Madikwe
Why go?
An easy half-day drive from Johannesburg the Madikwe Game
Reserve offers some of southern Africa’s most exciting
malaria-free game viewing. While 20 years ago the Kruger Park was
synonymous with wildlife in South Africa, where you were guaranteed
that much-touted 'Big 5' experience, this all changed in the early
90s when the government decided to create a second huge game
reserve in a remote area of ‘Tswana homelands, close to the
Botswana border. 27 enormous farms were joined together to create a
vast 75,000 hectare slice of veld.
The area was already home to a number of wild animals including
some exceptional birdlife but next came Operation Phoenix,
one of the largest game translocation programmes the world has
seen. Over a 6 year period 8000 animals, of 27 different species,
were to find a new home in Madikwe. A series of new lodges were
built, old farm buildings torn down and local ‘Tswana people
trained as game rangers: in less than a decade Madikwe became a top
wildlife destination.
The animals took easily to the reserve thanks to its exceptionally
varied natural habitats. Madikwe spans an area of transition
between bushveld and Kalahari thornveld, with thick stands of
riverine veld stretching out along the courses of its rivers. Open
woodlands and thickets are dotted with a series of spectacular
rocky outcrops or inselbergs - perfect big-cat
terrain - and water is abundant in its pans and dams. And in
the bush, where there’s water, there’s wildlife.