Little Makalolo

Watch the multitudes of elephant or buffalo from the log-pile hide near the camp’s waterhole. On day and night game drives, thrill to ‘off-the-charts’ game viewing: lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs, spotted hyaenas, leopards, and a vast range of plains game often fleeing them. Slow down on a nature walk to appreciate the ecosystem’s biodiversity and its smaller creatures. Interact with a local community in their homes and schools, learning something of their culture. Spend the night in the elevated Star Bed at Madison Pan, seeing and hearing wildlife gather under a canopy of stars.

Little Makalolo lies in the heart of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, with access to the Makalolo and Linkwasha private conservation land. A staggering 5 657 square miles of diverse habitat, Kalahari sands seeping into teak woodlands and golden savannah grasslands, Hwange serves up some of the best game viewing on Earth, year-round but especially rewarding during the dry season. Its renowned Ngamo Plains, dotted with vleis and ilala palms, are home to an ever-changing wildlife parade.

Hwange’s original intimate bush camp, Little Makalolo offers privacy, relaxation, and remoteness. The camp's six traditional-style rooms – including a family unit – are spacious and en-suite, with indoor and outdoor showers. Solar power is used for tent lights and to heat water, ensuring a lighter environmental footprint. Teak walkways link the tents to the main areas: living and dining areas with an open fire deck for starry, storytelling evenings. A raised pool deck, which also shelters the bar and breakfast area, offers evocative views of the active waterhole in front of camp.

About the Hwange National Park

One of Africa’s top national parks, Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe’s northwest should be on any safari lover’s bucket list. Roaming Hwange’s savanna grasslands and woodlands are the Big Five and 100 other species of mammals – the park has the biggest diversity of mammals out of the world’s national parks. The Belgium-sized park is also home to some 50 000 elephants and is known for regular sightings of cheetah, leopard and lion, as well as one of Africa’s largest populations of the endangered wild dog and rare species such as roan and sable. Birdwatchers will be impressed with the 500 species recorded here.

Visiting Hwange during the dry winter months of July to October guarantees spectacular wildlife sightings, as animals gather around the man-made waterholes in the park to drink.

One of the big draws of Hwange is that it’s easily accessible – you can fly into Victoria Falls and either hire a car or get a road transfer to the park, an hour’s drive away. You can drive most of the park’s roads in a 2x4 vehicle, and there are many options of places to stay to suit a range of budgets – everything from campsites to luxury safari lodges.

What makes Hwange so special is its lack of crowds. For all of its biodiversity, huge herds of elephants and ease of sightings in the winter months, the park never gets crowded, which means you have the space and the quiet to soak up the magic of the bush.