Kwandwe Private Game Reserve

Kwandwe Private Game Reserve Review

Kwandwe Private Game Reserve is tucked away in the Eastern Cape, near the quaint, historic cathedral city of Grahamstown. More than a decade ago, the area was ravaged farmland and goat-ridden semidesert. Today it is a conservation triumph—more than 55,000 acres of various vegetation types and scenic diversity, including rocky outcrops, great plains, thorn thickets, forests, desert scrub, and the Great Fish River—that's home to more than 7,000 mammals, including the Big Five. Your chances of seeing the elusive black rhino are very good, and it's likely you'll see game you don't always see elsewhere, such as the black wildebeest, the black-footed cat, caracal, Cape grysbok, and many rare and endangered birds. Kwandwe is also known for its nocturnal animals, so it's worth opting for a night drive, during which you stand a pretty good chance of unusual sightings like aardwolf, aardvark, porcupine, genet, and other creatures of the night.

Kwandwe means "place of the blue crane" in Xhosa, and you may well see South Africa's national bird on any of your thrilling game drives. If you come in winter, you'll see one of nature's finest floral displays, when thousands of scarlet, orange, and fiery-red aloes are in bloom, attended by colorful sunbirds.