Gorongosa National Park Voyage Tips and guide

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The 4,000 km² Gorongosa National Park in Central Mozambique is at the southern end of the East African Great Rift Valley. The park includes the valley floor and parts of the surrounding plateaus, which are watered by rivers originating from nearby 1862-meter Mount Gorongosa. It was the subject of a 2010 National Geographic film, Africa's Lost Eden, and is one of Mozambique's main safari destinations.

Seasonal flooding and waterlogging of the valley, which is composed of a mosaic of different soil types, creates a variety of distinct ecosystems. Grasslands are dotted with patches of acacia trees, savannah, dry forest on sands and seasonally rain-filled pans and termite hill thickets. The plateaus contain miombo and montane forests and a spectacular rain forest at the base of a series of limestone gorges.

This combination of unique features at one time supported some of the densest wildlife populations in all of Africa, including charismatic carnivores, herbivores and over 500 bird species. But large mammal numbers were reduced by as much as 95% and ecosystems were stressed during Mozambique's long civil conflict at the end of the 20th Century.

The Carr Foundation/Gorongosa Restoration Project, a U.S. not-for-profit organization, teamed with the Government of Mozambique to protect and restore the ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park and to develop an ecotourism industry to benefit local communities. In January 2008, the Foundation signed a 20-year contract with the Government to co-manage the park.

See also: African wildlife

The dramatic landscape and abundant wildlife of the Gorongosa region have long attracted hunters, explorers, and naturalists. The first official act to protect some of its splendor came in 1920, when the Mozambique Company ordered 1,000 km² set aside as a hunting reserve for company administrators and their guests. Chartered by the government of Portugal, the Mozambique Company controlled all of central Mozambique between 1891 and 1940.

Little is known about the reserve's early years, only that at some point a local man named Jose Ferreira began living in a thatched hut in Chitengo camp and guarding wildlife. In 1935 Mr. Jose Henriques Coimbra was named warden and Mr. Ferreira became the reserve's first guide. The same year the Mozambique Company enlarged the reserve to 3,200 km² to protect habitat for Nyala (an antelope) and black rhino, both highly prized hunting trophies.

By 1940, the reserve had become so popular that a new headquarters and tourist camp was built on the floodplain near the Mussicadzi River. Unfortunately, it had to be abandoned two years later due to heavy flooding in the rainy season. Lions then occupied the abandoned building and it became a tourist attraction for many years, known as the -18.904434.37671 Lion House (Casa dos Leões).

After the Mozambique Company's charter ended, management of the reserve was transferred to the colonial government. Mr. Alfredo Rodriques was appointed Warden, replacing Mr. Coimbra. Over the next 14 years Mr. Rodrigues initiated the first steps towards banning hunting and establishing a viable tourism business.

In 1951 construction began on a new headquarters and other facilities at Chitengo camp, including a restaurant and bar. The same year, the government added a 12,000-km² protection zone around the reserve to mitigate the impacts of the road from Beira to Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), which went through Chitengo. By the end of the 1950s more than 6,000 tourists were visiting annually and the colonial government had awarded the first tourism concession in the park. Gorongosa was named a national park by the government of Portugal in 1960. Recognizing that the reserve needed more formal ecological protection and more facilities for its rapidly growing tourism business, in 1960 the government declared the reserve and another 2,100 km² (a total of 5,300 km²) a national park.

Many improvements to the new park's trails, roads and buildings ensued. Between 1963 and 1965 Chitengo camp was expanded to accommodate 100 overnight guests. By the late 1960s, it had two swimming pools, a bar and banquet hall, a restaurant serving 300-400 meals a day, a post office, a petrol station, a first-aid clinic, and a shop selling local handicrafts. Revenue from hunting licenses and taxes on hunters elsewhere in Mozambique supported much of that development. At the same time, paving of the Beira-Rhodesia road and construction of the "drum bridge" over the Pungue River, in Bué Maria, helped to double the annual number of visitors.

In the late 1960s, the first comprehensive scientific studies of the Park were led by Kenneth Tinley, a South African ecologist. In the first aerial survey, Tinley and his team counted about 200 lions, 2,200 elephants, 14,000 buffaloes, 5,500 wildebeest, 3,000 zebras, 3,500 waterbucks, 2,000 impala, 3,500 hippos, and herds of eland, sable and hartebeest numbering more than 500.

Tinley also discovered that many people and most of the wildlife living in and around the park depended on one river, the Vunduzi, which originated on the slopes of nearby Mount Gorongosa. Because the mountain was outside the park's boundaries, Tinley proposed expanding them to include it as a key element in a "Greater Gorongosa Ecosystem" of about 8,200 km².

