A combined Zimbabwe-Mozambique adventure led us from Gonarezhou to Zinave National Park. Still at the early stage of development, Zinave felt very wild. But getting there wasn’t plain sailing. By Mariska Bartlett

After a few days’ delay due to mechanical problems, we made it to Chiqualaquala from Gonarezhou. If you missed that adventure, read all about it here. Our first priority was to get more diesel as we had no idea what lay ahead or if the next big town would even have fuel. We also wanted to be able to do game drives once we got to Zinave National Park. However, the brand new fuel station at the end of town had no diesel! 

My dad asked some locals about diesel and they directed us to what could be called a tyre repair/mechanic shop/buy-any-old-parts shop/tavern. I politely refused any diesel that was going to come out of this deal. Besides, I had installed an extra fuel tank before the trip: the combined 160 litres would give me around 1200km reach in the Hilux. As we all know, 4500 V8 Land Cruisers can run on paraffin and country music (if the wheel bearings are installed correctly), so my dad had no problem filling up his jerry cans. The biggest concern was carrying enough fuel for the Isuzu as it had its standard 70-litre tank only.

The route to Zinave

We pulled out the Tracks4Africa Atlas and inspected it one last time to identify the best route to Zinave. When my parents last visited, in 2023, they took the more usual route via Mapai to Machaila, and from there to Mabote. But the Banamana Lake was so full that vehicles had to take a three-hour detour around it. Why would we want to do that again? Besides, the route we had in mind looked shorter and more efficient. Little did we know what awaited us! We knew that we would have to wild camp somewhere along the road and calculated that we would reach Zinave the next day in the late afternoon. 

The idea was to take the road that runs northeast of Chiqualaquala, right against the Zim border. You follow this two-spoor sandy track for about 28km, after which you turn east to meet a bigger two spoor road. This is basically a service road for the big pylons that run up to the Save River. We thought this a good place to stop and make brunch and fill our bellies for the road ahead. The pylon road was easy going albeit a bit bumpy, but if you have good suspension you can maintain a pace of 50km/h. How I missed that road later in the day… 

On the map and the GPS it shows the track turning away from the service road after about 50km to cut east to Massangena. We could see the service road continued but it didn’t show on the map or GPS so we stuck to the track. As I’m writing this and rechecking roads on Basecamp, I see when you really zoom in that the track we ended up taking is labelled “bad bundu road”. Thanks man! At this stage we had 60km to go to reach Massangena and thought we were making good headway.

Looking for the road

The road started out fine: a sandy two-spoor, quite narrow in places. Later you realise this is a road used by loggers. This area is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area and one of the biggest threats is illegal logging. This became more evident the further we went in. After 24km the road ended abruptly. We stopped to investigate and found tracks made by a tractor a couple of metres away. I went to see what I could find and landed in a maze of fresh tractor tracks, each stopping at some logged trees lying about. It seemed we couldn’t go further. GPS revealed we were still 40km from Massangena. 

My dad decided he would walk in the direction of where the road should be to see if he could find something. We gave him a radio and said if he wasn’t back in 20 minutes we would start to hoot. Nature was getting hostile: the bush was dense and hay fever had started to kick in. Anybody that knows our family knows that we got the hay fever gene in abundance. Then came a swarm of bees that made us jump back into the vehicles and close the windows as we are also very allergic to bees! Did I mention it was around 35 degrees Celsius? 

After a very hot 15 minutes sitting in closed up vehicles, we got a message on the radio that my dad had found a road! At this point it was close to 16:00. We pushed the cars through the bushes to an open spot about a kilometre away. This was a good enough place to camp for the night as all the vehicles could fit and form a lager. Cold beers were immediately popped, wood was gathered and soon enough our tents were set up. Before long we were sitting next to a fire reminiscing about the day’s events.

Blazing new trails

The next morning we started to follow the purple line on the GPS – the road my dad had found. In fact, it is more like he wanted a road to be there, so he decided that we would make a road if necessary. 

This is how it went. We had four pair of hands, two axes and a winch. We would drive for a couple of metres, then stop: axes out felling branches and even a tree or two to get the Enkulu trailer through. There was one tree that had been recently felled by loggers that lay in the “road”. At last we could take out the winch – I was giddy! 

