Great Zimbabwe to Gonarezhou  

In the southern part of Zimbabwe you often see huge granite outcrops. 

Busy villages and overloaded vehicles are a common sight. 

The town of Triangle has a large sugar mill and much of the surrounding area is given over to sugar cane estates.  The lorries taking the cane from the fields to the mill are fully loaded and need to be passed with care!

Gonarezhou National Park

 We spent a couple of nights here, the first at Chilojo Cliffs campsite and the second (our last night as a group) at  Chipinda Pools.  

 After a brief stop at reception we drove into the Park but soon had to stop as there was a bull elephant in the road in front of us.  Dries stopped but the elephant started heading towards him so he asked us all to back up, which we did, and then we sat and waited until he moved into the nearby bush.  He kept a close eye on us all as we passed him.

Chilojo Cliffs campsite is set overlooking the Runde River with the Chilojo cliffs on the opposite side of the river.  When it's sunny in the afternoon the sun lights up the cliffs making for a glorious sight.  Luckily, as we were only there for 1 night, the weather was kind to us and we had a magnificent view of the cliffs..

As we were enjoying the view we saw a family group of elephants making their way along the far side of the river.  They had a drink and started to cross the river.  There was also a single elephant on our side of the river,  one member of the group crossed the river and the two greated each other.  Later the rest of the family crossed over and they all headed across the sand and into the bush together.

The following day the others left in the morning and took at long route back to Chipinda Pools via the Cliffs lookout point.  We decided to stay at the campsite for the morning and then took the direct route to Chipinda Pools in the afternoon.  

We sat in the shade with a great view of the river and watched a variety of animals going down to drink.  We also saw impala at the campsite and could hear and sometimes see lots of birds.        

We took our time on the drive back to Chipinda Pools and saw quite a few animals. 

We arrived at the campsite just before the others and soon were set up on the banks of the river.  We enjoyed yet another lovely sunset as we sat around the camp fire. 

The following day we drove to the Beitbridge border and crossed back into South Africa.  We had a fabulous time in Zim and look forward to returning.

Last updated: October  2023