In 1964, Mozambique entered a war for independence launched by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo). The war had little impact on Gorongosa National Park until 1972, when a Portuguese company and members of the Provincial Volunteer Organization were stationed there to protect it. Even then, not much damage occurred, although some soldiers hunted illegally. In 1976, a year after Mozambique won its independence from Portugal, aerial surveys of the park and adjacent Zambezi River delta counted 6,000 elephants and about 500 lions, probably the largest lion population in all of Africa.

The violence increased in and around the park after the outbreak of a civil war caused by South African funding of rebel groups. In 1983, it was shut down and abandoned. For the next nine years Gorongosa was the scene of frequent battles between opposing forces. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting and aerial bombing destroyed buildings and roads. The park's large mammals suffered terrible losses as both sides in the conflict slaughtered hundreds of elephants for their ivory, selling it to buy arms and supplies. Hungry soldiers shot many more thousands of zebras, wildebeest, buffaloes, and other hoofed animals. Lions and other large predators were gunned down for sport or died of starvation when their prey disappeared.

Thousands of people living in or near the park were being brutalized towards the end of the war when the rebels controlled much of Gorongosa District. Some people sought refuge in the Park. Desperate for meat, they hunted at will, further reducing the park's wildlife.

The civil war ended in 1992 but widespread hunting in the park continued for two more years. By that time many large mammal populations (including elephants, hippos, buffalos, zebras, and lions) had been reduced by 90 percent or more. The park's spectacular birdlife emerged relatively unscathed.

A preliminary effort to rebuild Gorongosa National Park's infrastructure and restore its wildlife began in 1994 when the African Development Bank (ADB) started work on a rehabilitation plan--with assistance from the European Union and International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Fifty new staff were hired, most of them former soldiers. Baldeu Chande and Roberto Zolho, employed by the park before the war, returned to take leadership positions. Chande was director of the emergency program and Zolho was wildlife coordinator and warden. "We have established that all species that were here before the war are still here" Chande told a reporter in 1996. "None is extinct but many are in very small numbers". Over a five-year period this ADB initiative reopened about 100 km of roads and trails and trained guards to slow illegal hunting.

In 2004, the Government of Mozambique and the US-based Carr Foundation agreed to work together to rebuild the Park's infrastructure, restore its wildlife populations and spur local economic development, opening an important new chapter in the park's history.

Between 2004 and 2007 the Carr Foundation invested more than $10 million in this effort. During that time the restoration project team completed a 6,200-hectare (23 square mile) wildlife sanctuary and reintroduced buffaloes and wildebeests to the ecosystem. They also began the reconstruction of Chitengo HQ. Due to the success of this initial three-year project, the Government of Mozambique and the Carr Foundation announced in 2008 that they had signed a 20-year agreement to restore and co-manage the park.

Gorongosa National Park protects a vast ecosystem defined, shaped, and given life by all the rivers that flow into Lake Urema. The Nhandungue crosses the Barue Plateau on its way down to the valley. The Nhandue and Mucombeze come from the north. Mount Gorongosa contributes the Vunduzi. Several smaller rivers pour down off the Cheringoma Plateau. Together they comprise the Urema Catchment, an area of about 7,850 km².

Most of the rivers are seasonal, reaching the valley floor only during the rainy season, between November and April. The rest of the year they are intermittent rivers that appear and disappear into the earth. Only the Vunduzi and the Nhandungue feed Lake Urema the entire year. The Nhandungue receives help from the Muera, a smaller stream that feeds it even at the height of the dry season. Like the Vunduzi, the Muera comes from Mount Gorongosa. Thus water born on the mountain is the key to life in the valley below.

On calm, clear days, the lake's surface reflects Mount Gorongosa's huge green bulk, as if in gratitude, and rightly so: it's a commanding presence the indigenous people hold sacred. An isolated, 600-km² massif, 1,863 m high, it's large enough to create its own weather system. Two meters of precipitation fall annually on the mountain. Lush forests and grasslands on its upper reaches soak up much of that water and dispense it down slope all year long.

The rain and seasonal inundation of the valley, along with many different soil types, creates a unique mosaic of distinct ecosystems. The plains are dotted with acacia savanna, dry forests in sandy areas, wetlands or pans seasonally filled by the rains, and thickets on termite-built mounds. The plateaus contain miombo and mountain forests and a spectacular rainforest at the bottom of a series of limestone gorges.

Wildlife: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, hippo, crocodile, zebra, sable, kudu, nyala, waterbuck, impala, bushbuck, reedbuck, oribi, lichenstein’s hartebeest, warthog, bush pig, serval cat, civet, genet, chacma baboon and vervet monkey.

The park’s birdlife is fantastic. About 500 species have been sighted. Many are endemics or near-endemics prized by birders. The green-headed oriole, for example, is found in southern Africa only on Mount Gorongosa, and the moustached warbler has been sighted at Chitengo and on the mountain.

