Into the bush: From Bulawayo to Hwange National Park

This post discusses the road conditions between Bulawayo and Hwange, from personal experience on our self-drive trip.

This post is part of our 20-day Cape Town and Zimbabwe holiday, which we self-booked and self-drove in August 2024. You can read the in-depth article of how we planned the entire 20-day trip here.

It was time to leave the cityscapes of Harare and Bulawayo behind. After spending a relaxing time in Bulawayo, the next stop on our Zimbabwe self-drive trip was Hwange National Park! But first, we had to get there …

Written by Beth

Road conditions between Bulawayo and Hwange National Park

We had fuelled up in Bulawayo and bought supplies from Bulawayo’s Zonkizizwe Shopping Centre, departing at 10:00. We arrived at the Hwange turnoff, near Main Camp, at 13:36, approximately 3.5 hours later.

The first 20 km from Bulawayo city on the A8 was good smooth tarmac, but then the surface became cratered and ragged at the sides. This made overtaking on this single-lane carriageway more dangerous, because everyone was weaving around the road trying to dodge the craters, making the oncoming traffic even more unpredictable. There were very large potholes across the whole width of the road at the 110 km-point out of Buylawayo, and also between Lupane and Hwange. In some places a small cow could fall into the holes in the road! Add this to the usual goats, baboons and cattle crossing the road, it’s best to avoid speeding on this road. It’s not unheard of to see elephant and other wildlife along the road once you pass Lupane, too. This adds a level of excitement to the end of the journey, especially if you’re with little ones.

From what we could see at this time (2024), this road was not a high priority for those in charge, which is a pity. The route from Bulawayo to Hwange would be perfect for overland trips from Matobo to Hwange and onwards to Victoria Falls. The poor state of the road (paper-thin in some places) makes it an undertaking for experienced and intrepid self-drivers only. I would class us in the ‘experienced’ category, as all the drivers in our group were born and raised in Zimbabwe, and well versed in the defensive driving style required on the roads.

At various places along the way, we came across people standing on the road, throwing sand into the potholes. They were clearly hoping to earn some money from passing-by vehicles in return for their manual labour. The argument for this could go both ways: from one point of view, these people were trying to help improve the roads and could benefit from a few dollars given in exchange. On the other hand, mere sand will hardly fix the potholes adequately, and the prescence of people on the road makes for a much more risky driving experience. It could be seen as a low-ball ploy to take advantage of drivers, by causing danger on the road in this way.

We went through just one police roadblock on this route. These are temporary barriers manned by police, to check that vehicles are roadworthy and to discourage speeding. Approach them slowly, roll down your window and greet the police officer, waiting for further instruction. We were waved through.

In this north-western area of Zimbabwe, the countryside had less grassland and more forested areas. In some patches, the ground edging the road looked like a cinnamon stick that had been unrolled and laid out like a carpet.

In other spots, it was the colour of golden beach sand, made coarse with fallen leaves.

Hwange National Park is separate from Hwange town, so don’t follow signs to the town. There are a number of routes into the National Park from the A8, and some of the safari lodges are located just outside the official park borders. This means that the turnoff you take will depend on which accommodation you’ve chosen.

You can read about the road to Hwange’s Main Camp gate in the next post (link coming).

When we drove back to Bulawayo on the A8 road a few days later, there was a formal truck of workers fixing some of the sections of road, which was promising. The journey only took us 3 hours back to Bulawayo from Hwange.

Have you been on this road recently? What was it like?

The situation will change depending on the time of year and latest remediations of the road. It’s a good idea to join a Zimbabwe Facebook travel group and ask for the lates condition of the roads there.

For a place to stop along the way, try Halfway House Hotel. Best to get all your fuel and supplies in Bulawayo.

I recorded  some videos of the roads within Bulawayo city if this is of interest: you can watch the Bulawayo street video on YouTube here.

Look out for the next post in this series, about our safari lodge accommodation in Hwange National Park.

Or read the previous post: The road to Bulawayo, and places we visited there.

Other articles in this Cape Town Zim diary series

• Our favourite places in Harare
• Read the overview of our Zimbabwe part of the trip here
• Read the big in-depth article about our independent 20-day Cape Town and Zimbabwe holiday here
• I recorded videos of the real-life streets of Bulawayo as we drove through them – see them on YouTube here

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