Average Expert Rating
Rating Breakdown
Write a User ReviewA Conservation Success Story in the Making
Read more
of Gorongosa’s rehabilitation, and one of the park’s attractions is being able to visit surrounding villages and learn about efforts to integrate conservation with improvement of local livelihoods. Another Gorongosa highlight is the chance to hike on the lower slopes of nearby Mt Gorongosa, with its pretty waterfalls and vistas. Due to seasonal flooding, Gorongosa is closed from December to April.
Mozambique’s Conservation Flagship
One of Africa’s finest safari destinations during the colonial era, Gorongosa went through a lean time during the post-independence civil war, when it virtually served as a laager to the troops based within it. Since 2004, however, it has gained ground as a genuinely worthwhile safari destination, and the best non-marine wildlife-viewing destination in Mozambique. Our visit focused on the floodplains, where we saw plenty of waterbuck, reedbuck, impala and other antelope, as well as lion, elephant and buffalo, all at close quarters. We also enjoyed the dazzling variety of waterbirds on the floodplain, and made a side trip to climb nearby Mount Gorongosa, home to southern Africa’s only population of the eagerly sought green-headed oriole (we missed out, but our guide reckoned the odds of a sighting are 50/50). Overall, this is a fabulous work-in-progress, and it should only get better, though recent instability along the Beira Corridor – the main access road – has put an end to self-drive exploration.
Glorious Gorongosa
In the 1950s Gorongosa attracted Hollywood A-listers like Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck, but later took center stage in the internecine conflicts in Mozambique, with both Renamo and Frelimo forces decimating the wildlife. Greg Carr, an American philanthropist, stepped in to save the park in 2004 and has since helped regenerate it to such an extent that it is now thriving. It’s been described as the most biodiverse park on the planet and new species previously unknown to science have been discovered here.
It’s beautiful too, with expansive golden plains, lakes and mountains, and fabulous fever-tree forests and palms.