrol program.

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We camped on a different Zimbabwean island each of the five nights. By the third night we were quite efficient at unloading the canoes and setting up our dome tents.

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We found large, impressive footprints along one sandbar where we took a short afternoon break and at a couple of our campsites. The animals did not return while we were there or at least we we did not see them when we were awake.

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The part of the Zambezi River we explored flows north and forms the boundary between Zambia on the west and Zimbabwe on the east. We started our adventure in the somewhat narrow Kariba Gorge, which after 18 kilometers opened up into a wide, peaceful-looking river.

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During the first few days of padding we passed several farms and villages on both sides of the river.  And quite a few local fishermen of all ages hunted the waters for food, usually in handmade wooden canoes.

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The Zambezi water levels this year are low and the operators at Kariba Dam closely control the amount of river water released from the dam so that as much electricity as possible is produced for both countries. In the middle of our trip we saw quite a drop in water levels in just a few hours. Several times we got out of the canoes to drag/push them because the water was so shallow. But the water levels rose back up to previous depths by the time we reached Mana Pools National Park. 

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Our family’s typical canoe paddling technique, learned when Jerry and Susan were youngsters at summer camp 45+ years ago, involves the person in the front providing inertia/muscle by paddling on any preferred side and the person in the back adding a bit of energy, but mostly steering by using the J stroke on whichever side is most effective. Usually Jerry does the steering to keep the canoe going in a straight line towards our destination and Susan gets an upper body workout while enjoying the sunshine and scenery. 

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Natureways Safari guides have been trained with a different philosophy. They tell their guests at either end of canoe to paddle three strokes on one side and then three on the other to simultaneously provide direction and energy. We concluded that with this technique it’s more difficult to maintain a steady speed and paddling rhythm, not to mention float in a straight line. The five canoes on our adventure zigged and zagged as we progressed down the river. Norman and Kenneth each seemed most comfortable being in the back of a canoe. So we rode in the front of their two canoes most of the time and tried not to seem too rebellious by not always switching sides after just three strokes. Enjoying the river was much easier when not counting strokes as we paddled our sturdy, heavily-loaded canoes down the river between two beautiful countries.