Lusso Travel Ltd, No. 1 Glasshouse - 1LG1,
Alderley Park, Alderley Edge, Cheshire, SK10 4TG
Located in the south-east corner of Zimbabwe, bordering Mozambique and South Africa, these rarely visited jewels in Zimbabwe’s crown offer Big Five game viewing well away from the crowds.
Gonarezhou is the second-largest national park in Zimbabwe and part of the vast Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, one of the last great wilderness areas in Africa
The towering Chilojo Cliffs are magnificent to behold and one of the defining features of this remote wilderness
Gonarezhou means ‘place of elephants’ and is home to some of the largest-tusked elephants in Zimbabwe
Malilangwe Private Wildlife Reserve offers Big Five game viewing alongside the Small Six, a combination of small antelope found nowhere else in Africa
Excellent birdlife with over 400 recorded species including impressive concentrations of raptors
Gonarezhou is Zimbabwe’s second-largest national park after Hwange. It shares unfenced borders with Kruger National Park in South Africa and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, and the three parks together form the vast Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park – an enormous tract of wilderness about the size of the Netherlands. What makes Gonarezhou even more special is the lack of camps and lodges, meaning that other than the guests at your own lodge, you’re unlikely to see another soul while on safari.
Gonarezhou itself means ‘place of elephants’ in the local Shona language and the park boasts impressive herds of these big-tusked pachyderms. Three major rivers criss-cross the park forming beautiful pools and natural oases, which in addition to elephant attract varied plains game, including lion, leopard, cheetah, rhino, buffalo, zebra, giraffe and nyala antelope, not to mention hundreds of species of bird. Aside from game viewing, Gonarezhou is a great trekking destination, especially around the majestic Chilojo Cliffs, sandstone ramparts that rise 200 metres above the Runde River valley.
North of Gonarezhou is the Malilangwe Private Wildlife Reserve, set in 130,000 hectares of pristine wilderness. Often referred to as ‘Africa’s best-kept secret’, it’s home to healthy populations of black and white rhino, as well as lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, African wild dog, buffalo, elephant, zebra and more. It also provides shelter to a combination of small antelope found nowhere else in Africa, affectionately known as the Small Six. They all share a landscape of sandstone outcrops, mopane forests, portly baobab trees and nearly 100 rock art sites that date back more than 2000 years.
A luxurious lodge set high among dramatic boulders in the remote Malilangwe Private Wildlife Reserve, a 130,000-acre wilderness area neighbouring Gonarezhou National Park.