Khami Game Sanctuary sits on the western boundary of Matobo National Park, 35 kilometres from Bulawayo. It covers 6,500 acres of private land that has been managed for wildlife conservation for over two decades. The sanctuary protects a landscape of granite koppies, mopane woodland, and ancient drainage systems that form a continuous wilderness corridor with the national park.
It is owned by Josh Elliott, Managing Director of ZimTravellers. His father, Alan Elliott, was one of Zimbabwe’s most respected professional hunters and safari guides — a man who spent his adult life in the Matobo Hills and whose knowledge of the landscape shaped how the sanctuary is managed today.
This is not a background fact. It is the explanation for everything that follows.
Khami’s wildlife reflects the Matobo ecosystem: leopard at higher densities than virtually anywhere else in Africa; sable antelope, one of the most visually striking of southern Africa’s antelopes; kudu, impala, warthog, and a resident population of zebra. Giraffe on the sanctuary’s open sections. Brown hyena, which are rarely seen elsewhere in Zimbabwe. And, increasingly, wild dog as the broader Matobo ecosystem supports a recovering population.
The leopard of Matobo Hills are a particular character of the landscape. The rocky terrain provides perfect denning sites and ambush cover. The prey base — rock hyrax, baboon, impala — is abundant. Matobo’s leopard density is estimated at among the highest in Africa, and Khami sits within this area. Night drives on the sanctuary regularly produce sightings that guests at other destinations would wait a week for.
Khami operates a multi-revenue conservation model: tourism revenue from the lodge and campsites, photographic and hunting concessions, the volunteer programme, and community partnerships with adjacent villages that create economic stakes in the sanctuary’s integrity.
The anti-poaching programme works with national parks authority patrols and employs local rangers drawn primarily from the surrounding community. This is not accidental. Rangers who have grown up on the boundary of the sanctuary have local knowledge that no amount of training can replicate — they know the landscape, they know the people, and they have relationships with the community that make intelligence gathering effective.
Khami’s volunteer programme has operated continuously since the early 2000s. Volunteers — typically university students or recent graduates from Europe and South Africa — spend 2–8 weeks on the sanctuary, living in field camps and working alongside permanent staff on monitoring, patrol support, community education, and wildlife survey.
The programme is not a safari with a conservation label. Volunteers work. They walk long distances in the bush. They collect data in conditions that require physical and mental resilience. And in return, they receive an understanding of how wildlife conservation actually functions — not the theory of it, but the daily practice of maintaining a wild ecosystem in a landscape bordered by human communities who have legitimate competing interests in the land.
We accept volunteers year-round. Application information and a full programme description are available on request through our enquiry form.
The Khami lodge accommodates up to twelve guests in en-suite chalets with full board. Activities include day and night game drives, guided walks, rhino tracking in adjacent Matobo National Park, and cultural visits to the Khami Ruins World Heritage Site 5 kilometres away. A night game drive in Matobo Hills with an experienced Khami guide is, by any measure, one of Zimbabwe’s signature experiences.
We include Khami as the anchor property on our Matobo Hills itineraries. It is, in the most direct sense possible, home.
