Hwange National Park
Zimbabwe's largest protected area, on the Kalahari sands, where pumped waterholes hold the herds through the dry months and a 4,600-metre runway serves the camps.
- Arrival
- Victoria Falls International · VFA
- To the park
- About 120 km in a straight line from VFA
- Private jets
- Into VFA or Hwange National Park Airport
- Best time
- March to November
The city
Water drawn from under the sand.
Hwange covers some 14,600 square kilometres of north-western Zimbabwe, most of it laid over Kalahari sand that holds little surface water. Set aside as the Wankie Game Reserve in 1928 and made a national park in 1961, it depends on pans and small dams such as Nyamandlovu and Masuma, topped up with water pumped from underground, and in the dry season the large herbivores gather where the pumps keep running.
The park divides into distinct country: open grassland around Main Camp and Linkwasha, where grazers are more common, and heavier woodland with hot and salt springs at Sinamatella and Robins. Rain falls from late November to February; from May to October hardly any falls, and the days warm from 26 °C in June to 34 °C in October.
- Nyamandlovu Pan One of the pans kept full by pumping, a gathering point for the herds as the bush dries out.
- Linkwasha A concession of open country where grazing animals are more common than in the wooded Sinamatella and Robins areas.
- Sinamatella A more wooded corner of the park, with hot springs and salt springs among the trees.
Arriving
A long runway on the park's edge.
Scheduled flights arrive at Victoria Falls, about 120 kilometres north-west of the park in a straight line. Hwange National Park Airport, about 35 nautical miles south-east of Hwange town, has no scheduled service but a very long runway.
- Johannesburg 1 h 25
- Luanda 2 h 40
- Cape Town 2 h 45
- Seychelles 4 h 55
- Zurich 10 h 05 long-range jet
When to go
March to November.
These averages are measured at Victoria Falls, the closest station with a long record. A single rainy season from late November to February, then almost no rain from May to September. The cool months, June and July, peak at about 26 °C; the heat builds to 34 °C in October, before the first storms.
- 31° J 171
- 30° F 140
- 31° M 76
- 30° A 20
- 28° M 3
- 26° J 0
- 26° J 0
- 29° A 0
- 33° S 1
- 34° O 20
- 33° N 64
- 31° D 163
Elsewhere in Zimbabwe
More reasons to come.
- Victoria Falls The Smoke that Thunders, its spray visible from miles away.
- Mana Pools Walking safaris and canoeing on the Zambezi.
- Kariba A large man-made lake, explored by houseboat.
- Matobo Granite boulders, rock art and rhinos.
- Harare The capital on the highveld, and the start of flights to Mana Pools and Kariba.
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