This is a nine-night trip through south-eastern Zimbabwe, built around three stays. It opens in the Sango Wildlife Conservancy, 60,000 hectares of private land in the Savé Valley, north of Gonarezhou, where guides track black and white rhino on foot. It then moves to Chilo Gorge, on red sandstone cliffs above the Save River, looking across the water into Gonarezhou National Park. It closes back at the Runde and Save confluence.
You travel by vehicle and on foot, with drives that go off-road and on into the dark on Sango’s private land, and days that bend around what the trackers find. Sango Expedition Camp is three canvas tents for six guests on the seasonal Mzaise riverbed; Chilo Gorge is a stone, timber and thatch lodge of ten chalets set on the cliff edge above the river.
Sango Wildlife Conservancy runs to 60,000 hectares north of Gonarezhou, within the wider Savé Valley Conservancy. As private land it allows what the parks cannot, so drives go off-road and on into the dark, and guides track black and white rhino on foot. The reserve's trackers know the animals as individuals: the Chapungu lion pride, leopards and cheetah, buffalo and elephant, and the wild dogs that use the reserve as a refuge. The camp stands inside the Dadiso Conservation Area, 200 square kilometres set aside in 2021 as a no-hunting zone given over to photographic safaris.
Chilo Gorge stands on red sandstone cliffs above the Save River, the water itself the boundary with Gonarezhou National Park. Elephants, buffalo, hippo and crocodile work the sandbanks below the deck, close enough that no vehicle is needed, and at night the hippo calls carry up the gorge. Gonarezhou translates as place of many elephants, and visitors are few enough that a morning drive can pass no other vehicle. Full-day drives run to the Chilojo Cliffs, a red sandstone wall above the Runde River. The lodge sits on land the Mahenye community set aside for wildlife, and a levy on every guest night funds its schools, a clinic and a grinding mill.
The trip closes with two nights back at Sango Expedition Camp, three canvas tents for six guests above the seasonal Mzaise River. In the dry months the sand riverbed becomes a road the elephants use, and days go to tracking rhino or elephant with the reserve's trackers, or out on patrol with the anti-poaching unit and its dogs. There is lamplight after dark and hot water by the bucket, and the canvas comes down at the end of the season.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
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