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Southern African safaris take some beating. Among the region’s array of protected spaces, South Africa’s Madikwe and Botswana’s Mashatu game reserves are malaria-free hidden gems which we cannot recommend highly enough. Resurgent after histories as gradually degraded arable and livestock farms, these rewilded spaces are now premium safari stays for those in the know.
Mosetlha Bush Camp and Eco Lodge
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MOSETLHA BUSH CAMP & ECO-LODGE
Mosetlha Bush Camp & Eco-Lodge lies a four-hour drive from Johannesburg’s international airlinks and the landscaped gardens of Fairlawns Boutique Hotel & Spa. Fairlawns is an ideal stay either before or after your rewilding safari, having undergone its own renewal after a first life as the private residence of one of Africa’s richest families.
Fairlawns Boutique Hotel & Spa, tucked away in the leafy suburbs of Sandton, Johannesburg
Claire Roadley
Benefiting from one of the largest wildlife translocations in history, Mosetlha has homeliness innate to just ten double-occupancy cabins housing just 16 guests, an ethos celebrating its status for digital detoxes, and a rustic elegance lit up with dozens of paraffin lamps and solar jars come sundown. With the feel of a fly camp, it’s the only one of 30-odd Madikwe lodges situated at the centre of the 290 square mile Big Five reserve, making every corner accessible on its extended-length game drives led by an award-winning guiding team.
Boma dining at Madikwe Safari Lodge
Dook
MADIKWE SAFARI LODGE
If sharing the latest animal sightings on socials is a must, Madikwe Safari Lodge’s Kopano Lodge is the answer. Its four exclusive-use suites extend out from a spacious indoor-outdoor shared space overlooking a waterhole fed by the lodge’s filtered greywater and visited by species ranging from elephant to leopard. Decorated with carefully curated Africana, and with en suites and spa resplendent with local products, the only problem you’ll encounter is deciding what the private kitchen should prepare for your three-course à la carte meal.
Euphorbia is just a 90-minute flight away from Johannesburg, in Botswana’s privately owned Mashatu Game Reserve
EUPHORBIA MASHATU
A 90-minute flight from Johannesburg, directly into Botswana’s privately owned Mashatu Private Game Reserve sits Euphorbia, the region’s first five-star lodge. Perched over a ravine and shaped like the seed pods of indigenous mopane trees, each individual villa’s solar-powered Scandinavian chic belies their opulent all-inclusive status, covering meals and twice-daily game drives. These feature guides fore and aft of Euphorbia’s four-seat open-topped safari vehicles, guaranteeing a window seat whether enjoying sightings of lion and cheetah, time in the waterhole-level photographic hides, or taking in the seemingly endless views across the reserve’s unfenced borders with a sundowner in hand.
GETTING THERE
Virgin Atlantic flies direct between London Heathrow and Johannesburg daily with return fares from £730 per person, including complimentary food, drinks, inflight entertainment and taxes.
Book your tailormade Rewilding safari to Madikwe and/or Mashatu direct or through your preferred travel agent. Specialist tour operator Africa Collection can tailor this trip to suit your needs with all flights and internal private road transfers if you call (01403) 256 655 or visit africacollection.com.
