Gonarezhou is Zimbabwe's last great wild frontier: a huge, remote and little-visited park in the country's south-eastern corner, right up against Mozambique. Its name says it all —'the place of elephants' in Shangaan— and it more than lives up to it, with over 11,000 of these giants roaming its plains, rivers and mopane woodlands. It is the country's second-largest park, yet it receives a fraction of the visitors of Hwange or Mana Pools, which makes it a paradise for anyone looking for wild Africa without the crowds.
The park's emblem is the Chilojo Cliffs: red sandstone walls rising above the Runde River valley that glow gold and orange at sunset while elephants come down to drink. Add to that the pools of the Runde and the Save, full of hippos and crocodiles, and wildlife that includes lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs (painted wolves), buffalo and uncommon antelope such as nyala and suni, plus more than 400 bird species. Gonarezhou is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a huge 'peace park' that connects with Kruger and Mozambique.
This guide takes a practical look at Gonarezhou: what to see, how to reach this out-of-the-way corner, which fees and logistics to bear in mind, where to stay (from rustic camping to exclusive lodges) and why it's worth the effort. It isn't an easy or mass-market destination, but for adventurous travellers who want elephants, silence and cinematic landscapes, Gonarezhou is one of Zimbabwe's great rewards.
Gonarezhou, 'the place of elephants' in Shangaan, was for centuries the territory of the Shangaan (Tsonga) people and a stage for the ivory trade. It was declared a game reserve in 1934-1935 and upgraded to a national park in 1975; its creation involved the forced eviction of the Shangaan communities who lived there. After decades of poaching, wars and droughts, the park was reborn from 2007-2017 thanks to the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust, a partnership between Zimbabwe's parks authority (ZimParks) and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Today it is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Its full story —the Shangaan, ivory, the evictions and the recovery— is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The cradle of the country: here stands Great Zimbabwe, which gave the nation its name, with old Masvingo as a base and, to the east, the red cliffs of wild Gonarezhou.
Read the history of The historic south (Masvingo) →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The name says it all: Gonarezhou means 'the place of elephants' in the Shangaan language (also called Tsonga), spoken by the people who have lived for centuries in this corner of south-eastern Africa, on the border between present-day Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The Shangaan lived by farming, herding, hunting and fishing along the great rivers that cross the region (the Save, the Runde and the Mwenezi), and they shared the land with one of the largest concentrations of elephants on the continent.
With so many elephants around, the area became a historic centre of the ivory trade. For centuries, Gonarezhou ivory fed the trade routes that reached the Indian Ocean coast, handled by Swahili and Arab merchants and later by the Portuguese. Tusks from the elephants of the south-east were a prized commodity that linked this remote territory to distant markets, much as gold linked the Shona plateau to the wider world.
Gonarezhou also became famous for its big-tusked elephants, known as 'tuskers'. That reputation, together with the rugged terrain, shaped its image as a wild, untamed place that was hard to bring under control, where the elephant was the true master. It's an image the park still largely lives up to today.
In 1934, the colonial government of Southern Rhodesia declared the area a protected zone, and by 1935 it had been set up as a game reserve. The aim was to protect the wildlife, which had been badly hit by hunting, but the human cost was severe. Over several decades, the Shangaan communities living there were forced to leave their land and resettle outside the protected area. As in so many African parks, conservation was built on evicting the original inhabitants.
In 1975, shortly before independence, the reserve was made a national park, covering its current 5.053 km². But the years that followed were brutal. Zimbabwe's liberation war and, above all, the long civil war in neighbouring Mozambique (1977-1992) turned the border region into unstable territory awash with weapons. Elephant and rhino poaching soared, and wildlife populations took a devastating blow.
On top of that came the recurring droughts of the south-east, especially the devastating one of 1991-1992, which killed thousands of animals. For decades, Gonarezhou was a 'paper park': huge on the map, but short on resources, with depleted wildlife and elephants so persecuted that they fled at the mere sound of an engine. Bringing it back seemed impossible.
The turning point came in the 21st century. From 2007, the Frankfurt Zoological Society, a respected German conservation organisation, began supporting the management of the park alongside Zimbabwe's wildlife authority. The partnership was formalised in 2017 with the creation of the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust (GCT), an alliance between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which took on joint management of the park for twenty years.
This co-management model transformed Gonarezhou. With stable funding, better equipment and a stronger ranger force, poaching dropped sharply and wildlife populations began a remarkable recovery. Elephant numbers grew again to more than 11.000, and reintroduction projects brought back species that had disappeared or dwindled, such as rhinos in neighbouring protected areas. The elephants, once terrified, gradually got used to vehicles again.
Gonarezhou thus became a success story of modern African conservation, held up as an example of how public-private partnerships can rescue a park on the brink of collapse. For travellers, this comeback means you can now explore a living, healthy ecosystem, with large herds and untouched landscapes, in a place that only a few decades ago seemed doomed.
Gonarezhou's recent history is tied to an ambitious idea: 'peace parks', or transfrontier conservation areas. In 2000-2002 the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park was formally established, joining three gems of southern African conservation: South Africa's famous Kruger National Park, Mozambique's Limpopo National Park and, at the Zimbabwean corner, Gonarezhou.
The idea behind it is as simple as it is powerful: wildlife doesn't recognise borders. By taking down barriers and linking the three parks into one continuous protected area of tens of thousands of square kilometres, animals (especially elephants, which travel huge distances) can move freely between countries along their ancient migration routes. The park is also a symbol of regional cooperation and reconciliation in an area that was once a war frontier.
For Gonarezhou, being part of this whole means belonging to an ecosystem on a continental scale and gaining international standing in conservation. And for visitors it adds a fascinating extra dimension: exploring the park is a glimpse into one of the planet's great experiments in cross-border conservation.
Today Gonarezhou combines that ecological importance with its wild, remote character. Less famous than Hwange or Mana Pools, it offers exactly what many people are looking for and find harder and harder to come by: the real Africa, without the crowds, with elephants ruling the landscape and the red Chilojo cliffs blazing in the late-afternoon sun.
