Gorongosa Hot Springs

Gorongosa Hot Springs are found near Gorongosa National Park in Sofala Province, central Mozambique, in the vicinity of one of Africa's most celebrated conservation comeback stories — Gorongosa National Park, which was devastated by the Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992) during which nearly all of its large mammals were killed for food by warring factions, reducing one of East Africa's most celebrated wildlife areas to an ecological shadow of its former self before a major restoration program supported by the Carr Foundation began rebuilding its wildlife populations from the early 2000s, creating what the late biologist E.O. Wilson called the most extraordinary wildlife recovery he had ever witnessed. Today Gorongosa hosts recovering populations of elephant, lion, buffalo, hippo, and hundreds of bird species, and the park's remarkable recovery story has made it a model for conflict-zone ecosystem restoration worldwide. The hot springs here provide bicarbonate mineral bathing in the landscape surrounding one of Africa's most inspiring stories of ecological resilience and community-based conservation.