Southern Africa

Balancing granite boulders south of Bulawayo, with San rock art and rhino you track on foot.

Rolling grassland at 2,000 m in the far north, with roan antelope, zebra and nights that freeze.

The Chobe riverfront in the dry season holds more elephants in one place than anywhere else on the continent.

A stone city built without mortar between the 11th and 15th centuries, and the country’s namesake.

The reserve on the Delta’s eastern side, and the part of the Okavango you can actually drive to.

Zambia is for walking safaris, which started here, plus the Zambezi and the other half of Victoria Falls.

Salt pans so flat and empty the horizon curves, plus habituated meerkats and a zebra migration almost nobody watches.

The park where the guided walking safari was invented, and one of the best places anywhere to see leopard.

The country’s largest reserve, and the one that is at its best in the rains.

Canoeing and fishing on the Zambezi, looking across at Mana Pools on the Zimbabwean bank.