Central Mozambique has a tropical savanna climate, with an annual rainfall of 1000 – 1400 mm. Summer temperatures average 30º-40º C, with high humidity (November - March). Winter months average 15º–25º C (April - September).

Chitengo Safari Camp offers modern cabanas with air conditioning, restaurant and swimming pools; the camp is open throughout the year except for the period from December to the end of March for the rainy season.

Photo safaris at the park are possible from April to November (dry season). During the rainy season (December to March) the safari road network is closed due to flooding.

• Park website

Mozambique’s national language is Portuguese. Many people in its main cities (Maputo, Beira, Chimoio) also speak English. In and around Gorongosa National Park, local residents speak either Sena or Chi-Gorongosi (a local dialect), although many also know some Portuguese. Staff in Chitengo speak English and Portuguese widely, and some speak other European languages.

International flights arrive in Beira, Mozambique’s second-largest city, which serves as the main gateway to the park. Ethiopian Air flies in 5 times per week and from Beira, travellers can take a short Safari Air charter directly into Gorongosa, or connect via a newly introduced scheduled route between Beira and Vilanculos, enabling easy combinations of a safari in Gorongosa with Mozambique’s coastal destinations.

Safari Air Flights:

• Beira to Gorongosa (-18.976934.35581 Chitengo Airstrip) Scheduled flights operate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, requiring a minimum of two passengers.
• Beira to Vilanculos: Scheduled flights operate Monday and Wednesday.

Private charter flights are available between these destinations on demand. Gorongosa also features a licensed airstrip at Chitengo HQ suitable for charter aircraft.

The park’s main gate opens at 6AM and closes at 6PM. This shifts to a half-hour/hour earlier or later depending on the time of year.

Maputo and Beira have Imperial and Avis rental car agencies. Rates vary, depending on the agency, the car you rent, and if you need a driver, but typically they are about US$125 per day.

You can drive to the park on the EN1 highway from Maputo or via the EN6 highway from Beira, which intersects the EN1 highway at Inchope. Both are tar roads. The 40 km of EN1 from Inchope to the turn-off to the park is high-quality tar. From there it’s another 11 km east on a graded dirt road to the park gate. The 18-km dirt road from the gate to Chitengo is drivable in a two-wheel drive vehicle with good clearance. During the rainy season (November–April) the road is only passable using a four-wheel drive vehicle, and in particularly heavy rains may not be passable.

Even during the dry season, it is recommended to drive a 4x4 vehicle on the park's roads and Game Drive Network. Driving a 2x2 sedan is not recommended for game drives because of the risk of getting stuck or damaging your vehicle. Four-wheel drive is essential for driving to the base of Mount Gorongosa or exploring any other rugged terrain.

Buses leave Beira hourly for Chimoio or Inchope, but they do not come all the way to the Park. You will need to get off at Inchope and take the bus to Vila Gorongosa. Ask the driver to let you off at the turn-off to the park, about 40 km north of Inchope. From there, you will need transportation to Chitengo, a distance of about 29 km. You will need to call the park (+258 23 535010 or +258 82 3020604) from Inchope (preferably from Beira or Chimoio) to request a ride.

The park is closed from mid-December until late March each year due to the rainy season. The front gate to the park itself is open only during daylight hours, which vary seasonally. No pets or bicycles are allowed in the park at any time.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) residents (i.e. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, etc.) and Mozambicans have reduced park entry fees. For a more detailed list of fees and permits, check the park website.

• Per person (Non-SADC) - US$20 (2025)
• Per adult (SADC residents) - US$10
• Per adult (Mozambican) - 100 MT/US$4
• Per car - 200 MT/US$8
• Per trailer - 50 MT/US$2

You may not self drive within Gorongosa National Park. Trained guides can take you on 3-hour early morning and sunset game-viewing drives to view wildlife on the approximately 100 km of game roads from Chitengo. The drives will traverse various ecosystems, including floodplains, miombo forest, and lowland savanna. Due to safety reasons, children under 6 years are not allowed in the open game-viewing vehicle.

Most excursions to the surrounding park are organized as tours by the safari providers. Montebelo, for example, offers three wildlife safaris per day. Longer excursions can be booked with these providers to sites such as Lake Urema, Mount Gorongosa, and Mozambican villages.

