Month by month
Nyika in December
December is the rains' opening statement and the wet season's one bookable month on price, before January pushes both rainfall and orchid density to their peak.
If you only want the answer
December is the one wet-season month with a published Chelinda Lodge rate, $350 per person, and the month the rains properly establish themselves: 404 mm over 29 days, the third-wettest month on Nyika's chart.
December weather: the green season's opening month
Rain triples again from November's 134 mm to 404 mm in December, falling across 29 of the month's 31 days, and days ease to 22.0°C while nights hold close to November's mild 14.2°C. This is the point our own data shifts December's verdict from shoulder to green season outright, the same label carried by the full orchid window that follows in January.
The grassland is now fully green, and the flowering that started as scattered wildflowers in November is building toward the display that peaks from January. December gives you the first real taste of it without yet reaching the density that the following four months bring.
The one published wet-season rate
December is worth flagging on price alone: it is the single wet-season month where CAWS quotes a specific Chelinda Lodge rate, $350 per person sharing, full board plus most activities, notably below the $410 that applies from July through November. Every other month from January through June is unconfirmed on their own site, so if a published, bookable wet-season rate matters to your planning, December is the month that actually offers one.
Chelinda's bed count does not grow with the season, 16 at the lodge and roughly 14 to 16 more at the camp, so a lower rate is not the same as an empty diary; confirm dates rather than assuming space follows price.
What December is not yet
Roan and eland become harder to pick out as the grass grows back in earnest, and leopard on the night drives asks for the same patience it does most of the year, arguably more once the cover thickens. December is not yet the deep-orchid, high-rain extreme of January and February, and it is not the easy dry-season viewing of June through October either. It sits between the two.
One concrete tip: if you want to watch the rains build without committing to January's peak, December is the honest middle ground, with a confirmed lodge rate to go with it.