For a lot of visitors to South Africa, a very popular safari destination is to spend a couple of nights in one of the lodges of the Eastern Cape, as this can easily be combined with a visit to Cape Town and a trip along the Garden Route - and the area is also malaria-free, which especially for families is an important consideration

But which lodge or reserve do you select? There are so many to choose from – Shamwari, Kwandwe, Pumba, Amakhala, Lalibela, Kariega … so what are the main differences ?

This may, I hope, shed some light for potential visitors to this area !

The reserves of the Eastern Cape range in size – anything from 5,000 hectares to 25,000 hectares. They are all privately owned, which means that the rangers have the freedom to drive off-road if there is a particular sighting that they want their guests to get close to – a pride of lions snoozing under a tree, for example !

The reserves all operate independently from each other, and each therefore have their own wildlife stock - the larger reserves such as Shamwari and Kwandwe can obviously sustain more wildlife in terms of actual physical numbers, and can also sustain species such as wild dog, who need an incredibly large home territory to hunt over - but the privilege of this is reflected in the rates.

The smaller reserves such as Amakhala, Lalibela, Pumba and Kariega, which tend to be around the 5,000 - 8,000 hectare size, do have to limit the number of predators - for example, a small reserve can only sustain a few lion, or else they would find their entire buffalo population is wiped out very quickly by hungry lions !

If Shamwari or Kwandwe fall within your budget, then in all honesty a 2 or 3 night safari in one of these lodges would give you a more rounded safari experience by dint purely of the size. 

Staying in either of these reserves means you will generally not see the road / reserve perimeter fence line at all during your stay, whereas in the smaller reserves you may well come across the fence line during a game drive - especially in Amakhala, as the lions are kept in a separate 1,000 hectares on one side of the road, so to get between this and the main part of the reserve you do cross under the main N2 road via an underpass - which can detract from the overall feeling of being totally immersed in your bush / safari experience.

However, to be forewarned is to be prepared - we had some wonderful sightings when we stayed at Amakhala, which included a cheetah mum and 3 cubs on an impala kill just a few meters from the N2 – which more than compensated for the highway encounter !

Kariega is also a ’split’ reserve, with the lions and elephants being kept separate in one part of the reserve, but you don’t go near the N2 at all - however you do cross over a minor road between the 2 parts of the reserve.

Whichever lodge you choose, you will still come away with memories of a wildlife encounter that will last a lifetime.

A new Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and Animal Hospital has opened at the Shamwari Wildlife Centre.

The animal hospital will enable veterinarians to diagnose, treat and accommodate wild animals with wildlife-related diseases and injuries.  The hospital is equipped with diagnostic equipment such as X-ray and ultra sound machines, a surgical theatre and cages to accommodate wild animals and raptors. 

Animals are only kept in the hospital during initial treatments, as most of the patients need to be sedated to prevent injuries.  During the recovery phase, animals and raptors will be kept in an aviary or custom-built bomas suitable for small mammals to rhinos and buffalo.   

The wildlife rehabilitation will be managed by two of Shamwari’s experienced veterinarians based at the Shamwari Wildlife Centre.

Many thanks to everyone who enetered this competition.  The animal caught on film giving birth in the first episode of  ‘Shamwari: A Wild Life’ on the Animal Planet chanel was a giraffe.

Our congratulations go to Sophie Eyre who was randomly drawn from hundreds of correct answers and wins a 3 night stay at Shamwari courtesy of  The Mantis Collection, Animal Planet and Rockwallaby Productions.

Anyone else thinking of going to Shamwari next year might be interested in the special offer we are running for travel between May and September where guests booking 3 nights at Shamwari can enjoy 2 or 3 complimentary nights at selected hotels across South Africa (a saving of more than R8000 / US$ 1100 / £550).

The Shamwari Game Reserve will be featured in a series on the Animal Planet channel called “Shamwari: A Wild Life” which starts on September 15th in the UK.  

A full schedule for the UK, Europe and Africa is available on the competition page, along with a clip of the programme.

To celebrate this series Shamwari are running a competition with a prize of three nights at the reserve to be taken next year.
See a clip of the programme and enter the competition.

THE Riverdene Lodge in the Shamwari Game Reserve has been newly renovated to accommodate adults and children, and now has a children’s programme for families. 

The newly renovated accommodation at Riverdene Lodge features 2 supervised playrooms for children’s activities and supervised lawns with a jungle gym; a sports and social programme which incorporates soccer, cricket, treasure hunts and swimming. A special children’s menu is available, and child minders are available at all times.

Upon arrival, each child will automatically receive a Born Free Foundation certificate and a fluffy toy. Daily game drives for children and their parents will be organised with trips to the Born Free Centres and the Shamwari Film Studio. 

Children will be introduced to the Shamwari Game Reserve and Born Free Foundation’s challenge to promote the conservation of species and the protection of habitats whilst maintaining a compassionate approach to the welfare of animals.     

