Hwange is Zimbabwe's largest national park, about 14,600 km² of Kalahari sand, teak woodland and open grassland in the country's north-west. Huge elephant and buffalo herds gather at its waterholes in the dry season, and the private south-eastern concessions add ground-level hides and nights on sleep-out platforms.
Hwange National Park lies in Matabeleland North, just off the road between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. It became a game reserve in 1928 and a national park in 1961, and at about 14,600 km² it is the largest park in the country. Most of it sits on Kalahari sand near the edge of the Kalahari, so there is little permanent surface water.
To keep animals in the park through the dry months, many pans are topped up with water pumped from underground. In the private concessions, camps help run solar-hybrid pumps on their own pans. The camps we use are in the south-east, around the Ngamo Plains and the private Linkwasha and Makalolo concessions, and near the Somalisa area.
Elephants are the main event. In the dry season large breeding herds walk in to drink at the pans. Buffalo herds are big too. Hwange has over 100 mammal species, including sable and roan antelope, giraffe, zebra, lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena and African wild dog, and more than 400 bird species.
Days are mostly morning and afternoon game drives, but the waterholes are what make Hwange different. Several camps have sunken or log-pile hides at eye level with drinking elephants, some offer a night on a sleep-out platform, and some run guided walks. Little Makalolo and Davison's can arrange a visit to the Scorpion Anti-Poaching Unit.
The dry season, from about June to October, is the classic time, when wildlife concentrates around water and the bush is thin. October is very hot. From December to March the rains spread animals out, plains game have their young on the Ngamo Plains, and migrant birds arrive. Rates are lower then.
The south-eastern camps are about an hour by light aircraft from Victoria Falls Airport, with a game-drive transfer from the airstrip. By road it is around four hours from Victoria Falls to Somalisa. Plan three or four nights, or split a longer stay between two camps.
All of these camps are in the south-east of the park and look out over a waterhole, so you can watch wildlife from camp between drives.
African Bush Camps' seven-suite camp in an acacia grove, with a small Elephant Pool where elephants drink a few meters from guests. Ages 12 and up.
The family option from African Bush Camps, with four suites, two of them interconnecting family tents, and a kids' program.
Nine tented suites on the edge of the Ngamo Plains, with a sunken hide on the waterhole and a Star Bed for a night out.
A smaller, more classic camp with six tents and a log-pile hide on its pan.
Nine tents in false mopane woodland facing a waterhole, with guided walks on offer and a family tent.
Hwange pairs naturally with Victoria Falls, and the two together fit into five or six nights. For a longer trip, add Mana Pools for walking and canoeing, or cross into Botswana for Chobe or the Okavango Delta.
Mammals
Primates
Birdlife (woodland and pan species)
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