Nehimba Lodge sits on a private concession in the northern reaches of Hwange National Park, one of the few corners of this dry country to hold permanent water. The camp was built around that waterhole. In the dry season, elephant herds move through camp to drink, sometimes lowering trunks into the swimming pool while guests sit a few steps away on the deck.
Nine thatched chalets follow a loose arc around the pan
The concession lies on the seam between the mopane woodland to the north and the Kalahari sandveld to the west, so a single game drive can cross both worlds within a short radius of camp. Nine thatched chalets follow a loose arc around the pan. They stand close enough that the elephants are audible day and night, the splash of water, the low rumble, an occasional trumpet carrying across the sand.
Nehimba belongs to the Imvelo Safari Lodges family, which runs several other camps across Hwange. Its professional guides live at camp rather than commute to it, and they lead their days on foot as readily as by vehicle. They work a landscape held in one of the driest sectors of the park, and that intimacy with the ground shows in everything they read from it.
Its professional guides live at camp rather than commute to it
The private concession is what makes those days possible. Night drives, off-road driving and walking safaris are all permitted here, none of them allowed in the public areas of Hwange. Guides lead walks at first light, reading lion and elephant tracks pressed into the soft Kalahari sand before the day’s heat erases them. The best of it comes early, in the cool hour when the ground still holds the night.
Hwange has no large permanent rivers, so year-round water is scarce across its northern sector, and this is the reason the camp exists at all. The pumped pan becomes a magnet as the natural pans dry out between June and October. Breeding herds gather in dense groups at the water’s edge, calves tucked between the legs of their mothers, bulls testing the air before lowering their trunks. Dinner is often served on the deck while elephants drink only metres away, the floodlights kept low so the scene plays out mostly in silhouette and shadow.
The chalets are raised on wooden platforms under thatch, built from a mix of canvas and timber, each with a private deck facing the pan. Two are configured for families. The heart of the camp is an open-fronted, L-shaped timber building that holds the bar, the lounge and the dining deck, all of it arranged to keep the waterhole in view. A pool is set into stone and timber at the edge of the clearing, close enough that the elephants occasionally drink from it directly.
Hwange has no large permanent rivers, so year-round water is scarce across its northern sector
The game here runs strong beyond the elephants. The lions of northern Hwange are known locally for hunting them, and giraffe, zebra, kudu, sable and buffalo move through the concession alongside cheetah and spotted hyena. The birding gathers around the Nehimba Seep and Mandavu Dam, which draw waterbirds and raptors as well as the woodland species pulled in by the same water that brings the elephant herds.
Full-day excursions run out to the Nehimba Seep, a natural spring where elephants dig into ancient sand for mineral-rich water, and to Mandavu Dam, where fish eagles call over open water and crocodiles bask on the sandbanks. The Mtoa Ruins offer a cultural stop tied to the area’s earlier inhabitants. A photographic hide near the pan puts guests at ground level with the drinking herds. Evenings settle around the firepit, and afterwards staff walk everyone back along lantern-lit paths, watchful for the shapes that sometimes cross the clearing after dark.
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accommodation
Nine thatched chalets raised on wooden platforms, built in canvas and timber, each with a private deck overlooking the waterhole. Two are configured as family chalets. Interiors carry mosquito-netted beds and en-suite bathrooms, and the chalets follow a loose arc around the pan, close enough to hear the elephants drink after dark.
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activities
Morning, afternoon and night game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, plus off-road driving and guided walking safaris on foot, all permitted on the private concession rather than the public park. Full-day excursions reach the Nehimba Seep, Mandavu Dam and the Mtoa Ruins. A photographic hide sits at ground level beside the waterhole.
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conservation
Hwange has no large permanent rivers, so pumped waterholes like Nehimba's are maintained through the dry months to keep water available for wildlife across the northern sector. The Nehimba Seep nearby carries recognised conservation status as a natural water source used by elephants for generations. Guiding at the lodge emphasises tracking and ecological interpretation over pure game-spotting.
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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By air, it is a charter of about an hour from Victoria Falls to Shumba airstrip, which operates all year, and then a short drive of ten to twenty minutes into camp. The flights can be shared, or we can arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, so the timings bend to your itinerary rather than the other way round. Soft bags are the rule on the light aircraft.
By road, allow around five hours from Victoria Falls, with the final stretch on park roads that plays out as a game drive. Flying in one direction and driving the other is a good way to have both.
Yes, and it is straightforward to manage. Northern Hwange sits below the 1,200 metre line under which the UK's official travel health advice rates Zimbabwe's malaria risk as high from November to June, when antimalarial tablets are usually recommended, and although the risk drops through the dry months from July to October, the CDC advises tablets for the whole country in every season.
Confirm the right prescription with a travel clinic or your doctor before you leave, and let the evening routine do the rest: repellent on, sleeves and trousers once the elephants at the pan turn to silhouettes.
The northern reaches of Hwange follow the same fierce calendar as the rest of the park: bone-dry winters with mornings near freezing from June to August, a fast build of heat from September into October, then summer rains from around November to March that green the mopane and bring afternoon storms.
Bring genuine warm layers, a beanie and gloves for winter dawn drives, light neutral clothing and strong sun protection for the days, and a light waterproof in the green season. A soft bag for the flight, a swimming costume for the pool, and binoculars for the birding around the seep and the dam complete the kit.
Children aged seven and over are welcome, and two of the nine chalets are set up for families. With so much of the wildlife arriving in camp itself, younger guests get real sightings without long vehicle hours, which is what makes or breaks a first safari.
Children under seven are taken only by special arrangement, with a private vehicle and separate dining as part of the deal, so it is workable but needs planning. Give us the ages when you enquire and we will set the stay up properly, or steer you to a better-fitting camp if that is the truer answer.
Yes, wifi is free for guests, run off the camp's solar power, and it is comfortably enough for messages and photographs home. Mobile signal in this remote northern sector is another matter, so treat the wifi as the connection rather than your phone.
Most guests find the pan outcompetes the inbox by the second day. If you need dependable contact for something specific, tell us in advance and we will make sure the plan accounts for it.
Meals, drinks including beer, wine and local spirits, laundry and the guided activities are all inside the rate, and the activity list is unusually generous: day and night drives, guided walks and the full-day excursions across the northern sector all count, with a licensed professional guide leading throughout.
What remains, the flights, transfers and the park's fees, we price into a single quote at the start, so the whole trip carries one clear cost rather than a trail of extras.
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