South Africa is a haven for animal enthusiasts, offering an array of game reserves where you can encounter everything from majestic lions to elusive leopards. If you’re eager to explore the rich tapestry of South African wildlife and perhaps tick off seeing the Big 5 animals from your bucket list, you’re in for a treat!
The Eastern Cape is a large province between Cape Town and Durban, renowned for history, coast, and biodiverse flora and fauna. The province spans 500 miles of wild Indian Ocean coast that steadily rises into postcard-pretty mountain peaks and contains wildness that supports the Big Five. The Eastern Cape may live in the shadow of Kruger-South Africa’s star destination-but the safari experience is unique. In the Eastern Cape, safari is a heartening comeback story…
In general, the parks and reserves in this region are smaller than those in the northern half of the country and lack something of the grand scale and wilderness found in other areas. But why shouldn’t we see elephants and big cats and other safari specials not far from world-class beaches and the peerless city of Cape Town? The Eastern Cape contains many different ecosystems and this is reflected in the large range of different, and very diverse, species found here.
All of the reserves and parks listed here are home to buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion and leopard as well as a multitude of other big mammals. But the bird life is equally spectacular and includes some regional endemics. Talking of endemics, who would want to miss out on a date with the flightless dung beetle, Addo Elephant National Park’s endemic insect!
Hunting and alternative land use decimated populations of large mammals throughout Eastern Cape in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, most of the private reserves in the region have been restocked with native wildlife and numbers of all the big mammals are rising fast.
Read also: Discover Thula Thula
The Eastern Cape offers an abundance of malaria-free “Big 5” game reserves right on Port Elizabeth’s doorstep, and as seasoned nature-lovers, we have enjoyed visiting many of them.
The Eastern Cape is easily accessed via daily flights to Port Elizabeth; it takes 80 minutes from Cape Town or one hour and forty-five minutes from Johannesburg. You’ll be greeted at the airport and transferred one to two hours north to your chosen reserve. It’s also possible to arrange a quick, scenic helicopter transfer from Port Elizabeth to select reserves.
Although it is a year-round safari destination, November through April is considered the best time to visit the Eastern Cape. Funny enough, this is opposite to Kruger, but aligns with summer in Cape Town-making the Eastern Cape and the Mother City a great travel combination.
Here’s a look at some of the places across the country where these magnificent creatures roam freely:
South Africa’s southern city of Port Elizabeth (PE) is well located near the eastern end of the Garden Route and a string of malaria-free wildlife reserves, most famously Addo Elephant National Park. Private wildlife reserves line the N2 highway and other roads between Addo and Grahamstown. These offer a range of wildlife-watching experiences, scenic backdrops, luxurious lodges and conservation programs. More are found around the Kariega and Bushman’s Rivers inland of Kenton-on-Sea, with river cruises and canoeing on the menu of outdoor activities.
Read also: Explore Madikwe
Sweeping west to east across the province, the semi-arid Karoo terrain becomes increasingly lush. The same fertile plains and valleys that once supported thriving, pre-settlement populations of wildlife attracted European settlers who cleared and farmed broad swathes of the Eastern Cape. By the 1990s, energized private landowners were assembling to re-wild their farms and ranchland. (In some cases, they were the direct descendants of the original settler families.) Merging their acreages, they formed private game reserves committed to conservation. In collaboration with zoologists, ecologists, and global partners, many reserves have successfully restored biodiversity to the land, reintroduced wildlife, and are now managing the complexities of maintaining a delicate safari ecosystem. Some reserves are faring so well that their founder populations of rhino and cheetah are being translocated to other reserves in Africa.
Eastern Cape safari-goers get a unique and fascinating glimpse into the world of wildlife management. What does it take to reintroduce native flora? What is it like to re-populate rhinos? How do you protect against poaching?
In terms of safari experience, not all reserves in the Eastern Cape are equal. Some still feel like ranch land while others are too small to feel like true wilderness; a few too many are just too close to the highway. For these reasons, we’re selective about the Eastern Cape reserves that we recommend.
The Eastern Cape’s best private reserves are home to a limited number of safari lodges, camps, and exclusive-use villas. Shamwari has seven; Amakhala has 11; and Kariega and Kwandwe each have five. The result is an uncrowded safari experience across tens of thousands of acres.
An Extraordinary Journeys destination specialist can match you with the right lodge and room type to suit your exact needs and travel style.
