Madikwe Game Reserve

Thouroughly Enjoyable

Stayed at The Bush House for 2 nights and did 4 3 hour safari drives and managed to see most of what we were hoping to see. Missed out on seeing Cheetahs, Leopards and Wild Dogs, although given the size of the park there is no guarantee you will see everything. The Bush House was fantastic and I have no hesitation recommending it. Our guide Tom was OK but have heard JR is the best. August mornings are chilly but the days are beautiful. Safari Bookings were great with all pick ups and bookings done without a hitch.

We managed to see the big 5 over a couple days, we had a wonderful time on safari.

A great safari experience in a malaria free zone

Madikwe is a great destination for wildlife observation with a number of excellent and comfortable lodges. The wildlife is very impressive especially for large mammals. Lions, rhinos (both white and black) , giraffes, wild dogs, buffalos, elephants are relatively easy to see and you have the time to observe their behavior. The park is pretty large and you do not have the feeling of being in a 'large zoo', on the contrary; this despite the fact that the Game reserve is fenced. The part which is missing is a large river and the related wildlife such as hippos and crocodiles. We have seen and had the time to follow two wild dogs packs and two male lions roaring just in front of us (really unforgettable). The park is not accessible with your own car and that makes the experience really much better even if a bit more expensive. No traffic at all and very little chance of queuing to see wildlife.
Accommodation at Rhulani was very comfortable and they have a large pond where we had the opportunity to see rhinos, wild dogs , zebra, elephants and more when in the evening they came for drinking.
Scenery is the typical SA bush so do not expect large trees or a thick forest, it is not the landscape everybody loves.
Guides are friendly, helpful and very technical.
Final remark: it is a malaria free area and you do not need to worry about it or about yellow fever.
On balance the reserve I would recommend in South Africa.

Good, not great

We visited Madikwe in August 2023, with probably too high expectations given the length of our stay (5 nights) at Rhulani (very good lodge with great staff) and the reputation of the reserve.

We ended up quite disappointed on the predator side, since both leopard and cheetah eluded us and we did not even see spotted hyenas.
We were also expecting good wild dog sightings, but we just caught little more than a glimpse of a running pack after sunset.

However, we had various good lion sightings and we did manage to see a brown hyena.

Regarding other game, plenty of elephants, zebra, wildebeest, steenbok and impala. Very good white rhino sightings, briefly saw a black rhino in the dense bush. Some giraffes and a klipspringer.
No trace whatsoever of rarer antelopes like eland, gemsbok, tsessebe or red hartebeest.


Overall, a good reserve but we felt the variety of game was far from impressive compared to Kruger or Okavango.

Nice destination if you are visiting Johannesburg on business and want a quick safari experience - somewhat limited in variety of game.