Fodor's Expert Review Kwandwe Private Game Reserve
Tucked away in the Eastern Cape, near the historic university "city" of Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown, and now increasingly run down), Kwandwe is a conservation triumph as 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 were just ravaged farmland and goat-ridden semidesert two decades ago. Today it's home to more than 7,000 mammals, including the Big Five and the elusive black rhino, and it's likely you'll see fauna you don't always see elsewhere, such as black wildebeest, bat-eared foxes, and the endangered blue crane (Kwandwe means "place of the blue crane" in isiXhosa). If you spend more than a couple of nights here, you'll likely see a huge and impressive array of animals, including leopards, lions, and herds of elephants marching across the terrain. If you come in winter, you'll see one of nature's finest floral displays, when thousands... READ MORE
Tucked away in the Eastern Cape, near the historic university "city" of Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown, and now increasingly run down), Kwandwe is a conservation triumph as 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 were just ravaged farmland and goat-ridden semidesert two decades ago. Today it's home to more than 7,000 mammals, including the Big Five and the elusive black rhino, and it's likely you'll see fauna you don't always see elsewhere, such as black wildebeest, bat-eared foxes, and the endangered blue crane (Kwandwe means "place of the blue crane" in isiXhosa). If you spend more than a couple of nights here, you'll likely see a huge and impressive array of animals, including leopards, lions, and herds of elephants marching across the terrain. 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. The reserve also has a strong focus on community development, as evinced by the Community Centre and village within the reserve, both of which are worth a visit.
READ LESS
