South of Deteema Dam and near Dolilo Pan, Hwange Bush Camp holds a quiet stretch of northern Hwange, country nothing like the Kalahari sandveld of the south. The ground rises and falls in undulating ridges, through mopane woodland and open grassland. It breaks into rock outcrops that give the guides both their vantage points and their tracks to read.
Professional Zimbabwean guides take you out by foot and by vehicle
Days are led on foot across that hilly, rocky terrain, where the walking matters more than any species list to tick off. Professional Zimbabwean guides take you out by foot and by vehicle, working the springs and pumped pans that hold the wildlife through the long dry months. They do it in near solitude, for a game drive here rarely crosses paths with another vehicle. The camp is small and seasonal by design, seven Meru tents struck each November and rebuilt in May.
Dave Carson runs Hwange Bush Camp with his wife Antonette, as part of their Kazuma Trails operation. He qualified as a professional guide in 1995, after a four-year apprenticeship. In more than thirty years of guiding across Africa he has come to set the standards other guides are measured against, and by every account he is one of the nicest people you could hope to walk with.
The guides host the meals and share the fire at night
That mix of authority and warmth carries through the whole of camp life. The guides host the meals and share the fire at night, and the day’s plan bends with the group, so a drive can turn into a walk the moment fresh tracks appear underfoot. The tents sit under tree shade, spaced for privacy, while the lounge and dining tents and a central fire-pit form the heart of it all.
Robins country rewards patience at the pans. Deteema and the springs nearby pull in Hwange’s elephant herds through the dry season, and the way to see them is to settle at a waterhole and let the sightings come rather than chase them. Buffalo move through in large herds and several lion prides hold here year-round, while leopard, cheetah and wild dog are all recorded across the ground. The plains game fills out from there, giraffe and zebra, kudu, waterbuck, sable and warthog, and more than 400 bird species have been logged across Hwange.
Walking is where the camp does its best work. The guides track big game on foot and read the details a vehicle passes straight over, and they interpret the geology and the small workings of the ecosystem across the varied terrain. Open 4×4 drives run alongside the walks, often pairing a pan visit with time on foot, while night drives go looking for serval, genet and honey badger and, once in a while, aardvark or aardwolf. Fly-camping excursions go further still, guests sleeping out in simple dome tents on stretcher beds, well away from the main camp.
The camp assists Zimbabwe Parks directly, grading roads and maintaining water pumps
Carson’s conservation work runs alongside the guiding. As a trustee of the Bhejane Trust, he supports black rhino monitoring, anti-poaching patrols and a volunteer programme across the Sinamatella and Robins areas. The camp assists Zimbabwe Parks directly, grading roads and maintaining water pumps, supplying diesel and food for the ranger teams, and it feeds its own sightings into lion, cheetah and wild dog research. Training the next generation of guides is its own form of conservation, and the camp runs one of the country’s more thorough apprenticeship programmes.
Getting here goes one of two ways: a short flight from Victoria Falls to Sinamatella airstrip and about an hour’s drive, or a road transfer of several hours. The tents are spacious canvas Meru structures, each with a private veranda, an en-suite bathroom and a bush shower, decorated simply with touches of old-world colonial character. The draw is the field time, the guiding and the isolation, not the fittings. The camp suits children aged eight and over, with the walking safaris reserved for those twelve and up.
accommodation
Seven Meru-style canvas tents accommodate a maximum of fourteen guests, set in the shade of trees. Each has twin or double beds, bedside lighting, a standing fan and a private veranda, while the en-suite bathroom sits behind a canvas partition, with a flush toilet, washbasin and traditional bush shower, hot water supplied on request. Solar power runs the camp.
activities
Walking safaris lead the day, tracking game on foot through hilly, rocky terrain with professional guides. Open 4x4 game drives run morning and afternoon, often paired with time at Deteema and other pans, along with night drives for nocturnal species. As the camp sits within Hwange National Park, activities follow park rules, though its isolation means little overlap with other operators. Fly-camping and birdwatching are also offered.
conservation
Dave Carson is a trustee of the Bhejane Trust, and the camp supports its black rhino monitoring, anti-poaching and volunteer work across the Sinamatella and Robins areas. The team assists Zimbabwe Parks with road grading, water-pump maintenance and supplies for ranger teams, and contributes sightings to lion, cheetah and wild dog research. Training the next generation of Zimbabwean guides is a further focus.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
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You fly into Victoria Falls, the usual gateway for Hwange, then reach the camp in the remote northern Robins area either by a light aircraft charter to a Hwange airstrip of around forty minutes, or by road, which takes roughly three to four hours including the drive through the park. There are no scheduled airline flights into Hwange, so the small charter is arranged as part of your safari.
If you fly, the charter is shared and luggage is soft bags of around 20kg per person including hand luggage, which we confirm before you pack. We can also arrange it as a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, flown direct to the strip on your own timings. The camp is seasonal, its tents taken down each November and put back up in May, so it operates through the dry months from roughly May to early November and we plan your trip around that window.
Yes, Hwange carries a seasonal malaria risk, so it is not malaria-free. The risk is at its lowest in the dry winter months from June to October, which is also the prime time for game viewing, and higher through the wet green season from November to April.
Guidance changes from year to year, so please confirm the current advice with a travel clinic or your doctor before you travel, take antimalarials if they recommend them, and cover up against bites after dark.
Hwange sits higher than the Zambezi valley, and its dry-season mornings from June to August are genuinely cold, sometimes near freezing on an early game drive, before the days warm up. You want proper warm layers, a hat and gloves for dawn starts, and light clothing for the middle of the day.
From September the heat builds, with October the hottest month, so switch to light, breathable, neutral-coloured clothing and strong sun protection for a late-season visit. If you fly in, pack into a soft bag rather than a hard case.
The dry season is what brings them in. As the bush dries out from about July to October, wildlife concentrates around the springs and pumped pans, and northern Hwange can hold remarkable numbers of elephant. The guides here work those water sources on foot and by vehicle, so the dry months are the time to come for the classic Hwange gathering.
In the green season from December to April the rains fill the bush with water and the animals spread out, so the big concentrations ease and the focus shifts to birds and newborns. Because the camp is only open in the dry months, a stay here always falls in the stronger game-viewing window.
Yes, the days here lead on foot. The camp sits in remote, hilly, rocky country in northern Hwange, and the guides take you out walking to read tracks and terrain, with open game drives and night drives alongside. Because the camp is so isolated, you rarely cross paths with another vehicle.
Walking safaris in big-game country carry a minimum age for safety, so if you are travelling with children or teenagers, tell us their ages and we will confirm with the camp what they can join.
This is a small, remote bush camp in northern Hwange, and you should plan to be offline here. Camps in this part of the park typically have no guest wifi and little or no mobile signal, with any connection kept for camp operations and emergencies rather than guest use.
For most guests that disconnection is part of the appeal of somewhere this isolated. If you need to stay reachable while you are away, tell us before you travel and we will advise on what is realistic on your dates.
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