Matetsi Safari Area

• very likelyElephantAcross the private reserve on the Zambezi. In August 2020 the reserve's senior guide logged more than a thousand elephant herds. Biggest herds in the dry season, July to November. The rains spread them outsource
• very likelyCape buffaloBig herds across the private reserve, and they are what the resident lion prides live on. Most numerous in the dry season, July to Novembersource
• very likelyBirds, 366 species recordedAcross the private reserve. The count is the reserve's own. All year. Expert Africa rates December and January the peak birding months, when the migrants arrivesource
• likelyGiraffe, zebra, impala, kudu and warthogMopane and teak woodland across the safari area. All yearsource
• likelyHippo and Nile crocodileThe Zambezi. The guides reported both sunning on the sandbanks in front of the lodge in August 2020. All yearsource
• likelyLionWith the buffalo herds in the private reserve. Every Expert Africa traveller who reported back since mid-2018 saw lion, though that is a small sample. All yearsource
• likelySable antelopeThe safari area is famous for its sable. In the private reserve they live in the south of the property. All yearsource
• likelySpotted and brown hyenaBoth turn up in Expert Africa's traveller sightings for the private reserve, which is unusual. Night drives are the way to see them. All year, after darksource
• possibleRoan, eland and wildebeestThe south of the private reserve, with sable. Expert Africa's travellers all reported eland and none reported wildebeest, so the odds are mixed. All yearsource
• possibleAfrican wild dogA pack denned in the private reserve in June 2020 and the guides found five pups. Wild dog range far, so a sighting is luck. The 2020 den was found in Junesource
• possibleLeopardThe reserve calls its leopards solitary and elusive, and that is the honest way to read the odds. All yearsource
• possibleWaterbuckFourteen were moved in from Hwange National Park in June 2022, so the herd is small and new. All yearsource
• possibleCivet, serval and genetIn the spotlight on the reserve's night drives. After dark, all yearsource
• rareAardvarkOn night drives. The guides logged two sightings in July 2020 and treated them as an event. After dark. Both 2020 sightings were in Julysource

Likelihood is for a normal visit of two or three days, from the sources linked. Nothing is guaranteed in the wild.

Malaria

UK travel health advice puts the Zambezi valley at malaria risk all year, and the private reserve's lodges sit on the Zambezi bank. Elsewhere in Zimbabwe below 1,200 m it rates the risk high from November to June and low from July to October. In the Zambezi valley it recommends antimalarial tablets all year. source

Hunting blocks

Matetsi is hunting country first. It is about 3,000 km2 split into seven units, and a 2016 study of the trophy records for buffalo, elephant, kudu and sable covered Units 1 to 6, with Unit 7 the one block without hunting. Self-drivers see the area from the public gravel road to Pandamatenga. Do not turn off onto unit tracks or drive up to a hunting camp: they are hunting concessions, not lodges. source

Unfenced camps and big game

There are no fences here; the private reserve says so itself, and its guides reported lions in and around the lodge in July 2020. The UK Foreign Office notes that animal attacks have injured and killed visitors in Zimbabwe, that walking and canoe safaris carry real risk, and that you should check your operator is trained and licensed. At the lodges that means an escort to your room after dark and no wandering down to the river on your own. source

The river

The Zambezi here holds hippo and big crocodiles, so keep back from the edge and treat the bank at dusk as hippo ground. The US CDC gives a second reason to stay out of the water: bilharzia is in Zimbabwe's fresh water, and its advice is not to swim in lakes, ponds or rivers. Do not touch or feed any animal, monkeys and stray dogs included, because of rabies. source

Roads

On the tar from Victoria Falls or Bulawayo, stop at every police roadblock and toll gate and insist on a receipt if you pay a fine. Fuel can run short, so fill up whenever you can and carry spare. Do not drive outside the towns after dark: the roads are unlit and there are deep potholes and unlit trucks and bicycles. Nothing in the official advice names this district for crime. source

• If you are heading on to Kazuma Pan, the ZimParks office at Matetsi is where you must check in. It is 25 km of gravel from the Robins Camp and Pandamatenga turn-off on the Victoria Falls to Hwange road, and the border post is 39 km further on, where the police want you to check in again. Going in to Kazuma via Kazungula is not allowed. one source
• Buy water and supplies in Victoria Falls. Someone asking in September 2025 about a shop between the airport and the Matetsi turn-off was told there are only small local stores, plus a bottle shop on the left just before the turn-off. one source
• The private reserve is a lodge-guest experience, on foot with a guide or in a 4x4. Expert Africa's straight line is that the game viewing is not as prolific as in Zimbabwe's bigger parks. Come for the river, the space and a fair chance of lion, not for Hwange numbers. one source
• August and September are the months Expert Africa rates best, and the reserve itself says the big elephant and buffalo herds are a dry season thing, July to November. December to March is wet and not a good time for game, though it is the best of the year for birding. one source
• The reserve was badly poached and illegally hunted before the lodge company took it on. It now runs its own anti-poaching team, formed in mid-2021, which sweeps for snares and pulls fishing nets off its stretch of the Zambezi. That history is part of why the game is still building up. one source
• The lodges are under 45 minutes by road from Victoria Falls town and 60 km (about 55 minutes) from Victoria Falls airport, with road transfers in the Victoria Falls area included. Kasane airport in Botswana is closer on the map at 45 km, but the border crossing makes it about an hour and a half. one source

Checked 19 October 2026. Conditions change, so confirm with the park or venue before you go.