At the Shamwari Film Studio, children will be shown where the popular international Unearthed 2 series was filmed, produced and edited. Children will also be exposed to the filming of the new wildlife series entitled Shamwari: A Wild Life, which will be launched in September 2008.

Lastly, children staying at the Riverdene Lodge will be invited to take part in the special education programme at the Shamwari Animal Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre.

Shamwari  is the longest established of the private reserves near Port Elizabeth, and the combination of luxury safari lodges and the outstanding work that they do with the Born Free Foundation has earned them numerous travel industry and conservation awards over the years.

Travel Butlers are delighted to be able to offer an outstanding special offer at Shamwari’s lodges which is valid for stays between May and September 2008. 

During this time, guests staying for 2 nights at Shamwari are entitled to 3 complimentary nights at either the 5* Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town or other selected 5* properties in Cape Town, The Winelands, and the Garden Route. Click here for more details.

All the lodges on offer a fully inclusive African safari including accommodation, all meals and local drinks, 2 game drives per day in 4×4 vehicles, and an optional guided bush walk each day.

To get an idea of what you might expect to see on a safari at Shamwari, you can see a selection of photos sent to us by some of our guests during their stays at Shamwari.

Our congratulations go to everyone at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa on winning the TripAdvisor® Travelers’ Choice Award for BEST LUXURY - AFRICA  TRAVELERS CHOICE DESTINATION.

Selected by the largest travel community in the world, The TripAdvisor® Travelers’ Choice Awards showcase the hotels who have earned their distinction from real travelers rather than journalists or travel industry insiders.

Shamwari has 6 luxury lodges set in the verdant bush of the malaria free Eastern Cape, and has previously been voted “World’s Leading Safari and Game Reserve” & “World’s Leading Conservation Company” by the travel industry.

For most people the idea of spending the night under canvas surrounded by the sounds of the African bush brings to mind the romance of a bygone age of adventure.

Fortunately there are dozens of tented safari camps all across South Africa where it is possible to recapture this magic.

From Bayethe Lodge (Shamwari), Lalibela Tree Tops Lodge, and Gorah Elephant Camp in the Malaria Free Eastern Cape, up to Savanna and Hamilton’s in the Greater Kruger Park there is some outstanding 5* tented accommodation available with many ‘tents’ boasting air conditioning, luxury bathrooms, and even private plunge pools!

For guests travelling on a more modest budget, lodges such as Gomo Gomo and Kwa-Mbili offer less extravagant accommodation, however the large tents all still have proper double or twin beds and ensuite bathrooms…it’s still along way from most peoples idea of roughing it!

Our top 10 tented camps in South Africa are:

1 ) Bayethe Lodge
2 ) Tree Tops Lodge
3 ) Mkuze Falls Tented Lodge
4 ) Gorah Elephant Camp
5 ) Gomo Gomo Game Lodge
6 ) Savanna Private Game Reserve
7 ) Hamilton’s Tented Camp
8 ) Chapungu Luxury Tented Camp
9 ) Kwa-Mbili Game Lodge
10 ) Entabeni Wildside Tented Camp

This listing is ranked on the number of nights guests have spent at each lodge based on recent bookings made by Travel Butlers.

With the school half-term holidays only a few weeks away, and Easter following on shortly afterwards, we thought this would be a good time to look at the most popular safari lodges for families visiting South Africa’s malaria-free regions.

A quick glance at the listing below show that the game reserves in the Eastern Cape (Kariega, Kwandwe, Lalibela, Shamwari, and Amakhala) are particularly popular with families, and safari lodges in this area take the first 7 spots. This highlights the great appeal of South Africa’s most popular family holiday route  which is a few days in Cape Town, followed by some time exploring the Garden Route Coastline and a safari in one of these malaria free reserves.

The remainder of the top 10 is made up with lodges in the Madikwe reserve up in the far north of the country on the border with South Africa, and somewhat surprisingly no lodges from The Waterberg area feature at all despite it’s convenient location just a couple of hours outside Johannesburg.

The Kruger area and KwaZulu-Natal are both considered low-risk malaria areas and are therefore excluded from this listing.

The full listing is:

1 ) Kariega Lodge
2 ) Kwandwe Ecca Lodge
3 ) Mark’s Camp
4 ) Long Lee Manor
5 ) Woodbury Lodge
6 ) Amakhala Safari Lodge
7 ) Leeuwenbosch
8 ) Little Madikwe
9 ) Jaci’s Tree Lodge
10 ) Madikwe River Lodge

This listing is ranked on the number of nights children under 12 have spent at each lodge based on recent bookings made by Travel Butlers.

For the 10th consecutive year, Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape has been awarded the World’s Leading Safari and Game Reserve and the World’s Leading Conservation Company at the prestigious World Travel Awards gala ceremony.

On receiving the 2 awards the CEO, Adrian Gardiner said: “We are very proud to have been recognized as the best by our industry partners worldwide for 10 straight years. When we began, conservation was a small part of tourism. Today, we are very encouraged that more tourists are aware that we must sustain and preserve our environment for the generations to come. It is our firm commitment that tourism should benefit all people, not just the few.”