7 results in Zambia
Zambia invented the walking safari and it is still the reason to go. In the South Luangwa valley, guides have been walking guests among the game since the 1950s, and the valley holds a density of leopard that few places match, along with Thornicroft's giraffe and Cookson's wildebeest, which live nowhere else. The Lower Zambezi, downstream of Lake Kariba, is the canoeing park, where you drift past elephant crossing the channels with the Zimbabwean escarpment on the far bank.
Livingstone is the third leg, the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, with the upper Zambezi above it running wide and quiet between islands. The falls are at full flood from February to May and at their lowest from September to December, when Devil's Pool on the lip opens and the rock face is visible.
The dry season from June to October is the season for everything: game concentrates on the rivers, the walking is at its best and the bush camps are open. Many of those camps are seasonal and close in the wet from December to March, when the valley floods and the roads go. Zambia is a malaria area throughout.
June to October, the dry season, when game concentrates on the rivers, walking safaris run and the seasonal bush camps are open. Many camps close from December to March when the valley floods. Victoria Falls is at peak flow from February to May.
The South Luangwa valley, where the walking safari began and where most camps build a trip around it. Walks go out at first light with an armed scout and a guide, and cover ground rather than distance. The Lower Zambezi offers canoeing on the river as its equivalent.
They show different things. Zambia gives you the lip of the falls, Livingstone Island and Devil's Pool at low water from about September to December. Zimbabwe gives the full face of the falls from across the gorge, which is the better view at high water. Border crossing is straightforward and many visitors do both.