Most of the time it is peaceful and scenically beautiful with distant purple hills of the Zambian escarpment on one side and wooded slopes leading to the interior of the national park on the southern banks.

Along the river's edge are wide green flood plains tramped by elephants and buffalo who take little notice as you drift silently by on your two-man canoe.

At the public entrance to this park you are strictly warned that it is offence to take citrus fruits in with you. Elephants have a craving for oranges and will trample your tent or upturn your car just to get to them!

The Zambezi is a life force supporting great numbers of pink-eared hippos and huge crocodiles that resemble floating logs. Many people come here to fish for fighting tiger fish, large perch, delicious bream and slippery catfish.

The succulent floodplains are sometimes over a mile wide and are constantly grazed by elephants, buffaloes and waterbuck.

Many other animals are to be found along this river valley and predators such as lions, leopards, wild dog, hyena and jackal have a good supply of food.

Bird life is wonderful with inquisitive yellow-billed kites swooping down to have a look at you and other raptors and vultures circling high in the thermals. Carmine bee-eaters flit about in a purple blur as they emerge from the sandbank pitted with their nesting holes.