Madikwe & Sun City

One of the closest regions from Johannesburg for game viewing, the Pilanesberg National Park is bordered by the Sun City Resort, making it an ideal location to explore as a day trip from the complex. The park covers 55,000 hectares and is almost perfectly circular sitting inside a 1200 million year old volcano crater. The park straddles the transition zone between the Kalahari Desert and the green verdant Lowveld, meaning that different types of vegetation are found and in turn a wide variety of flora and fauna.

The Pilanesberg National Park was opened in 1979. In the early eighties, the largest game resettlement project in the history of South Africa, “Operation Genesis” was completed. More than 6,000 animals from other parks were introduced into the park. In 1993 lions from the Etosha National Park (Namibia) were introduced to the park, and since then, the lions have been thriving and nicely multiplying in the park.

Today virtually all the animal species of southern Africa, including, lions, elephants, white and black rhinos, buffaloes, leopards, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, hippos and crocodiles live in the park. Over 300 bird species have been counted.

There are guided game drives available or you can self-drive. For something a bit special you can arrange a hot-air balloon safari to view the game.

In our opinion, not the best safari experience in South Africa, but great if you only have a short time in the country and are staying at Sun City.

Further north west is the Madikwe Game Reserve. About 2 hours drive from Sun City or a short hop by light aircraft, Madikwe is in the North West Province on the border with Botswana. Home to Africa’s Big 5 and thriving populations of Black rhino, cheetah and wild dog, game viewing is every bit as good as its more famous rival, the Kruger. There are some indigenous species of antelope found here, that aren’t found in the Kruger, we highly recommend this as an alternative safari holiday destination.

After the success of the project at Pilanesberg, Madikwe embarked on “Operation Phoenix” which began in 1993.  More than 8,000 heads of game were brought into the park. In 1996, predators were introduced, first cheetahs, wild dogs and hyenas, later also lions from the Etosha National Park (Namibia) and the neighbouring Pilanesberg National Park. 180 elephants came from the Gonarezhou Game Reserve in Zimbabwe which had been hit by a disastrous drought. The resettlement of the elephants was a great success and their population in Madikwe has grown to 250 animals.

The reserve has a number of superb lodges and safari accommodation standards in Madikwe are extremely high. The area has the added bonus of being malaria-free, making it an ideal location for a family safari holiday.

Speak to one of our Madikwe safari experts on +44 208 249 5919 (UK) or +65 919 412 56 (Asia). They will be happy to advise on safari lodges, what you can expect to see, and the best time to go on safari in Madikwe.

You can view some of our top Madikwe Safari Lodge accommodation suggestions here.