The only lodge inside the UNESCO Matobo Hills World Heritage Site. Seventeen chalets, forty guests at most, and a family that has opened the door here every year since 1994.
The only lodge set within the National Park boundary. Granite domes, balancing rocks, amphitheatres — weathered into their shapes before life could hold one of its own. UNESCO named the range in 2003. The honour was late; the hills have been noticed for a while.
A week of experiences
Quietly, at distance, on foot in the Intensive Protection Zone — one of the safest places in Africa to do this. A 90%+ sighting rate, but the walk is what stays with you.
Rhino tracking on footThere are larger lodges in this country, and louder ones. We built this one for travellers who notice the difference — and who value the comfort, the detail, and the choice of how they want their day to unfold.
The bush is ten paces from the verandah. You wake up in the landscape you came to see — not at a gate you reach the next morning.
Plan your safari
A ranger who has spent a decade learning how rhino move through stone country. Walk if the walking is good. Take the vehicle if it isn't. You set the pace, we make it comfortable either way.
How we guide
Stone, thatch, a verandah, no television. The dining room is one long table. By the second night, the bar knows your order and you know the names of the dogs.
The chalets
The lodge was opened in 1994 by the late Alan Elliott — pioneer of the modern Zimbabwean safari industry, founder of Touch the Wild, and the man who gave the Presidential Elephants of Hwange their name and their protection. By any honest measure, the father of safari in this country.
The Elliotts have been in Zimbabwe since the 1860s. Fifth generation now; second in the Matobo. Josh runs the lodge the way Alan built it — small, on foot, owner-operated. Through drought, through currency collapse, through everything. Never sold, leased, franchised, or pitched to a group.
The lodge is kept to Alan's standard by a long-serving, on-site team Josh works with every day — a hands-on management structure built for consistency, detail, and the kind of hospitality that doesn't need to announce itself. Josh isn't behind the bar, but he is in the work of this place — training, standards, and the reply to any letter that matters. Write to josh@matoposhillslodge.com and the reply comes from Josh, not an inbox.
— Josh Elliott Continuing what Alan started · Second generation in the Matobo
We do not pretend there is a leopard at every turn. We take you where the landscape is, and wait.
Experiences
Forty guests is the ceiling. We will not expand. The arithmetic of attention does not scale.
The chalets
One night on transit, or seven through the park — this is a family-run lodge, not a hotel brand. The difference is there from the first evening.
Around the table
Two outings a day is the ceiling. One long walk beats three hurried drives, every time.
Plan your stayAlmost spiritual amongst the granite boulders.
A tarred road from Bulawayo Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo airport. Last twenty minutes on dirt. Transfers arranged.
National Park entry US$18 per international adult, per day. The guided rhino tracking walk adds US$24, paid into rhino conservation. SADC and Zimbabwean resident rates apply. Settled at the gate with the lodge.
Ground-level chalets connected by raised wooden walkways. Walks are chosen to pace. Let us know and we will make it work.
Rhino tracking is never unaccompanied. Our guides are park-trained, know every valley in the Intensive Protection Zone, and have decades of stone-country experience between them.
Availability moves slowly here. Forty guests at capacity, and a waiting list that thickens from April onwards. Send us the dates you are considering — not the form, the dates — and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
