The Urema floodplain is the heart of the park and where most game drives go. Enormous herds of waterbuck — among the densest concentrations of the species anywhere — graze the open grassland alongside sable, oribi, warthog and buffalo, with elephants moving between the floodplain and the woodland edge.

Lake Urema and its fringing pans hold hippo, crocodile and one of the finest waterbird gatherings in southern Africa, with pelicans, storks and herons concentrated as the water shrinks.

The fever tree and palm forests around the floodplain margins are where lion are most often found. The population, once down to a handful of animals, now runs to over a hundred, and African wild dog have been successfully returned after decades of absence.

Mount Gorongosa, a rainforest-capped massif above the plain, is a separate trip and a birders' destination — green-headed oriole among a long list of species found nowhere else in the park, plus waterfalls and a very different climate.

The dry season from May to October is the game-viewing window, concentrating animals on the floodplain; many camps close during the heaviest rains.

Practicalities

Chitengo is the main camp and the base for most visits, reached by road from Beira in a few hours. The park runs its own guides and much of its staff from surrounding communities, and its human development work — health, education and agriculture in the buffer zone — is as central to the project as the wildlife.

Game densities remain lower than in Kenya or Botswana. Come for the recovery, the emptiness and the birds rather than expecting Serengeti numbers.