Madikwe Game Reserve Top Safari Guides

Discover Madikwe

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Wildlife & Birds

Take a large expanse of overgrazed, malaria free farmland, rehabilitate the vegetation and in 1991 start to translocate over 8000 animals (28 different species) from various locations around South Africa and what are you left with?

The Madikwe Game Reserve, which today boasts a significant diversity of wildlife, particularly the highly endangered wild dog, but also lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, black & white rhino, spotted hyena and sable antelope (over 60 mammal species now present).

Birdlife is prolific with over 340 resident and migrant species on display such as Lappetfaced Vulture, Greater Kestrel, Shafttailed Whydah, Kalahari Robin and many more.

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Accommodation

There are a total of 22 lodges in Madikwe falling in the mid range to high end categories with one rustic eco friendly bush camp available, so there is something for everyone.

Three of the lodges are particularly child friendly and there is an exclusive use camp that is ideal for larger groups. Many of these properties are run in partnership with the surrounding community which helps a great deal with upliftment and employment.

You can expect to find spacious bedrooms, private decks with plunge pools often frequented by wildlife, ornate bathrooms with inside and outside showers, wellness centres and spas, gyms and of course, fine cuisine.

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Weather

Summer months run from October to March with an average maximum temperature of 31 °C (88 °F) and an average minimum of 17 °C (63 °F). Winter occurs from May to August with maximum average temperatures of 22.5 °C (72.5 °F)and a minimum 4 °C (39.2 °F).

The game reserve is situated in a summer rainfall area so the majority of the precipitation falls during that time, between 38mm (1.5 in) and 84mm (3.3 in) per month. Winter is very dry, between 4 mm (0.2 in) and 10 mm (0.4 in) per month.

Humidity is low for most of the year and the rainfall pattern is typically thunderstorms with some days of mild drizzle.

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Size And Distance

Madikwe consists of 75 000 hectares of reclaimed bushveld, making it one of the top 5 biggest reserves in South Africa. The longest distance from north to south is 25 km (15.35 mi) and from east to west is 36 km (22.32 mi).

The guides are allowed to do off-road driving but limited to within 300m of a road. There is a well established network of gravel roads that criss cross much of the property.

The distance from Johannesburg to Madikwe by road is 326 km (202.5 mi) which should take just over 4 hours when traffic is taken into consideration.

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Flights

There are several different options when it comes to flying to the Madikwe game reserve...

The first is to get there by scheduled flights. Federal Air provides a daily shuttle service from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg directly to a landing strip at Madikwe with a flight time of approximately 55 minutes.

Another way is to take a scheduled flight to Gaborone in Botswana (also takes about 55 minutes) and then transfer by road to the game reserve which is 71 km (44 mi) away. You will have to cross a border post between Botswana and South Africa which could cause delays but the trip shouldn't take much longer than 2 hours.

Airlink flies from Johannesburg to Gaborone and Air Botswana departs from Cape Town to Gaborone in Botswana.

Lastly it's also possible to charter a flight through an aviation company like Unique Air.

Madikwe started twenty five years ago with the aim of relieving poverty and creating job opportunities for us local people.

At the beginning of 1999 it was advertised in our villages adjacent to Madikwe Game Reserve that eight people were needed to be trained as field guides. Mafisa ran the project as an NGO and an environmental training group facilitated the course.

About 400 applicants came through for interviews. Luckily I was short listed as one of the 8 candidates that went through an 18 months intern program based in Madikwe. Training was hard and more specifically learning the scientific side of things but I have to say I loved every minute of it.

It was more like revision in science as my grand father had taught me most of the stuff growing up around Madikwe. He was a medicine man (traditional healer) and we had cattle to look after growing up. Tracking, plants, animals, stars and Ubuntu was something that my grandfather gave us, it was our life coaching whilst growing up.

Since 1999 to date I have been living a life style that I am so lucky to be paid for.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SAFARI GUIDE?

I have no idea of what makes a good safari guide. In my lifestyle for the last 40 years I am taught to be humble, fair, honest, let people into my life, share with people our history and our present life and finally be open minded.

I have also learnt that as a guide we are bush interpreters. Fauna (wildlife), flora (plants) and stella (stars) are the main character on safari and not me as a guide.

FAVOURITE ANIMAL?

My favourite animal is the giraffe. I love the way they walk, gently and swiftly and their beautiful big, dark, marble eyes. They are a truly majestic animal and being so tall I get to see them most of the time.

BEST EXPERIENCE OF YOUR GUIDING CAREER?

Best experience of my career is a privilege that I had to have hosted and guided a special South African senior citizen at Madikwe. I am still inspired by Mr Clive Walker.

GUIDING AREA OF SPECIALIZATION?

Sadly enough, I've not specialized, however I'm a general practitioner in dangerous game bush walks. We would look at medicinal values of plants, eat what the bush offers while walking and get to track and trail within dangerous game area.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to view these animals on foot like lions, rhinos, elephants and so forth. Oh, I am a father myself so I forgot to mention that I love kids on safari and we teach them to specialize in Poo-ology (the study of animal droppings).

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After school me and a couple of friends took a gap year to go play some rugby and travel Europe. Came back and started studying Zoology at the University of Stellenbosch but did not complete it because I wanted to do Architecture. I was hoping to combine the two and build a reptile park.

I only completed one year because I couldn't picture myself sitting in an office so I went to the Manyeleti and did my field guide course in 2002 and all these years later I'm still guiding.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SAFARI GUIDE?

In my opinion a good safari guide tries give guests the best safari experience they can not just in viewing animals but in every light that mother nature has to give.

