Zimbabwe

May to June — the dry season opens. The rains have stopped, the floodplain has drained and the roads into Mana Pools reopen, usually in April. The bush is still green and thick, so game viewing is not yet at its best, but the light is clean, the air is clear and the Zambezi is high enough for good canoeing. Nights are cold: dawn temperatures in the Zambezi Valley can sit in single figures and Hwange, higher and drier, is colder still. Rates are shoulder and availability in the best camps is far easier than later. A good buy for photographers and for anyone who dislikes heat.

July to September — the core of the season. Surface water disappears, the grass falls away and game concentrates hard: in Hwange onto the pumped pans, in Mana Pools onto the river and the albida forest. Wild dog denning runs through the middle of this window. Days warm through August into the high twenties and low thirties while mornings stay cold, and mosquito numbers are at their annual low. This is when Zimbabwe is at its best and it is priced accordingly. September is the sweet spot — game concentration close to its peak, temperatures not yet punishing.

October — hardest month, best game viewing. October is brutally hot in the low-lying parks, regularly into the high thirties and sometimes above forty degrees in the Zambezi Valley and Gonarezhou, and it produces the most concentrated wildlife of the year: everything is at the water, all day. It is a specialist's month.

November to March — the rains, and what closes. The first storms usually break in November and rain runs through to March or early April, peaking in January and February. Mana Pools effectively shuts: camps close in November and reopen around April, because the floodplain roads become impassable. Hwange stays open all year and is a legitimate green-season option — the pans fill, so game disperses and viewing is harder, but the birding is exceptional with migrants in, impala lambs drop, and rates fall sharply. Matobo, Great Zimbabwe and the Eastern Highlands are at their best in this window, green and cool at altitude. Malaria risk in the valley is at its highest.