Bomani Tented Lodge

Bomani Tented Lodge was established on a 5,000-acre private reserve in southern Zimbabwe, sharing a boundary with Hwange National Park. The lodge sits in the Ngamo forest area and operates its own gate into the park, five minutes by vehicle from the main camp. Imvelo Safari Lodges founded the property to bring visitors into a remote corner of the park where elephant herds number in the hundreds and the landscape remains largely unvisited. The main lodge overlooks Bomani Pan from a raised viewing platform, with an open dining room, bar, and lounge facing the water. Zebra and wildebeest graze at the pan throughout the day; giraffe and elephant arrive in the late afternoon. Eleven tents are divided between raised Saddlebill units on teak platforms and ground-level Spurwing tents overlooking the lodge waterhole, plus a two-bedroom Sable Suite set among camelthorn trees and a thatched family bungalow. Tents range from 45 to 70 square metres and include en-suite bathrooms with showers, overhead fans, and private decks or patios. The Spurwing Honeymoon Tent adds a plunge pool.

Guided walks in the private concession and game drives into Hwange leave at dawn and in the late afternoon. Rangers lead night drives through the reserve after dark, tracking nocturnal species across the Ngamo Plains. Bomani operates sixteen pumping stations across southern Hwange, maintaining water for wildlife in the dry season; full-day pump runs combine game viewing with visits to remote waterholes. A sunken hide at Stoffie's Pan allows eye-level photography of elephants drinking metres away. The Imvelo Ngamo Rhino Sanctuary protects white rhino on the reserve; guests walk with Cobra Rangers to track the animals on foot. Village visits to nearby Ngunyana include school tours and unscripted homestead stops with the village headman. The Elephant Express — a custom-built railcar — runs along the historic eastern boundary of Hwange, opened in 1904, carrying guests between Bomani and other Imvelo lodges with game viewing from teak-fitted carriages.