My dad was a recovery man in the army so there are few things he doesn’t know about straps and shackles. Or how to turn an 8000lb winch into a 16000lb winch. Or take a road that doesn’t exist! Miraculously, we didn’t have any punctures. We covered 14km in five hours. When we started to hear chainsaws, we realised we were nearing civilisation again. But at that same moment, we reached another dead end: a big tree had been felled and lay across our path. 

There was no way around it. Almost as one, all the women told my dad to follow those chainsaw sounds and bring help back. By this stage, we were absolutely knackered. After about 15 minutes, my dad emerged from the bush with two guys and a chainsaw in tow! They made quick work of the dead tree in the road, we gave them each an ice cold tonic and there were smiles all around. 

Back on track

A couple of minutes later we came upon a proper road. A sight for sore eyes! We realised this road probably leads right to the Save River at the corner of the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border. (Later, this was confirmed by a friend that lives in Mozambique and who has done that road before. He also informed us that it connects with the pylon service road we had abandoned – the route for next time!) And then we started to see the culprits: big logging trucks going up and down. We decided to stop and make lunch before reaching Massangena as we were all completely famished. After all, we had just spent the morning doing intense gym exercises.

Massangena is a bustling town with a big garage that did have diesel. From here it’s a 100km-drive east to reach the town of Metchisso. This road was very interesting: narrow at first, cutting through mopani veld, but then it opens up. You start to go through beautiful villages where people still live very traditionally. We passed mud and thatch huts, each with its own little patch of land where crops like mielies are hand sowed. Women and children sitting under the shade of massive trees, goats grazing about. Also very beautiful grain silos that I would love to have in my garden. 

About 8km before Metchisso, we reached the Munjoruane Gate of Zinave National Park – it was around 16:00. Wow, we gave a little dust dance right there. Park fees paid and we were in! You then still go through the Tungo Tungo Gate 33km later and the Ximbi Gate 18km after that, which is the entrance to what they call the sanctuary. 

A wild sanctuary

According to Peace Parks, Zinave’s sanctuary is a secure zone where translocated wildlife is kept while an advanced anti-poaching unit is in development. The first wildlife to arrive were seven elephants from South Africa’s Maremani Nature Reserve in October 2016. Since then, giraffe, sable, impala, reedbuck, waterbuck, buffalo, and both black and white rhino have arrived in Zinave. By the end of 2023, more than 2500 wild animals from 16 different species had been translocated to the park. 

Zinave is still very undeveloped for tourism. Tondo Camp, against the river, features basic tented accommodation. Our campsite was a couple of minutes away from Tondo Camp and sits on the edge of a pan. When my parents visited in 2023, there was nothing at this campsite. This time we had the use of an ablution block with two toilets and two showers with gas geysers. 

The big trees and vegetation are what makes Zinave very special, there are ancient baobabs and tondo trees spread throughout the landscape. The park has over 200 tree species. There is a massive pan surrounded by lala palms and fever trees that makes for the most beautiful sunrises. The birdlife is also a highlight; my sister and her passenenger, Carmen, saw a narina trogon just as we entered the park. Maraboes were on the pan and we also saw a palmnut vulture. Another highlight was two oribi antelope grazing. Zinave is home to the Big Five; however, we saw only buffaloes and one elephant. My parents did, however, see rhinos on their previous visit. I would definitely suggest not going at the end of the dry season as we did. It was very dry and some animals weren’t in good condition. 

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The verdict

 Zinave is going through a tourism upgrade and, according to one of the staff members, the park will be closed from March 2025 to make these improvements. I would suggest contacting the park ahead of any trip to establish if a visit is possible. The major plus was that we had it all to ourselves and this gave a true wild feeling, something belonging to a bygone era. However, we all know that these wild places need tourists to survive so hopefully Zinave will become a must-visit on overlanders’ lists. 

About the overlanders

Mariska Bartlett and her sister, Nerise Bekker, are the Safari Susters. While Mariska is a photographer and filmmaker, Nerise is an experienced guide and wildlife photographer. Together they host photographic safaris in Africa’s wild places. They regularly overland to uncover new destinations and satisfy their own craving for the wilds. To see more of Mariska and Nerise’s adventures, follow @safarisusters on Instagram.

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