Thanda Private Game Reserve Special Offer

One of South Africa’s most romantic des­tin­a­tions, and win­ner of Africa's Leading Luxury Lodge in South Africa and South Africa’s Leading Safari Lodge at The World Travel Awards, Thanda Private Game Reserve is situ­ated on a 7800 hec­tare Big Five private game reserve in north­ern KwaZulu-Natal, only an hour away from the Indian Ocean ... Continued

Mpila Camp, Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve

KwaZulu Natal is a won­der­ful des­tin­a­tion to visit dur­ing winter, since its mild tem­per­at­ures allow you to escape the chill of other parts of the coun­try.  As part of our travels, we chose a visit to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, which was estab­lished in 1895, and is the old­est game park in Africa ... Continued

Big 5 or Bust?

Something that always amazes me is the mod­ern day traveller’s over­whelm­ing desire to spot the Big 5. This is not to say that I don’t appre­ci­ate such a sight­ing and rel­ish every moment watch­ing Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo and (for me, the as yet unseen) Leopard in the wild, but when lucky enough to spend some time in South African Game Reserves, any sight­ing fills me with joy ... Continued

Well Found Welgevonden

After a tir­ing jour­ney, admit­tedly just a 3 and a half hour drive from OR Tambo International Airport, we had finally arrived at the West Gate of the Welgevonden Private Game Reserve (near Vaalwater in the Limpopo Province) for a long-awaited game holiday.

We hap­pily aban­doned our rental car (no private vehicles are allowed in the reserve) and scampered into the back of the open 4x4 safari vehicle, while our game ranger col­lec­ted and stowed our lug­gage. Then we were off on our +/- 30 minute “trans­fer” to the lodge. Within minutes, Welgevonden lived up to the mean­ing of its name (well found), as we sloughed off the tired­ness of the trip and found that sense of peace and the true relax­a­tion that can only be exper­i­enced in the bush, with an almost imme­di­ate sight­ing of a Zebra mother and foal ... Continued

Mkuze Game Reserve

Aside from the fact that it feels as though one drives forever from Durban to get to Mkuze Game Reserve along the N2, it was this jour­ney that pre­pared my mind and soul for the neces­sary unwind that must first take place before spend­ing any time in a reserve. And by that even­ing, I could appre­ci­ate the trans­ition that took me along the north­ern coast of KwaZulu Natal into the heart of Zululand for what it was — a jour­ney into still­ness countered by the wild and untamed beauty that is the Zulu heart­land ... Continued

Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve

It’s dusk when we arrive at Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve, the sun begin­ning to set bey­ond the dis­tant purple moun­tains, the cool air des­cend­ing. Our wel­come at the lodge is warm and com­fort­ing and the walk to the recep­tion area full of prom­ise. I’m imme­di­ately dis­trac­ted by the appeal­ing décor, which effort­lessly com­bines colo­nial grandeur with shabby chic to give a per­fect Out of Africa feel.

The beau­ti­ful Baroness Luxury Safari Lodge was built in 1822 by Baron von Pletten, an early South African pion­eer and con­ser­va­tion­ist, who used the ori­ginal, smal­ler Lodge as his base to explore the then untamed African landscapes.

Built from local stone, the 10-suite lodge has lost little of its ori­ginal style and is both romantic and lux­uri­ous with spec­tac­u­lar views across rolling lawns where zebra and ante­lope roam freely, to the indi­gen­ous forests and majestic Tsitsikamma Mountains in the dis­tance ... Continued

Interview with a Wildlife Photographer

SA-Venues.com talk to Dave Estment, intrepid wild­life pho­to­grapher based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Q:
What first inspired you to pick up a camera?

A:
Racing Superbikes, strangely enough! I raced pro­fes­sion­ally from 1979 – 1985, so got to know some of South Africa’s top motor­s­port pho­to­graph­ers, from the other side of the lens. Later this led to work­ing with them on test rides for motor­ing magazines and the odd TV show, even­tu­ally being invited to join the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists as a pho­to­grapher myself. It was a nat­ural pro­gres­sion from there into my other pas­sion, wild­life, and then on into com­mer­cial photography.

Q:
I see the need for the cap­tion to that pic! Before mov­ing on, do you have any par­tic­u­lar high­lights to share with us about racing? Continued

Off to Madikwe Game Reserve

Madikwe Game Reserve

Said to be the fourth largest game reserve in South Africa, the ever-increasingly pop­u­lar Madikwe Game Reserve is also the country's best kept secret. Despite this, the name is increas­ingly on people's lips — per­haps because of its close prox­im­ity to Johannesburg (it is but a 3.5 hour easy drive on well-tarred road), or the fact that des­pite being prac­tic­ally on the Botswana bor­der its Big 5 game view­ing is in a malaria-free zone.

Whatever the reason, it was with 'oh, so you're off to Madikwe!' ringing in my ears that I hopped on a plane and headed off for Gauteng, the envy of my col­leagues. Despite a flight that was any­thing but effort­less, my hired car and I made it with a half hour to spare on the jour­ney to the North West and Impodimo Game Lodge ... Continued