FAVOURITE ANIMAL?

Difficult to single one animal out but if have to it will probably be either leopard or elephant. The pure power, beauty and adaptability of these animals is unbelievable.

Elephant have soooo much character and personality that I can sit for hours just watching them.

BEST EXPERIENCE OF YOUR GUIDING CAREER?

Difficult to single out because each place where I have guided gave me something special back. You can know a lot about the bush but you will never know everything so it's a learning curve every single time.

GUIDING AREA OF SPECIALIZATION?

My favorite area has to be Madikwe and that's why I have been here for so long, but all areas where I have guided has a special place with me. Love walking safaris, big cats, spiders and dangerous game.

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It was one of those experiences that stays with you for life, we got to learn all these amazing things about the bush, we got to shoot rifles and we learnt how to skin impala, which was fun, until they gave us the meat to eat that night.

Have you ever tried eating meat, knowing that you were pulling out its intestines and stomach few hours prior, it made it a bit difficult to swallow.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SAFARI GUIDE?

The things that makes a good safari guide is having respect for the bush and the animals that live in it, I always believe if you respect the animal, the animal will respect you.

Enthusiasm is also very important, cause if you head out with guests, they don't want a monotone ranger, that sounds boring and dull. They want excitement and adventure.

So as a guide, when you show enthusiasm and passion on the drive, your clients will pick it up and they too will become as enthusiastic as you.

FAVOURITE ANIMAL?

I have many favourite animals out there in the bush, but the one I respect the most must be the Ratel (honey badger). It holds the world record for being the most ferocious and most fearless animal in the bush.

It also has the largest brain capacity relative to size compared to any other predator, making it one of the most intelligent predators out there. If you want to see how smart they are, type in Stoffel the honey badger on YouTube and see for yourself.

MOST MEMORABLE SIGHTING?

The most memorable sighting I ever witnessed was at Karongwe. The guests had just finished breakfast at the lodge and so it was the guides turn to dish up. As we sat down and started to eat, a guest came running up the path screaming "Leopard, Leopard in front of our room!!"

So next thing all the guides dropped their cutlery and bolted to the guests room.

Now the rooms at this lodge over looked one of the rivers of the reserve, and as we reached the deck, the first thing that we heard was a high pitched squealing and as we all settled on the deck, we saw this young male leopard grasping on to a warthog on the other side of the river, with all four paws clinching tight on the warthogs back and his jaws biting the back of the nape.

It took this leopard close to half an hour to bite through all the neck muscles of the pig, and finally as it was able to sever the spinal cord, the leopard looked up at us, face dripping of blood and pig dead at its feet.

It then picked up the pig and dragged it deep into the bush. So as it disappeared, I looked around and virtually the whole lodge was standing on the guests deck, management, house keepers, chefs and even other guests came to view this amazing sighting.

GUIDING AREA OF SPECIALIZATION?

The one area of guiding that I enjoy to specialize on in Madikwe is the medicinal uses of plants and as well as bush survival. I find it incredibly fascinating on how tribes in the old days were able to use certain plants and roots to cure aliments.

I also enjoy to take kids out and show them some interesting things on how to survive, determine direction when lost in the bush.

MOST INTERESTING ANIMAL BEHAVIOR YOU'VE WITNESSED?

The most interesting behavior I ever had seen was with a family of elephants. I was working in Mabalingwe at the time, and one afternoon, we were driving one of many long and straight roads in the reserve.

As I turned onto one of those roads, I saw a family of elephants walking down the road towards us about 300/400 meters ahead of us.

So I pulled the vehicle completely off the road and explained to the guests, to stay calm and relaxed when the elephants approached. So the Matriarch walked straight up along side my door, and stuck her trunk in side the vehicle and took a deep whiff of me, and all I could was say was "Hello Gorgeous", she then looked at me and moved further down and started to smell my guests.

Now I had a heavily pregnant lady sitting behind me, and the moment the Matriarch's trunk smelt her, her trunk stopped, moved over her belly and took another deep whiff.

What happened next was incredible, she removed her trunk from the vehicle and bellowed loudly to the rest of the group and they all turned and walked away from the vehicle, leaving us in peace.

After this encounter, I asked fellow guides on what had happened and they explained similar behavior when it came to have a pregnant lady on board. That's when I realised how powerful a elephants sense of smell really is.

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FAVOURITE CAMPFIRE STORY?

I think my all time favourite Madikwe campfire story has to be "When the hippo was hairy".

Now long ago, the hippo was covered in long beautiful golden hair and was one of the most magnificent creatures to be seen in the African bush, and the hippo knew this.

This caused the hippo to become extremely vain, and he would constantly brag to the other animals how beautiful and majestic he was. The other animals grew tired of the hippo and his constant bragging, so one day while the hippo was out grazing, he came across Scrub hare who was doing his morning foraging.

"Good morning Scrub Hare, have you seen how beautiful my coat is today, far more better then your dull grey coat that you wear".

This infuriated Scrub Hare and he decided to get back at hippo for the nasty words. So the hare decided to secretly follow the hippo until he found a resting spot.

Once the hippo fell into deep slumber, the hare ran to the closest human village, and took some of the burning embers of the fire.

He returned to where the hippo was sleeping and placed the embers on the hippos golden locks, Next thing the hair burst into flames and the hippo jolted up and ran to the closet waterhole and dived in.

As the hippo emerged from the water, he looked at his reflection and saw that all his beautiful hair had been burnt off and realised what an ugly animal he really was under all that hair.

The hippo became so embarrassed by his looks, that he only came out of the water at night so that no other animal could see how ugly he really was.

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