Wilderness Davison’s
Wilderness Davison’s offers an authentic tented experience on a private concession in one of Hwange’s prime wildlife areas.
Wilderness Davison’s is the simplest of the four sister camps on this excellent private concession. While the camp is a little larger and you’ll tend to find more guests sharing a vehicle, the camp still retains much charm and an authentic bush feel. With a friendly team and good levels of service and food, Davison’s offers a more affordable way to explore this wildlife-rich corner of Hwange National Park. The main areas are welcoming and comfortable and the waterhole in front of camp is always active.
Rooms
The nine tents, which include a two bedroomed family tent, are each built onto concrete plinths and stretch out either side of the simple but comfortable central areas. All are well spaced and include twin beds and en suite facilities consisting of a shower, single vanity, and flush toilet. The bathrooms are open plan with reed screens in front of the toilet and shower, so don’t offer complete privacy from the bedroom area. The family tent has a king bed in the main bedroom and a smaller adjoining en suite bedroom with twin beds.
Central Areas
The central areas of the camp comprise a welcoming and comfortable lounge and dining area with bar, leading to the campfire. Above the main area is a viewing platform with comfortable seating, shaded by tree foliage and overlooking the busy waterhole in front of camp – it’s a lovely place to spend time when not on activities. There is also a swimming pool.
Facilities
Wi-Fi – Yes
Power for Charging – Yes
Swimming Pool – Yes
Habitat & Wildlife
Hwange is the largest of Zimbabwe’s wildlife areas. Situated in the south-western corner of the country at an average altitude of around 3,000ft, it covers an area of about 1.5 million hectares, along the border with Botswana.
The Park covers the transition zone between the Kalahari sands and the moist savannah woodland. The poor soil and harsh climate have not stunted or limited the variety of habitat: over 230 trees and shrubs and 138 grass species make up some of the more than 1,000 flora species found here. This diversity allows for more than 50 mammal species to co-exist.
Lacking permanent rivers, Hwange is managed with numerous man-made waterholes which are pumped to provide water for most of the animal species and which form the magnate around which most game-viewing takes place (many of the waterholes have hides). The park has a very sizeable and healthy elephant population (it is not uncommon to see over 150 at a time around the waterholes during the dry season), and other larger mammals to be seen include giraffe, impala, zebra, wildebeest, tsessebe, kudu, duiker, roan antelope, waterbuck, eland, gemsbok (along the drier western border), reedbuck, lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog and hippo. Unfortunately, rhino are now seldom seen.
The area is also excellent for bird life, most represented by bush country species: babblers, starlings, bustards, ostrich, cranes, hornbills, francolins, guinea fowl, shrikes, etc., although raptors are plentiful and storks, geese and ibis can be seen at the waterholes.
Game viewing is excellent with good general game, big herds of buffalo and all the major predators present in the area. However Hwange is perhaps best known for its huge elephant populations, and from June through to October huge numbers can be seen visiting the various waterholes throughout the park, including the pan in front of camp. Hwange is also an excellent place to see the majestic sable antelope.
The Linkwasha-Makalolo Private Wilderness Area occupies a broad range of habitat from open grassland, numerous pans, mopane woodland and teak forests. The expansive Ngamo Plains can offer particularly dramatic wildlife viewing – in the dry season they attract a large number of plains game and predators are never far away; while in the green season the flooded plain hosts an explosion of migrant birdlife.
Activities
Activities at Davison’s centre on morning and afternoon/evening game viewing drives in open 4×4 vehicles throughout the concession, as well as walks with armed guides.
Seasons
Wilderness Davison’s is open year round, though game viewing is best from July through to October.
The camp welcomes children from six years of age and the provision of a two bedroom family unit offers ideal accommodation for families wanting to be under one roof. The camp is adept at designing activities for children and teenagers, and a Bush Buddy service is available for children up to the age of 12 on prior request. That said, the camp is not fenced and big game does wander through the camp and so we feel the destination naturally lends itself to families travelling with older children.
Wilderness Safaris has established two non-profit organisations to achieve their mission of protecting and expanding Africa’s wilderness through conservation and community empowerment.
Children in the Wilderness focuses on the children from villages close to the remote areas in which Wilderness Safaris operates, providing environmental education and awareness and training them in the life skills needed to care for and nurture their natural surroundings. Some of these programmes include operating annual camps for up to 30 children at a time in their lodges, running regular Eco-Clubs in rural schools, and Youth Environmental Stewardship (YES) which mentors particular children who have shown a strong interest in their environment and scholarship programmes for primary, secondary and tertiary education.
The Wilderness Wildlife Trust is involved in conservation, anti-poaching, community empowerment and education. In Zimbabwe the Trust has initiated the Hwange Elephant Movement Study which aims to gain a better understanding of elephant movements and habitat use in the park, which has a particularly high elephant density. The Trust has also set up the Scorpion Anti-Poaching Unit in Hwange National Park in order to provide manpower and resources to assist Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to reduce levels of poaching within the Park.
Wilderness Safaris also offers its guests the option to bring a donation of supplies in partnership with Pack for a Purpose where guests may use the empty space in their suitcases for donations of much needed supplies for supported projects.