• Gorongosa Safaris. The tourism arm of Gorongosa National Park, responsible for managing guest operations. The organisation oversees tourism-related activities within the park, including accommodation, guided safaris, and community-based experiences. Its operations encompass Muzimu Lodge, Chicari Camp, and seasonal Expedition Fly Camps. (updated Oct 2025)
• -18.88934.4761 Lake Urema. Montebelo Hotels organizes a boat safari to Lake Urema to see birds, hippos and crocodiles. Each safari can take six guests (adults and teens only). Montebelo states that boats cannot be booked in advance due to the lake's seasonality. (updated Oct 2025)
• -18.40388934.108752 Mount Gorongosa. The peak, at a height of 1,800 m (5,900 ft), is significantly higher than the rest of the park, into which it was incorporated in 2010. Due to its elevation, it has a cooler climate than the rest of the park, contributing to its different ecosystem and biodiversity. Gorongosa Safaris does coordinated trips to Mount Gorongosa and the surroundng area, which is known for its coffee cultivation. (updated Oct 2025)
• -19.078834.25983 Vinho Community Tour. Take a 30-45 minute walk with a guide to the community of Vinho just outside the park boundary. It is a 2-km walk to the Pungue River, with some birding along the way. At the Pungue River there will be a short trip in a small boat. You may greet many of the park employees as they commute from Vinho on their way to work. You will also visit the school and hospital in the community. The trip takes 2-3 hours in total. (updated Oct 2025)

Map of Gorongosa National Park

The only store in the area is in Vila Gorongosa, a 90-minute drive from the park's Chitengo area with most food and accommodation. Buy supplies before you arrive in one of the cities en-route.

Restaurants and food are provided by the safari with whom you book (Gorongosa Safaris or Montebelo). Check the safari websites for information on what food is offered on your tour.

• -18.980134.35271 Chitengo HQ (Chikalango Restaurant). Breakfast 6AM-9:30AM, Lunch: 12:30PM-2:30PM, Dinner: 7:30PM-9PM. A bar and restaurant serving authentic Mozambican breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Breakfast is included in the price of the cabanas. Features many locally grown organic vegetables to support the local communities near Chitengo. (updated Oct 2025)

You can't stay in the safari park itself overnight as the entrance gate is closed. You'll need to stay in a lodge or campsite for the night.

Gorongosa offers a variety of accommodation options: tented safari camps, community-run sites and a lodge.

• -18.979434.35251 Montebelo Gorongosa (Chitengo), ☏ +258 82 308 2252, [email protected]. Integrated into the park, Montebelo Gorongosa Lodge & Safari (which includes Chitengo Lodge) offers villa, bungalow, garden room, and premium suite accommodation as part of the Montebelo Hotels & Resorts group. Guests can enjoy a full-service lodge experience with modern amenities close to the main park facilities. (updated Oct 2025)
• -18.930634.35982 Muzimu Lodge. The park’s flagship lodge, located along the Mussicadzi River. It features six East African-style tents, each with en-suite bathrooms and private decks. The lodge includes shared lounge and dining areas as well as a pool, providing a comfortable base for exploring Gorongosa’s ecosystems. (updated Oct 2025)

• -18.930934.3873 Chicari Camp (Wild Camp). A seasonal camp set near a permanent water pan. It has ten safari tents, including two tree-hide tents, each with en-suite bathrooms and private decks overlooking the surrounding wildlife. Designed with a low-impact approach, it offers rustic comfort in a rich wilderness area. There are mosquito nets to keep the tents protected from insects. $715 per night as of 2025 (including food, drinks, laundry, and safari tours). (updated Oct 2025)

Don't try "true" backcountry camping in the park here without a safari guide, as given the dangers of the safari (lions, wild hogs, etc.), you'll want to stay on tour with a local guide while exploring the park.

• -18.979134.35144 Gorongosa Camp, [email protected]. For more adventurous travelers, the park also offers a campsite set in a natural grove near Chitengo. The site includes bathrooms and showers with hot water, a grill area, firepit, washing area, and a covered gazebo. Parking is available onsite. Tents can be rented for between $25 and $35, but they must be reserved in advance with Gorongosa National Park. $12 per day (2025). (updated Oct 2025)

Gorongosa National Park is mostly wilderness surrounded by rural areas with only a few small, scattered villages. Whether you’re traveling by air, car or bus, you’ll want to make careful travel arrangements well in advance.

Gorongosa National Park does not sell fuel. Buy fuel only from stations that look respectable and have a functioning electric pump. The closest reliable stations are in Vila da Gorongosa, Gondola, Nhamatanda, Beira, Dondo, Chimoio and Caia. Fuel at other locations may be dirty or mixed with water or other chemicals.

The park's small health clinic provides basic first-aid, including anti-venom for some kinds of bites and primary anti-malarial treatments.

Gorongosa National Park is a recognized malaria area, so a course of prophylactic medicine two weeks before departure (or as prescribed by your pharmacist or physician) is recommended.

For serious medical problems, the park provides transportation to the health clinic in Vila Gorongosa, a 1.5 hour drive away (about 60 km).

Bottled mineral water is available at a reasonable price, so you’ll only need to bring purification tablets if you're on a tight budget.

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