Madikwe Game Reserve

Set against the Botswana border in the far north of North West province, Madikwe Game Reserve covers around 75,000 hectares (750 km2), making it one of South Africa's largest game reserves. It is one of the country's foremost malaria-free Big Five destinations, home to lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, and is managed by the North West Parks and Tourism Board through a joint venture with private lodge operators and neighbouring communities. The absence of malaria risk, combined with a roughly four-hour drive or short flight from Gauteng, has made it a favoured choice for family safaris.

The reserve is as much a conservation story as a wildlife one. Proclaimed in 1991 after economists concluded that a game reserve here would generate more jobs and income than continued farming, it became the focus of Operation Phoenix, one of the largest game translocation exercises ever undertaken. Between 1991 and 1997 more than 8,000 animals of 28 species were reintroduced to land that had been low-yield cattle farms, and the reserve opened to visitors in the mid-1990s.

Today Madikwe supports more than 60 mammal species and over 340 bird species across open grassland and bushveld plains broken by rocky outcrops. It is best known among safari-goers for the endangered African wild dog, which is regularly and closely seen here, alongside a large and growing elephant population and cheetah. For the strongest sightings, the dry winter months of May to September concentrate game around water and thin out the bush.