Nyamaneche National Park

Nyamaneche is a ZimParks sanctuary on the Great Dyke, north of Mvurwi in Mashonaland Central, and despite the name on maps it is not a national park. It began as a farm Sunny Townsend left to the parks authority. After independence it became a working base for elephant capture, culls and rhino moves, then the project came apart in the land invasions of the early 2000s. Today it is quiet woodland with a picnic site and some rock art. Go for the history and the trees, not for game.

Getting there

From Harare take Sam Nujoma Street onto Golden Stairs Road and keep going past Mazoe Dam and Mazoe town. Turn left onto the A12 and drive 84 km, through Concession and past Mvurwi. At the shop, turn left onto Horse-Shoe Road, which only gets a sign about halfway down. Nyamaneche is 19 km along it: broken tar for the first few kilometres, then a fair dirt road. Allow about two hours from the northern edge of Harare.

Look for a small green National Parks sign on the right. It takes you to the office, which is the old farmhouse, and the staff houses. For the picnic site, carry on over the causeway and turn left a couple of hundred metres past the river, at a gate that confusingly says No Entry.

When to go

Nobody publishes a visitor season for Nyamaneche. The most recent account I found is a day trip on 13 July 2025, when the dirt section of the Horse-Shoe Road was in reasonable shape. That is all the road news there is, so ask locally before going in the rains.

What to do

Not much, and that is the point. Spread out at the picnic site, then follow the track past the derelict buildings and old tobacco barns to a rocky hill with rock art. The miombo here is thick and left alone, with fallen dead wood lying where it dropped.

The sanctuary was set up, along with Sebakwe, to protect the odd serpentine plant life of the Great Dyke, a band of ultramafic rock roughly 550 km long that is mined for chrome along much of its length. The rhino are gone. In an undated report the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said at least six of the sanctuary’s nine rhino had been poached in a single month, and its chairman, Johnny Rodrigues, suspected a Chinese firm mining chrome in the area. The survivors were later moved somewhere safer.

Good to know

ZimParks still lists Nyamaneche in its 2026 tariff, and in 2025 a parks employee was collecting the entry fee (the current fees are in the table on this page). The visitor and staff accommodation was derelict in 2025, so come self-sufficient with water, food and shade, and do not count on anything beyond the picnic site. For driving in the country generally, read our self-drive guide.

Last updated 19 October 2026. Sources: Whole Earth Education, Nyamaneche Sanctuary (Paddy Pacey, 21 November 2025), ZimParks, De-Gazetted Tariff 2026 (lists Nyamaneche among its stations), Wikipedia, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (current sanctuaries), Wikipedia, Mvurwi, Victoria Falls Guide, rhino poaching report quoting the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (undated), Wikipedia, Great Dyke.