Read also: Exploring South Africa's Game Reserves
10 Game Reserves to go to in the Eastern Cape | Best Safari Parks
Top Game Reserves in the Eastern Cape
Some of our favorite reserves include Amakhala, Shamwari, Kariega, and Kwandwe. Once you’re through the park gates of these four, you’re transported into the wild world of safari. Each is home to the Big Five with frequent sightings of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, plains game, and monkeys. With luck, you might see an elusive cheetah. These reserves are also generous in size, spanning tens of thousands of acres, while limiting accommodations. A preferable land-to-bed ratio translates to uncrowded game viewing, but it also means you’ll enjoy game drives across a large enough parcel of land for views you won’t tire of.
1. Addo Elephant National Park
With most of South Africa’s major national parks found in the country’s northern bush, Addo Elephant National Park is a unique treat for wildlife watchers on the southern Sunshine Coast. The country’s third-largest park at almost 2,000km²/772mi², Addo hosts not just the Big Five but the Big Seven (add great white sharks and southern right whales). There are over 400 Cape buffaloes, one of South Africa’s largest disease-free herds.
And also spotted hyenas, pale-rumped Burchell’s zebras, abundant warthogs and the rare flightless dung beetle - park road signs give this nutrient recycler right of way. Addo has good gravel roads and is the world’s most diverse game park according to some estimations. It encompasses five biomes (specific environments: Karoo, grassland, fynbos, thicket and forest), the southern hemisphere’s largest and best-preserved coastal dune field and the world’s largest African penguin and Cape gannet breeding grounds, the Algoa Bay islands.
Within 40 minutes of leaving Port Elizabeth (PE), you can be quietly watching Africa’s largest land mammal surrounded by its family, in its natural environment. Addo offers a few different accommodation options, our favourite being the Spekboom Tented Camp smack bang in the middle of the reserve - just a few tents with no electricity and only a wire fence between you and the park’s wildlife.
Being a National Park, Addo offers a full range of safari activities as well as a fabulous restaurant and gift shop. PE residents love to visit for the day, and braai lunch at one of the two day visitors’ picnic sites.
2. Shamwari Private Game Reserve
Perhaps the most famous of the private game reserves near Port Elizabeth, Shamwari Private Game Reserve is a 70km²/27mi² conservation project with the Big Five and, like Addo, five of South Africa’s eight biomes. (Nama Karoo, Succulent Karoo, Fynbos, Forest, Thicket, Savanna, Grassland and Desert) Guests can visit the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and Born Free Big Cat Sanctuaries and choose between six luxurious lodges and the Explorer Camp.
A stone’s throw from Amakhala, the 61,000-acre Shamwari shares many similarities with its neighboring reserve. Established in 1992, it’s also an ambitious conservation comeback story. Having reversed three centuries of human impact-from farming to hunting-the reserve now supports the Big Five. A visit to Shamwari reveals the challenges and rewards of managing an ecosystem, with teams of people ensuring enough plant life and water support a delicate balance of predator and prey.
Shamwari is the best known of the private reserves in the Eastern Cape, having starred on many Nat Geo Wild series. We were lucky to visit as a large family group for a special birthday celebration weekend and our quintessentially South African big game experience places Shamwari as number two on our list. Knowledgeable rangers pretty much guarantee amazing sightings and although the park may be busy, it feels like you are the only visitors on the drives - we witnessed lionesses with their cubs catching and eating their afternoon meal (a poor little warthog) right in front of us.
The accommodation was luxurious, the food and drinks delicious.
3. Amakhala Game Reserve
Named after the Xhosa for aloes, Amakhala Game Reserve’s 75km²/29mi² of bushveld and savannah offers sightings from the Big Five to elusive animals such as bat-eared foxes and hyenas. Formed by a group of sheep and cattle farmers, whose families had farmed here since the early 1800s, Amakhala has a conservation mission to reintroduce animals to the land where they once roamed freely. Projects initiated by the Amakhala Foundation include a craft center, which you can visit, and volunteering opportunities and ranger training are available.
Amakhala Game Reserve is a privately-owned conservation area located about a 90-minute drive from Port Elizabeth. The reserve spans five distinct biomes, offering safari-goers a rich variety of landscapes that support a breadth of wildlife, including the Big Five. Although large herds are less common, sightings are frequent and varied. Unlike a national park, Amakhala’s wilderness has been rehabilitated. Established in 1999, the Reserve was founded by the descendants of the settler families who originally farmed the land. These families, whose roots go back five generations, transitioned from sheep and cattle farming to conservation, rewilding the land and re-introducing indigenous wildlife.
