Zimbabwe: Africa's
Best-Kept Safari Secret

Featured Accommodation

Ngamo Plains, Hwange National Park

Linkwasha Camp — a private concession on the Ngamo Plains, and 45,000 elephant beyond it

Hwange is Zimbabwe’s largest national park at around 14,600 square kilometres, and home to the world’s largest remaining savanna elephant population — over 45,000 animals. Linkwasha, rebuilt from the ground up on the footprint of the original camp, holds traversing rights to the private Makalolo and Linkwasha concessions in the game-rich south-eastern corner, which means guests never share a sighting with public game-drive traffic.

Nine tents sit beneath leadwood trees facing an open pan and permanent waterhole: eight en-suite doubles and twins and one two-room family tent, each with a lounge area and glass-and-mesh sliding doors that open the whole room onto the plains. Bathrooms pair an indoor shower with one that opens to the bush. A raised Star Bed platform a short drive from camp offers a night under nothing but mosquito netting.

Fourteen solar-hybrid pumped pans across the concession sustain wildlife through the dry season and draw remarkable congregations to drink. Linkwasha is particularly known for its wild dog — one of the highest-density painted wolf areas left in Zimbabwe — and a sunken photographic hide puts you at ground level with whatever comes down to the water. Victoria Falls is an hour away by air.