Roads, gates and airstrips
How to get to Gonarezhou National Park
Gonarezhou sits in Zimbabwe's remote south-east, about an hour from the sugar town of Chiredzi to the main Chipinda Pools gate. Getting here is part of the point: this is a park you work for, and a capable 4x4 is not optional for most of it.
The main way in: Chiredzi to Chipinda Pools
From Chiredzi, follow the tar towards Mutare for 21 km, then turn south at the signposted Chipinda Pools junction and cover about 34 km of gravel to the gate. That is roughly 55 km in total and takes between one and one and a half hours, which makes Chipinda Pools by far the easiest entry and the natural gateway to the Runde River and the Chilojo Cliffs.
Chiredzi itself is your last proper town: the last reliable fuel, the last real shops and the last dependable mobile signal. Whatever route you take onwards, arrive with full tanks, full water containers and every meal you plan to eat, because there are no shops and no food for sale anywhere inside the park.
The gates
A note on counting: both ZimParks and the Trust's homepage say the park has six main gates, three north and three south, yet the Trust's own FAQ names only the five above. One of those claims is stale, so this lists what is actually named and bookable.
| Gate | Where it serves | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chipinda Pools | The north: Runde River, Chilojo Cliffs | Main gate, ±55 km from Chiredzi |
| Save-Runde Basecamp | The north-east | Reached via a sand crossing of the Save River; true 4x4 essential |
| Boli Gate | The south-west | From Mwenezi via the Boli–Sango road; report to Mabalauta office |
| Sango Gate | From Mozambique | Directly accessible from the Sango border post; report to Mabalauta office |
| Malipati Gate | The far south | Via the Sengwe–Tshipise corridor country |
What vehicle you need
- High clearance is recommended everywhere in the park, without exception.
- True 4x4 is required for the Save River sand crossing to Save-Runde Basecamp and for the tracks to the remote and wilderness campsites.
- 2WD is not a realistic way to see most of Gonarezhou; do not plan around it.
- Some internal roads close in the wet season, and the whole park closes from 10 January to 1 March.
- Vehicles over 3 tonnes pay an entry fee and face limited road access; over 5 tonnes needs advance notice to the Trust. Motorbikes are not permitted at all.
- Camp water is untreated borehole or river water, so carry all your drinking water in.
By air
Buffalo Range Airport (BFO) at Chiredzi is the regional airport, handling scheduled and charter traffic, and from there it is on the order of three hours by road transfer to the remoter sections of the park. Inside the park, the Chipinda Pools airstrip takes pre-authorised charter flights.
The Trust refers to three registered airstrips serving the park, but no reachable source names the third, so confirm the options with the Trust or your operator when you plan a fly-in trip.
Distances from the big cities: honest gaps
We could not verify official driving distances from Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo or Beitbridge to Chiredzi, so we will not print numbers we cannot stand behind. The practical framing: all routes funnel through Chiredzi (or, from Mozambique, the Sango border post), so plan your trip to Chiredzi first and treat the last hour to the gate as a separate leg.
Coming from Mozambique, the Sango Gate is directly accessible from the Sango border post; remember that Sango and Boli arrivals must report to the Mabalauta office first.
Fuel, supplies and signal
- Chiredzi is the last reliable fuel, roughly 50 km from the northern gate; Triangle is the fallback. A pump at Chikombedzi is sometimes mentioned but is flagged as unreliable even by the source reporting it.
- Carry jerry cans sized to your whole circuit plus reserve; distances inside the park are long and the driving is slow.
- There are no shops or food inside the park. Resupply fully in Chiredzi, about an hour from Chipinda Pools.
- Mobile signal fades fast after Chiredzi and is patchy to non-existent in the park, with occasional weak signal on the ridge en route to the Chilojo Cliffs. Download offline maps before you leave town.
- Most camps are unfenced and wildlife moves through them at night, so arrive with time to set up in daylight.