In the southeast corner of Zimbabwe, bordering the Mozambican frontier is a vast wilderness area traversed by wide sweeping sand rivers known as The Gonarezhou. It is an area steeped in history and legend talks of elephants taller than the trees, warring tribes, notorious ivory poachers and ancient vestiges of the slave trade.

It is here that Gonarezhou Bushcamps offer three close to nature wilderness experiences.

Gonarezhou National Park is situated in the south eastern lowveld of Zimbabwe and covers an area in excess of 5 000 square kilometres, which to put this into perspective, is about the same size as Mana Pools, Matusadona and Chizarira National Parks put together. Yes, it is that big – there is plenty of bush to explore and contrary to popular (but mostly uninformed) opinion, there are heaps of animals and it is spectacularly beautiful.

"Gonarezhou" meaning "The place of many elephants" is estimated to have a population in excess of 9000 elephants and we’ve seen several bulls with ivory weighing over a hundred pounds a side. You don’t find these kinds of elephants just anywhere, and even in Gonarezhou these big tuskers haven’t got that big without good reason.

Being far away from major tourist attractions, Gonarezhou is seldom visited and until recently has only attracted the most intrepid of travellers.

Apart from its scenic beauty and incredible diversity of wildlife, the park’s most important attraction is its wilderness character which makes it one of the very few areas left in Southern Africa which can offer a genuine wilderness experience. No boat motors, no aircraft engines, no permanent camps and few other tourists makes Gonarezhou quite unique to anywhere else.

The dominating features of the park include incised sandstone cliffs, rocky basalt river gorges, extensive tracts of Mopane, Ironwood and mixed broadleaf woodland, riverine floodplains, wetlands and wide sweeping sand rivers.
Gonarezhou has another unique quality in being the only national park in Zimbabwe in which both banks of a major river (the Runde River) are enclosed within the boundary of a National park. Two other major rivers, the Save to the north east and the Mwenezi in the south west also cut their courses through the park, providing life sustaining water and habitat for hundreds of species of birds, wildlife and fish.

ABOUT THE CAMP

Gonarezhou Bush Camp is a mobile tented camp, which means it is set up for the duration of your safari, after which it is taken down and packed away. The camp can be set up at several locations within Gonarezhou National Park depending on the time of year and wildlife movements.
Our favourite site is on the banks of the Runde River, looking out across the sand and gently flowing water to the red sandstone Chilojo cliffs and is within easy access of the flood plain and seasonal pans where game congregates.
Apart from the National Parks lodges at Mabalauta in the extreme south of the park, Gonarezhou Bush Camp currently provides the only accommodation within the park.
Owing to the camp being lightweight and mobile in nature, one has to forgo some of the luxuries of a permanent safari camp, however, that said this does not mean that our camping style is basic or uncomfortable.
Adequate thought has been given to ensuring that none of the important necessities have been overlooked – comfortable beds, hot showers and clean ablution facilities, freshly prepared wholesome meals and a good selection of hot and cold beverages are all provided.

Activities

In addition to walking we also offer game drives, sport fishing (concentrating on fly fishing for tiger and several species of tilapia), fly camping and multi day walking safaris.