This African country is the continent’s best-kept safari secret

It’s the last noise you want to hear when you’re on safari in the middle of nowhere.

Our open-sided jeep had paused briefly to watch elephants by the side of the road, deftly pulling leaves from a tree with their trunks for breakfast.

Ready to move on, we hear our engine splutter and die, our wheels spinning noisily on the soft sand but going nowhere, churning the ground below as we only sink deeper.

Keeping one eye on the nearby elephants, we climb out of the car to gather branches to jam under the wheels for extra traction. Minutes tick by and we’re still stuck fast, so our ranger, Tongo, resorts to desperate measures, loading elephant dung onto the sticks to stop our wheels slipping off.

There’s only one thing to do: we have to muck in with our bare hands and help.

It’s all part of the adventure of a safari holiday, where anything could – and very often does – happen, albeit at a price.

I’d considered trips to safari hotspots like Botswana and Kenya before but reeled at the cost. This time, I’m travelling with Yellow Zebra, a tour operator that arranges tailor-made safaris to suit every need with plenty of extras to make trips easier, from airport lounges to on-the-ground medical teams.

Though safari will never be a budget option, Yellow Zebra has even managed to find a more cost-conscious deal to suit my strained wallet.

I’d never considered Zimbabwe as a destination, but discover it has the same animals and wildly beautiful landscapes as its better-known neighbour Botswana, yet is at least half the price.

‘Watch out for the baboons’

There’s no need to choose between wildlife sightings and luxury lodgings.

I stay in two tented camps owned by Wilderness, Yellow Zebra’s parent company, which has almost identical camps throughout Botswana.

The company is renowned for its extensive conservation work across Africa, where they protect six million acres of land and make a real difference to local communities, funding schools and hosting annual trips for children to experience the camps and wildlife for themselves.

Wilderness Linkwasha is in Hwange National Park on Botswana’s border, an hour’s flight in a small charter plane from Victoria Falls. Three days later, I brave a tiny plane to fly north to the 100% solar-powered Wilderness Ruckomechi in Mana Pools National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site on the banks of the Zambezi River bordering Zambia.

Both offer seriously high-end glamping. Each camp has fewer than ten tented suites that come with every imaginable home comfort, from cosy leather sofas to rainfall showers and private patios.

However, you still can’t entirely forget there are lions, leopards and hippos roaming beyond the canvas – and not just because of the spooky nighttime noises.

@theworldpursuit

Celebrating well over 100 days on safari! Beautiful days in Mana Pools and Hwange. 🦓🦒🐘 📍 Taken at Zambezi Expeditions Camp and Somalisa Camp #AfricanSafari #safari #Zimbabwe #africanbush

♬ love nwantinti (ah ah ah) – CKay

Every tent comes with a horn to sound in an emergency and a walkie-talkie to summon a ranger, plus we’re warned to keep food and medication out of sight to avoid tempting passing baboons.

‘Watch out for those baboon junkies!’ ranger Kingsley chuckles ominously.

There’s a chic central decked area for alfresco meals, a round-the-clock bar and a fire pit for gathering each night to swap safari stories with fellow guests over a glass of fizz.

All food and drinks are included and are consistently excellent. Days start with pancakes and scrambled eggs prepared by a chef over an open-air grill, while lunch might be a picnic of homemade quiche on a riverbank watching nearby hippos or a small outdoor buffet in camp of falafel, bream skewers and salads.

Three-course dinners are usually communal and served under the stars with dishes including butter-fried gnocchi in a creamy corn puree, aubergine parmigiana and frozen banana parfait with praline.

Bucket list experiences

Here, it’s all about the animals. Two game drives are included each day and your assigned ranger – truly the font of all knowledge – will chat to you before each one to find out if there’s anything you particularly want to see.

Both camps are in private, unfenced concessions within the national parks so there’s no jostling with other vehicles for the best spot to see wildlife as I’ve experienced in other popular safari destinations.

You won’t struggle for sightings, either. On my first night in Linkwasha, I watched an elephant and her young calf amble past metres away from where we were eating dinner.

The camp also has its own sunken hide – essentially an underground bunker with a narrow ground-level window – on the edge of a watering hole to watch animals up-close without them realising you’re there.

I hold my breath when an elephant passes inches from my face, before a herd of more than 200 buffalo descend on the waterhole, splashing right past us they drink, unaware of our presence.

Out on game drives, I see black-backed jackals racing across the savannah, giraffes munching on leaves, a tree full of vultures watching over an animal carcass below, cheetahs sunning themselves on rocks and a pride of lions strutting through the trees, two cubs lagging behind as they play fight and tumble down a termite mound together.

Returning to camp one night, our ranger hears the gruesome sound of bones crunching in the long grass. We venture closer to see a hyena tearing chunks off a recent kill as others slink silently through the bushes around us to share its feast.

At Ruckomechi, extra activities such as walking safaris, sunset boat trips, canoeing and fishing on the Zambezi are also included, all of which often bump up the price at other camps in more expensive countries.

The walking safari is unmissable, even if the initial briefing is a little alarming.

‘Whatever you do, don’t run,’ our ranger Nyenge warns us, rifle in hand. ‘If you run, the animal will chase you and they will win. Just stay behind me and do what I say. Because if I die, you’ll be next.’

Duly terrified, we tramp behind him, across the grassland and into a wood where baboons rustle the bushes and warthogs disappear from our path in a cloud of dust.

Along the way, Nyenge points out remnants of Stone Age pottery, still scattered on the ground, and a petrified fruit more than 100,000 years old, a sign of just how unspoiled this entire region is.

We stop for coffee and crumbly homemade shortbread on a hill overlooking the Zambezi as a group of lions devour a recently-killed waterbuck on the sandbank below. I watch on transfixed, bucket list well and truly completed.