Hans van Lamoen

South Africa Safari 2014

Kwandwe Private Game Reserve

‘Kwandwe’ in the isiXhosa language means “Place of the Blue Crane”,

Kwandwe covers 22,000Ha (54,000 acres) of wilderness. Through it flows the Great Fish River for approximately 30kms eastward to the Indian Ocean. The land was originally made up of several private farms, each struggling along breeding small stock, which included sheep, goats and ostriches. Two American entrepreneurs and a naturalist guide, Angus Sholto-Douglas and his wife Tracy brought about the re-birth of the land and its return to a natural wilderness state. Their dream started around a campfire discussion one evening and soon became a reality but not without an intensive programme of restoration, re-structuring and hard work.

The Eastern Cape was very much a neglected part of South Africa back then, so here was an opportunity to open up an overlooked part of the country and reveal a breathtakingly beautiful wilderness area. A hidden treasure that holds significant historical value as the Great Fish River formed the boundary that created friction between the 1820 Settlers of the British and the Dutch and the indigenous Xhosa people, as it formed the border of the Cape Colony. War raged and much blood was shed between the Xhosa nation and the Cape colonials (late 1700’s till late 1800’s). Since then, the water level in the Great Fish River is boosted by divertion of water from the Orange River, in a project, ensuring its year around continuous flow..

Text edited after: Tourism Tattler (source)

Kwandwe Private Game Reserve
Image/Source: Google maps

The Great Fish River Lodge

The Great Fish River Lodge and surrounding private cabins are beautifully positioned directly overlooking the river and blending in elegantly with the open scrub vegetation in the valley.

Spectacular panoramic view from the balcony of the Kwandwe 'Great Fish River' central lodge.

The Kwandwe Private Game Reserve central lodge breakfast and dining section has a most elegant interior

The Kwandwe Game Reserve private cabins elegantly blend in with the vegation in the Great Fish River valley

One of the Kwandwe privaye cabins

Right down below the Kwandwe Great Fish River Lodge, an elephant strides by along the river bank.

With age comes beauty! This massive bull elephant's appearance is truly majestic.

A majestic bull elephant gauges our presence. Its trunk performing the scencing of what is the air.

A massive elephant bull strides past

A caring cuddle between giants.

An older male lion stands poised for action in what appeared to be a tussle between several male individuals. Its old age shows in the blueish-glazed cataract left eye. Is the one-eyed still king or is the tussle about a coup de etat in the pride?

The two lionesses are all eyes and ears for a nearby tussle between two male lions

An impressive full-maned full-grown male lion in his prime. Is he the new king already or the contender ....?

This Cheetah is having a good rest after heavy dining. With its brother cheetah in arms it rests, still red-mouthed blood-stained, next to a slain female kudu. An unusally big animal for cheetahs to kill. They had managed to open up the lower neck part of the kudu and had taken a first filling. If lions pride (photos above) would catch the wind of this juicy free meal, there would be no more bites at the bone for these two.

This cheetah carries a radio collar for tracking its move abouts through the Kwandwe wilderness.