About Chikwenya

With open grassland floodplains, riverine forests, jesse bush, wooded islands and a 2km deep Faydherbia Albida band of woodland along the Zambezi river banks, Chikwenya’s diverse habitats lend itself to being one of Africa’s best wildlife sanctuary’s found anywhere on the continent.

The Faydherbia trees more commonly known as the winter thorn, due to the fact that they produce a highly nutritious seed during Zimbabwe’s winter months, provide much needed sustenance to the wildlife in the dry season and is the main reason why the Mana pools and Lower Zambezi floodplains have such abundant game during the months of June through November.

With large numbers of ungulates concentrated in relatively small areas it follows that the super predators such as Lion, leopard, hyena and wild dog are regularly encountered on game drives and walks. The river itself hosts one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of hippo and crocodile and its pools and eddies are teeming with fish.

The lodge is one of the most luxurious found anywhere on the Zambezi river, comprising of 9 double lodges and one presidential suite, each lodge has an inside and outside bathroom, a private deck and a colonial style bath in which to lie back, relax and enjoy the magnificent vista all around you. Each lodge is air conditioned for those unbearably hot October days, yet also designed to allow guests to open up to the African night sounds behind gauze doors and windows in the cooler months.

The main entertainment area has a bar, outside dining, swimming pool and lapa area.

Activities offered include game drives and walks, boat cruises, night drives, bird watching and fishing on the Zambezi for the world famous tiger fish. All activities are done with our top guides who are experts on the flora and fauna of the area.

At Chikwenya we pride ourselves on trying to cater for all our clients needs and as such activities are not regimented to certain times. Rather we attempt to fit in with the times and activities requested by our guests. This is your holiday and we believe you should make decisions as to what you want you do and when.

Access is via road from the Harare – Chirundu highway in the dry months, four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended. From Harare, a distance of 430km, guests should expect a 6 – 7 hour drive. Air access is to our private airstrip located in the lease area some 3km south of the lodge. The airstrip is semi-all weather and is capable of handling most if not all turbo-prop and piston driven aircraft.