CROSSING CAUSEWAYS SAFELY WHILE ON SAFARI

Gonarezhou National Park has issued a timely safety reminder to visitors ahead of the busy travel season, urging motorists to take extra care when negotiating the park’s causeways, particularly the well-known Chipinda Causeway.

In a post shared on its official Facebook page, the park explained that where a rock line is visible at a causeway crossing, it is there to guide drivers, marking the safe line of travel on the downstream side of the crossing. Rather than instinctively steering wide to avoid the rocks, as many drivers are inclined to do, visitors are advised to keep their vehicle close to the rock line in order to stay centred on the causeway. The park’s message was direct: trust the rocks, and take the crossing slowly.

The advisory carries particular weight given Gonarezhou’s remote and rugged terrain. As Zimbabwe’s second-largest national park, spanning roughly 5,000 square kilometres in the country’s south-eastern lowveld, Gonarezhou borders both Kruger National Park in South Africa and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, forming part of the wider Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Known evocatively as “the place of elephants,” the park is home to an estimated population of the animals numbering in the thousands, alongside the rest of the Big Five and more than a hundred other mammal species.

Road conditions within the park are notoriously demanding, with visitors typically advised to budget for average driving speeds of only twenty to thirty kilometres per hour given the state of the tracks. River crossings such as causeways form an unavoidable part of navigating the park, particularly around the Chipinda Pools area in the north, which serves as one of the main tourist entry points and is accessible via the Chiredzi turn-off from the main tarred road. With no fuel, shops or convenience facilities available inside the park itself, self-drive visitors are already required to plan meticulously, making sound guidance on hazards like causeway crossings all the more valuable.

The timing of the reminder is also notable, with causeway crossings becoming more hazardous during and after the rainy season, when water levels and submerged debris can shift the safest line of travel. Park authorities have previously cautioned that access to certain areas may be restricted during the rains, with visitors encouraged to consult park offices before undertaking game drives at that time of year.

For self-drive safari-goers heading into this wild and lightly touristed corner of Zimbabwe, the park’s advice offers a simple but important principle: when the rocks are there, they are a guide, not an obstacle to avoid.

Image source: Gonarezhou NP