Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg

Nyanga at 6,000m - Nyanga National Park

Nyanga National Park in the northern portion of the Eastern Highlands is the oldest national park in Zimbabwe.

The park was once the private estate of 19th century businessman and politician Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the colonial territory of Rhodesia, who regarded the mountainous Nyanga region to be a place of great beauty.

Rhodes first visited Nyanga in 1896 and quickly bought up a 400 square kilometre portion of land, declaring the region to be “much finer than described”.

Rhodes ensured that the land he purchased contained some of Nyanga’s most spectacular features, including Mount Nyangani and the breath-taking Pungwe Falls.

Today, the park is one of the most visited national parks in Zimbabwe, having joined together with Mutazari Falls National Park along its southern boundary.

Nyanga National Park lies in one of the most picturesque portions of the Eastern Highlands; it is a vast green wilderness area of rolling hills covered in grassy plains and heavily wooded mountainsides.

The high altitude and frequent rains have encouraged the growth of huge forests of pine trees that cover large portions of the park, and the cool valleys are home to plenty of low-lying shrubs and deciduous trees.

As well as an abundance of plant-life, Nyanga National Park provides homes for an array of animals; the park contains one of the richest faunas of any of Zimbabwe’s parks, and the wildlife is a huge draw to visitors.

Large mammals are found across the park, such as several species of antelope which occur here in vast numbers, including the waterbuck, klipspringer and kudu.

Lucky safari visitors may glimpse the predators that live in Nyanga, including leopards, hyenas and the occasional lion, while the clawless otter and the endangered Inyangani river frog can be found in the park’s rivers and streams.