Hunter's House

Hunter's House is one of the accommodation options in our popular Home from Home collection and is situated on the far West of the Devuli Head Quarters area on Chishakwe. It is a large house which easily sleeps 11 people and more if beds are added to some of the larger bedrooms.

The wide veranda that runs the length of the house and overlooks the front garden is likely to be where guests will spend most of their time when they are "home" and not out on the ranch looking for wild animals and birds or at the dam fishing.

The house was probably first built in the 1930's and was likely smaller and simpler than it was at that time as, over the years, rooms have clearly been added on both ends of the house. On the addition on the East end of the house there was a steep stairwell leading down to an underground concrete bunker which was added during the Rhodesian war. This bunker was thought to be the one mentioned by author Alexandra Fuller in her novel, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

The bunker no longer exists at Hunter's House as, during recent renovations, the decision to fill it in was taken. The reinforced cement slab which formed the raised roof of the bunker took up a significant space on the veranda and the bunker itself was providing habitat to scorpions and centipedes. Unfortunately, converting it to a wine cellar was not an option!

On the kitchen end of the veranda there is a fire pit area where most of our guests spend their evenings, especially in winter. From here it is not at all uncommon to see the animals that roam the garden area around the house at night. These commonly include impala, bushbuck, kudu, jackal and hyena.