Hwange's scale makes the choice of where to stay part of the experience. It shapes how you move through the park, what you have time to see, and how much of the wider district you come to know.
Hwange is Zimbabwe's largest national park. It covers about 14,650 square kilometres in the north-west of the country. ZimParks, the national parks authority, describes it as home to the largest elephant population in Zimbabwe and Africa's largest population of the endangered African wild dog. The park has around 100 mammal species and nearly 400 bird species, and it holds four of the Big Five: elephant, lion, leopard and buffalo. The fifth, the rhino, is the subject of the most striking project on the park's southern edge, which we return to below.
No one can experience all of this on one safari. Where you stay determines which landscape you get to know, how you move through it, and whose knowledge you encounter. So the first decision is where to stay.
