Last weekend I visited the Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa. The Welgevonden is about 3 hours drive north of Johannesburg and very easy to find. Even Renate, who regularly gets lost on her way to educationals, will be able to find it. The Welgevonden Private Game Reserve is a 34 200 ha, privately owned game reserve in the heart of the Waterberg in the Limpopo province of South Africa. It first started as a conservation area in 1993 through a private sector initiative that resulted in the consolidation of numerous private farms.
The main reason for my visit was to assess the quality of game viewing, as this is extremely important in the decisions I make when advising guests on which safari lodges to visit.
I visited Makweti Safari Lodge and then also Mhondoro Safari Lodge. Both lodges are privately owned and have traversing over the entire reserve. I have visited over a hundred different safari lodges in southern Africa and Makweti is real quality in terms of the level of accommodation, quality of food and service. The lodge has a beautiful site with beautiful views. The chalets are very large and very luxurious. I had possibly the best sleep of my life in their king size bed (admittedly I was tired after attending a bachelor party in JHB the night before!) The main areas are also very well appointed with a fantastic bar area, lounge, balcony and dining and boma.
I was very well looked after by the Makweti team and was guided on my two game drives by both Jacques and Glen. Both were experienced rangers having worked not only in the Welgevonden but also other safari areas in South Africa.
I was also very impressed with Mhondoro, which is another excellent safari lodge in the Welgevonden. It was not as luxurious as Makweti, but the quality of food and service was just as good. The chalets are large and overlook a waterhole. The main areas were comfortable but probably in need of a soft refurbishment in order to keep up with other similar quality safari lodges. What impressed me the most about Mhondoro was the friendliness of the kitchen staff – they often came out and chatted to the guests.
As regards the game viewing in the Welgevonden, I was reasonably impressed. I saw lions, elephants and the usual plains game. What did surprise me was how many rhino I saw. In one particular area there were rhino literally around every corner. So if you want to see rhino, then visit the Welgevonden! I was also pleasantly surprised at how few vehicles there were around – this is quite unusual as there are a few lodges in the area and in my opinion there are fewer vehicles around as opposed to some of the other safari areas in South Africa. On the big sightings, like lions for example, they do allow four vehicles, which in my opinion is too many. Most other reserves only allow three.
I would rate the game viewing as good, although still not as good as what you would get at the private reserves of the Kruger. However, variety is the spice of life, and safari lovers should definitely consider a visit to the Welgevonden. In fact, instead of the usual Cape Town, Garden Route and Kruger Safari, guests should consider combining Cape Town, the Welgevonden, Tzaneen area, then a Kruger Safari and visit to the Panorama Route. This in my opinion would be much more of an African experience and would expose you to two different wildlife areas and beautiful scenery.
To end off I would just like to thank Helen from Makweti, Celeste and Caroline from Classic Retreats and Tracy from Mhondoro for arranging my educational to the Welgevonden.
