Shamwari Game Reserve

There is some­thing dis­tinctly colo­nial about Shamwari Game Reserve. Perhaps it's that I don't get out much, but there is noth­ing like a lov­ingly restored Edwardian man­sion, the cool ver­andah and fur­niture a throw­back to a bygone era, to make one feel dis­tinctly eleg­ant, even if I wasn't exactly attired for the occasion.

How I got there is another story, but I happened to 'gate­crash' Shamwari, in a way. We stumbled off an overnight train from Johannesburg, to find ourselves awaited by a 4x4 vehicle and escour­ted onto the Shamwari grounds ...

I wasn't offi­cially sup­posed to be on the trip. I had come as my sister's 'com­pan­ion', for at the time she was a little short of choices and I was only too happy to oblige. So I had none of the fin­esse or sense of detach­ment that people who have every right to be some­where man­age to don with little effort. Mine was the mouth that gaped at the beauty of the place and oohed at the food and lay on the lawn look­ing up at the bril­liance of the blue sky, won­der­ing what on earth I'd done to deserve the visit.

Perhaps it helps to put Shamwari in con­text. It lies almost in the crook of the Addo Elephant National Park in the Sunday's River Valley near Port Elizabeth. Shamwari is pop­u­lar not only because it is eas­ily reach­able from Port Elizabeth and because it lies in a mal­ari free zone of the beau­ti­ful Eastern Cape, but also because it provides an ele­ment of lux­ury that is a throw­back to an era that is long gone.

The Shamwari reserve is 25 000 hec­tares that, because of where it lies, boasts five eco-systems that sup­port an incred­ible array of very spot­table game (you don't have to go to extraordin­ary lengths to see them). The game reserve is also amongs the Top 100 World's Best Hotels, was voted Africa's Leading Safari and Game Reserve for the 11^th year run­ning in 2008, and Eagles Crag Lodge, one of the choices of acco­mod­a­tion, has earned a Green Leaf Environmental Standard.

The restored Edwardian Manor is Long Lee Manor, the first build­ing or lodge you encounter after hav­ing entered at the gate to Shamwari Game Reserve. It's also the largest of the seven lodges (there is now also a Shamwari Townhouse on the beach­front at Port Elizabeth, I believe) at Shamwari and it lies on a hill that over­looks expans­ive savan­nah plains where wild­life simply grazes – it's another world entirely, and per­haps more so because one isn't expect­ing it so close to civilisation.

Plyed with refresh­ing drinks and sand­wiches in style we then hopped into a game vehicle and zooted off around the reserve to dis­cover white rhino, bathing hip­pos, gir­affe, ante­lope and even lion (you can see all Big 5 at Shamwari). Just a little aside, to give you a few more tasty morsels with which to con­vince friends or fam­ily that Shamwari is worth fork­ing out for, the British TV series, Safari School, was filmed here – it aired in September 2008 on Animal Planet.

There are a great many Eland Antelope at Shamwari, and we saw a lot of them. The ranger enter­tained us to a few facts about this, the largest African bovid. Interestingly, it is also the slow­est, which might explain why we saw one that had recently been killed by a lion. It can only run at 25mph, but it can also jump a sur­pris­ing 10 feet from stand­ing (it doesn't even have to get a run­ning start!). Another inter­est­ing fact about these buck is that their knees give off a sharp click­ing noise when they walk. No-one is entirely sure why, but sci­ent­ists think that it might be a form of communication.

We sud­denly got a call (well, as much of a call as a ranger can get on a jeep) that lions had been spot­ted close by. We star­ted up again from our enter­tain­ing con­ver­sa­tion about Eland, and set off in the jeep only to spot two female lions laz­ing ahead of us on the plains. Through bin­ocu­lars, it was obvi­ous that they are covered in blood and must have just made a kill. It's not always this obvi­ous that a lion has just fed. Sometimes one needs to look at the size of their bel­lies or even their fae­ces to make certain.

Lunch fol­lowed shortly after­wards and with bod­ies that would much rather have had a snooze, some of us couldn't refuse the offer to do a whirl­wind tour of the other accom­mod­a­tion ven­ues at Shamwari.

Riverdene Lodge is more of a family-friendly affair that over­looks Bushmans River and is quite beau­ti­ful, whilst Bayethe Tented Camp is just gor­geous, with ten­ted accom­mod­a­tion, private decks and plunge pools with ham­mocks that over­look the bush – you'll think you've died and landed in bush heaven. Eagles Crag, our last port of call, is def­in­itely the most exclus­ive of the lodges. The focus is undeni­ably on lux­ury, and the rooms lie nestled below a dra­matic cliff, which gives it a unique feel.

Whilst fleet­ing, I was impressed by Shamwari. Our night at Shamwari Private Game Reserve passed far too quickly, but I wouldn't hes­it­ate to recom­mend it to any­one stay­ing around Port Elizabeth and after a few night of lux­ury in the bush.

Useful Links:
Shamwari Private Game Reserve
Eastern Cape Game Reserves
Things to Do in Eastern Cape