Madikwe Game Reserve

We had an incredible time! Madikwe is the perfect place to go to see a lot of animals in a peaceful manner. It’s not overcrowded; you only see a few other game cars while on the drives which is nice because it may only be you and the animals at times. We saw at least 10 different animals and even group of female lions eating on a zebra! Everyone at Madikwe is incredibly friendly with lots of knowledge on the reserve, it’s history, and the animals. We stayed at the Bush Lodge, and it was an incredible experience. I strongly recommend staying with the Bush family. They are very warm welcoming and professional. The weather in the month of May was great; chilly in the mornings and evenings, but it was bearable with a jacket and pants. Middays were perfect! We had a great time at Madikwe through SafariWithUs bookings.

We loved Madikwe and all it represents. Our wild dog sighting, watching the dogs keep a hyena from their zebra kill, was a special experience.

Good, not great

We visited Madikwe in August 2023, with probably too high expectations given the length of our stay (5 nights) at Rhulani (very good lodge with great staff) and the reputation of the reserve.

We ended up quite disappointed on the predator side, since both leopard and cheetah eluded us and we did not even see spotted hyenas.
We were also expecting good wild dog sightings, but we just caught little more than a glimpse of a running pack after sunset.

However, we had various good lion sightings and we did manage to see a brown hyena.

Regarding other game, plenty of elephants, zebra, wildebeest, steenbok and impala. Very good white rhino sightings, briefly saw a black rhino in the dense bush. Some giraffes and a klipspringer.
No trace whatsoever of rarer antelopes like eland, gemsbok, tsessebe or red hartebeest.


Overall, a good reserve but we felt the variety of game was far from impressive compared to Kruger or Okavango.

Madikwe is a game reserve that really does have it all. I have now been there 3 times, have stayed in 3 different lodges and had a different experience each time. Highly recommend.