There are 11 properties nestled within Amakhala’s 18,000 acres including restored country houses, tented camps, and lodges. Located in a secluded corner and overlooking the Bushman River, four-tent HillsNek Safari Camp is our top choice. Being malaria-free, Amakhala is a great choice for a safari with kids and for travelers also wanting to road trip the Garden Route. We feel it also offers great value for money.
Another private Big 5 game reserve. What makes Amakhala special is the variety of accommodation options - as well as the expected 5 star luxury lodges, they also have 4 star and 3 star camps. This makes it a perfect game reserve experience for local travellers and for groups or company trips. You get all the bells and whistles that you expect, including game drives in open air safari vehicles, sundowners and delicious food, but the price tag is substantially lower than most of the other private reserves.
The game viewing is excellent - the plains surrounded by the winding Bushman’s River are a feast for your eyes, always buzzing with loads of antelope and other big game.
4. Kariega Game Reserve
This 100km²/39mi² Kariega Game Reserve in the Kenton-on-Sea hinterland incorporates five biomes and both the Kariega and Bushman’s Rivers, creating good chances of spotting a hippo or African fish eagle on the riverbanks. The diverse environments offer a range of activities, including river cruises, canoeing, fishing, bush walks and wildlife drives, and safari lodges in five dreamy locations, from a remote valley to the Bushman’s River.
A little east of Shamwari and Amakhala, Kariega Game Reserve spans 28,000 acres and is home to the Big Five (though leopards are elusive). Both the Bushman and Kariega rivers flow through the reserve, meaning guests add boat cruises to game drives, bush walks, fishing, and canoeing. Before Kariega was rehabilitated and repopulated with big game, the land was owned by as many as 21 farmers. There are five accommodations within Kariega. Guests of both can board a boat to cruise down the Bushman River to its confluence at the sea, near the village of Kenton-on-Sea.
5. Kwandwe Private Game Reserve
Located in a more remote area of the Eastern Cape and situated well away from the main highway, Kwandwe Private Game Reserve offers one of the best safari experience in the region. You’ll find the Big Five roaming the reserve, but a unique cast of species elevates the game viewing experience. Kwandwe is home to both black and white rhino, bat-eared foxes, and threatened species such as blue cranes (Kwandwe means “place of the blue crane” in Xhosa), Knysna woodpecker, Cape grysbok, black wildebeest, and elusive black-footed cat. After dark, you might glimpse rare nocturnal creatures like aardvark and aardwolf. The reserve’s recently re-established cheetahs offer thrilling glimpses of these lithe predators.
Between wildlife sightings, enjoy Kwandwe’s kaleidoscopic Little Karoo scenery that evokes a striking sense of space and solitude. Across the 74,000-acre reserve, the landscape shifts from hills to open plains to riverine forest along the Great Fish River while framed by mountains. Although the property line is fenced (to protect against poaching), the experience doesn’t feel enclosed. This is also owing to the fact that there are just four boutique properties within the reserve, resulting in a favorable land-to-guest ratio.
With a mix of boutique accommodations (two lodges and a private homestead, manor, and villa), Kwandwe is a great choice for couples, honeymooners, small groups, and families. It’s also one of the best places to engage in a rhino-focused conservation safari.
Other Game Reserves in Eastern Cape
Here's a list of other game reserves in Eastern Cape:
- Schotia Private Game Reserve
- Pumba Private Game Reserve
- Sibuya Game Reserve
- Lalibela Game Reserve
- Kuzuko
- Kariega Game Reserve
- Kwantu Private Game Reserve
| Game Reserve | Size | Highlights | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Addo Elephant National Park | 2,000 km² | Big Seven, diverse biomes, flightless dung beetle | 1-hour drive from Gqeberha |
| Shamwari Private Game Reserve | 70 km² | Big Five, Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Born Free Big Cat Sanctuaries | Under an hour's drive from Gqeberha |
| Amakhala Game Reserve | 75 km² | Big Five, river cruises, canoeing, fishing | 90-minute drive from Port Elizabeth |
| Kwandwe Private Game Reserve | 74,000 acres | Big Five, rhino conservation, diverse landscapes | Under a 2-hour drive from Gqeberha |
| Kariega Game Reserve | 100 km² | Big Five, river cruises, canoeing, fishing | Kenton-on-Sea hinterland |
Popular articles:
tags: #Africa
