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Write a User ReviewBig 5 in the Eastern Cape’s Frontier Country
Kwandwe is one of the most exclusive private reserves in the Eastern Cape, home to all of the Big 5 and with just 2 small luxury lodges and 2 private villas dotted across 22,000 hectares of picturesque hills and valleys on either side of the Great Fish River, it has one of the highest land to guest ratios of any park or reserve in South Africa. Watching a storm roll in whilst having a sundowner on top of one of the reserve’s highest peaks is a moment I’ll not soon forget.
Like Shamwari and other reserves in the Eastern Cape, Kwandwe is a great conservation success, having rehabilitated former farmland and wildlife species that were long-since eradicated from the region. Today, more than many of the other Eastern Cape reserves, it really does resemble a veritable wilderness and has become particularly renowned for black rhino sightings.
Kwandwe is also a community success, with most of its staff employed from formerly-disadvantaged local communities.
Eastern Cape’s Best Big Five Safari Location…With Its Share of Special Sightings
This 220km2/85mi2 Big Five reserve is also world-class cat country, yet populations are small enough that you get that feeling of ‘intimacy’ that comes from
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a growing understanding of the complex social interactions of the various predators. Highlights of my trip included some experiences that surpassed those in some of Africa’s most famous wilderness areas: a sighting of eight cheetahs in one huddled spot (a mother and five cubs, plus a roving male and his adult son); frequent sightings of a shrewdly hunting young lioness (and her two frustratingly clumsy brothers); a male leopard who we saw hunting (primarily, it seemed, for the neighboring female) for two days in a row. One evening our sundowners were interrupted when a big male leopard wandered curiously within 5m/16ft of our makeshift ‘bar’.Kwandwe’s bush-cookery course – under the expert tutelage of executive chef Xander Barnardt – boosted my braai (grill) skills spectacularly. The same can’t be said for my fishing prowess, however: our boating trip on Kwandwe dam was interrupted by rhino sightings, hippos with newborn babies (the tiniest I’ve ever seen), and a family of clawless otters frolicking constantly around our boat. In the thick of all these sightings we never even made a cast.
Kwandwe Private Game Reserve is a world-class safari destination. Just don’t expect to do much fishing!
Best Safari Experience in the Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape game reserves have long been considered ‘soft safari options’ by many, but in recent times the Eastern Cape has finally evolved into a genuine safari destination, boasting top quality, malaria-free, wildlife-viewing without the crowds. And Kwandwe, a member of Relais & Châteaux, is undoubtedly the pick of the Eastern Cape safari experiences. Of the four camps on this private reserve, Great Fish River Lodge – Kwandwe’s flagship safari lodge – is surely the pick of the bunch. The Kwandwe guides are steadfastly dedicated to the task of tracking down the Big Five, but, for me, it is the high quality rhino viewing that inevitably steals the show at Kwandwe. With five-star accommodations, elaborate menus, impeccable service and top quality wildlife-viewing in scenic surrounds, there is no disputing that Kwandwe has plenty to offer first-timer safari goers and old-hands alike.