Madikwe Game Reserve

Seventy Five Thousand Hectares Of Bushveld On The Botswana Border Stocked From Scratch In 1991 By Operation Phoenix, Which Moved More Than Eight Thousand Animals In Big Five, Wild Dog And Cheetah In A MALARIA FREE Reserve That Takes No Day Visitors And Has No Self Drive At All, So Every Bed Is A Lodge And Every Drive Is Guided · Madikwe, North West

Madikwe did not exist in 1990. The land on the Botswana border was failing cattle country, and the then-government decided that wildlife would pay better than cows - so between 1991 and 1997 Operation Phoenix moved more than eight thousand animals in, which was the largest game translocation ever attempted, and the result is seventy-five thousand hectares of bushveld holding the big five plus wild dog and cheetah. Two things make it different from Kruger and from Pilanesberg. It is MALARIA-FREE, and it takes no day visitors and has no self-drive at all: you cannot pay at a gate and drive around, because every bed in the reserve is a lodge and every game drive is guided by that lodge. That sounds like a restriction and is the attraction - no traffic at sightings, no fifteen cars round a leopard, and guides who radio each other and manage it. It is four hours from Johannesburg and far wilder than its distance suggests.

On the Botswana border 90 km north of Zeerust, 350 km from Johannesburg, reached through the Abjaterskop and Wonderboom gates, Madikwe, North West, South Africa

THERE IS NO SELF-DRIVE AND NO DAY ACCESS. Madikwe is entered on a lodge booking only: you arrive at a gate, your lodge collects you or you drive to the lodge, and from then on the game drives are theirs - morning and late afternoon, with the afternoon one running into the dark, which is where much of the value is. The row says this plainly because people arrive at the gates expecting to buy a ticket. Lodges range from family self-catering to very expensive, and they book out in South African school holidays. Walking safaris are offered by some lodges with armed guides. The reserve is MALARIA-FREE. There are light aircraft transfers from Johannesburg to the reserve's strips, which many guests use; by road it is about four hours on good tar. Nothing is sold inside beyond the lodges, so arrive with what you need.

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