Mana Pools is one of the only national parks in Africa where visitors are allowed to walk on foot among the wildlife (with a trained guide). Elephants, buffalo, zebras and antelope wander between tall trees that grow on the floodplain. The trees grow so far apart that the light comes through in beams, like a giant outdoor cathedral.
The most famous sight at Mana Pools is its elephants standing up. When the lower leaves are gone, some elephants rear up on their back legs to reach the high branches of the sausage trees and acacias. They stand balanced on two legs for several seconds, trunk stretched out, picking off leaves. Nobody fully understands how they learn this - the calves seem to watch the older bulls and copy them.
Big crocodiles and hippos live in the pools themselves. Hippos can weigh as much as four cars and look slow, but in water they are very fast. They spend the day mostly underwater and come out at night to eat grass. Crocodiles wait at the river's edge for animals coming down to drink.
Mana Pools is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the wildest places left in southern Africa. Most of it has no roads at all. Visitors sleep in tents under the stars and listen to the sounds of the bush at night - lions calling, hyenas laughing, hippos splashing in the dark.