them within the park, plus a healthy wild dog
population.
Elevated atop a cliff, Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge
(www.chilogorge.com) has fantastic views over
the Save River below and Ghonarezhou beyond.
Lying just outside the park, the lodge was
relaunched after a complete refurbishment in
2012, and it’s looking great.
Within Malilangwe, a vast private wildlife
reserve bordering Gonarezhou, Singita Pamushana
(www.singita.com) is hands down Zimbabwe’s
most lavish game lodge. Overlooking the
Malilangwe River and sheltered by a canopy
of trees, the lodge virtually disappears into
its environment. While accommodations and
amenities are ostentatious, there’s no denying
the effortless connection with the primordial
land you’ve come to visit.
Highly personalised guiding includes morning
and afternoon drives, boat safaris and fishing
trips, black rhino tracking, excursions to rock art
sites, and a private hide in the bush where you
can stay overnight.
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The “place of many elephants”, Gonarezhou
is a gigantic swath of Zimbabwean lowveld
in the southeast, adjoining South Africa and
Mozambique. Besides an unspoilt wilderness of
acacias, ironwood and mahogany trees, it’s the
impressive red sandstone cliffs of Chilojo that
get much of the attention. Beneath these are
the Runde River Valley floodplains, knotted with
lagoons and cut through with riverine forest.
Three major rivers – Runde, Save, and Mwenezi
– flow through the reserve, creating pools
and natural oases that lure animals and birds.
Gonarezhou forms part of the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Park, which includes the Kruger
National Park and Mozambique’s Gaza Park.
Still relatively unknown, Gonarezhou
suffered greatly in the past due to poaching,
conflict across the Mozambican border, and a
devastating drought in the 1990s. But there’s
a revival, and although the elephants have
traditionally had cause to be distrustful of
humans, they’re steadily becoming habituated
to safari vehicles. There are around 10,000 of
in the know
GONAREZHOU
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