Gonarezhou National Park

A Wild and Unknown Gem

I recently stayed for a week in Gonuarezhou National Park. I stayed for one week at Gonarezhou Bush Camp where I was guided by Ant Kaschuala who is without a doubt one of the finest guides in Africa. I thought that the bush vibe,and scenery were just outstanding. There were elephants everywhere,and a wide variety of antelope. I saw plenty of nyala, greater kudu,impalas, eland,and many others including sable. The birding was excellent.

An amazing and wild National park

Gonaezhou is an outstanding National Park,and is arguably the the best undiscovered gem in Africa. The scenery is simply breathtaking,especially the Chilojo Chills. The pans are filled with birds,and there are plenty of antelope. I saw steenbok,nyala,sable, duikers,and lots of greater kudu. i also saw a herd of eland. There are huge elephants everywhere, including many huge tuskers. On one one occasion a herd of elephants came up from behind us. We also saw zebra,and hippos. I saw many baboons,and one morning I woke up to the sounds of a troop of baboon barking because they had been pursued up a tree by a leopard.

I have to say that Gonarazhou is one of the finest National Parks which safari enthusiasts can visit because it's so off the beaten path. One about 2,000 people a year visit ,and most about 1,800 of them are people who come here on camping safaris. One will be listens constantly to the sounds of the bush at night. One will feel like they have the whole park to themselves,because one won't encounter neither other vehicles nor other vehicles for hours without seeing another vehicle or person.
I also have to say that Ant Kashula the owner of Gonarezhou Bush Camp lives up to his reputation of being one of the finest of all the new guides in Africa. He was simply amazing. He's a superb bushman, and a dedicated conservationist.He also has superb skills at dealing with people.I felt hat fly camping with him was simply superb.

This is the second largest National Park in Zimbabwe and is simply "Wild and untamed" Lovely for photography but I'd suggest a vehicle with good clearance for some of the roads. Fantastic bird life and many of the larger animals you'd expect to see in Africa.

Prestine, didn't see any other vehicle/people one day, would like to experience more!

Fantastic wildlife, and numbers of wildlife. We are not experienced in African wildlife after only being here 2 years. Would like to go back and do a camp for 3-4 days near one of the pans. No human congestion, we seemed to have the place to ourselves.

Beautiful cliffs, very few tourists.

Way off the beaten track

This is a fantastic park to visit if you have already been to other, more popular, national parks in East /Southern Africa. It's not the kind of place where you will see a vast variety of animals (elephants being the main one here), though you will get to see a decent amount of different animals and birds, and not forgetting plenty of wonderful baobabs. What you will get, though, is the feeling that it's just you and your 4WD out in the vast wilderness, exploring somewhere truly remote. The roads are rough with lots of growth so that you often can't work out what is the road in front of you. But this just adds to the excitement.

The scenery is beautiful as well, so there are lots of upsides to this place.

Gonarezhou is a place for the true bush lover. The wilderness here is seriously untouched and as such remains the Africa of old. It is in a remote corner of the country and was neglected by visitors for a period as a result, but in recent times it has received big investments from international donors. This support along with the fact that it is now part of a transfrontier park, that stretches into South Africa and Mozambique, means that it is Zimbabwe's awakening safari giant. Game sightings here may not be as good as Mana Pools or Hwange right now, but they are improving all the time and will be on a par with those parks very soon.

Beware of the elephants

The only reason it didn't get 5 stars for wildlife is because it is (was is 1999) more wild and has less infrastructure for ready-made game viewing.