Gorongosa National Park, about three hours by road north-west of Beira, is the natural day trip — though it really wants two days to do properly. The park was decimated during the civil war and has been the subject of one of the most ambitious rewilding projects in Africa; populations of lion, elephant, hippo, buffalo, and waterbuck have all been carefully restored. Game drives are best from May to October. The standard approach is to overnight at Chitengo Camp inside the park.
Sofala, about 60 km down the coast, is the site of the first Portuguese fort in southern Africa (1505). Little of the fort itself survives — the river silted up and the village shrank to almost nothing — but the place is historically significant as the first European foothold on this part of the coast. Access is rough and the village offers little; visit only if you have a deep interest in the colonial history.
