Madikwe Sun City Newsletter

This month a group from the Rhino Africa team visited Sun City and the Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West Province of South Africa. Sun City, South Africa's "Las Vegas" is an oasis of top notch hotels and massive landscaped gardens, lakes and world-class golf courses. This African shrine to the mass entertainment industry offers a mixture of adventure activities, an education in an array of African cultures and endless forms of relaxation.

This created "city" which has hosted everyone from Elton John to the Black Eyed Peas is a wonder of a man-made earthquakes, oceans, wave machines, waterslides, clubs and casinos. This city of the sun is adjacent to one of South Africa's most popular game reserves, the malaria-free Pilanesberg National Park and day trips to the park are easily arranged and encouraged! That a resort can become a destination is testament to its glamorous glitz and exciting entertainment. Sun City has plenty of both and the Rhino Africa team were treated to a night in the Cascades Hotel, the feeding of orphaned Zimbabwe elephants, a show at the cultural village and a magnificent dinner at the Lost City's Crystal Court. Leaving the glitzy entertainment city behind us, we hopped in our red mini bus and set off for Madikwe Game Reserve. While the Pilanesberg National Park is a stones throw away from Sun City, Madikwe Game Reserve is about 1.5 hours drive from Sun City (and about 3.5 from Johannesburg). While both reserves offer a similar experience, Madikwe is slightly more expensive because it offers a more authentic experience and one that is definitely comparable with a trip to the Kruger Park.

Madikwe National Park is one of South Africa's biggest game reserves and is situated against the Botswana border. It's 60 000 hectares are home to 66 large mammal species including the Big Five, cheetah and wild dogs and approximately 300 resident and migrant bird species. The philosophy behind Madikwe was to run the reserve as a joint venture between the State, the private sector and the local communities. The overwhelming success of reserve for all involved, especially the previously economically depressed communities. Madikwe has therefore become a role model for similar use of land elsewhere in the country.

We stayed at two great lodges, the exclusive Etali Safari Lodge and the community owned Thakadu River Camp. The highlights of our two days of exploring the reserve were watching Rhinos wallow in mud, seeing massive herds of Giraffe and Zebra all around the same watering hole and seeing a pack of wild dogs. Our game drives yielded excellent sightings of all of the Big Five. It's also hard to find a better location for sundowners than hopping off the landrover in the middle of no-where to watch the African sun ease away for the day and leave spectacular colours in its wake.

Read more...



			Palace of the Lost City Sun City Cascades Hotel Sun City Hotel Sun City Cabanas Madikwe Hills Etali Safari Lodge Impodimo Madikwe Safari Lodge Thakadu River Camp



		A Typical day on Safari The Big Five explained Malaria free safaris See all Madikwe lodges See all Pilanesberg lodges



				Only 2,000 to 5,000 Wild Dogs are left in the wild

				Hippos can gallop at speeds of up to 30 km/h

				Rhinos belongs to the same family as horses

				Elephants can live for up to 60 years in the wild

A group of us visit Victoria Falls and the Chobe National Park in Botswana in January. We look forward to reporting back to you!

We have tailormade a few tours that include our favourite Madikwe lodges. Our tours suggest itineraries that work well as fly-in, self-drive or private transfer options and that in our experience run smoothly.

Sun City Getaway
Sun City and Madikwe
Etali Fly-In Safari
Madikwe Safari Lodge Getaway
Thakadu Self-Drive Safari

Tailormade means you can shorten or lengthen any of these tours depending on your time and budget. And what's more, you can add this to an itinerary that goes to Victoria Falls, the Garden Route, Cape Town... you name it.

David is the co-owner and MD of RhinoAfrica. His passion for Southern Africa, travel and wildlife photography took over his accountant brain and led to the creation of Rhino Africa. Although his Accounting Degree stands him in good stead as a business owner, his zealous and dynamic nature is better suited to the service industry. "The aim of Rhino Africa is NOT to churn out package itineraries but to focus on personalised holidays for our clients!" says David. David is definitely a larger than life character who sits in the midst of our open plan offices as one of the team. Don't be alarmed if you call our offices and hear some high, slightly off-key singing in the background - it's just David in a good mood!

Last week Rhino Africa sponsored the main prize for a golf day to raise funds for Quenton Steele who suffered a devastating spinal injury while playing rugby eight years ago. This young husband and father is confined to a chair and uses a ventilator to breathe. The costs of supporting Quenton are immense and a committee of friends in his area got together to start an annual golf day to raise funds for him. It has become a great day of entertainment which aims to offer financial support to the Steele family. Rhino Africa was proud to not only send their avid golfers along for the day but to sponsor the auction item of a 3 day Kruger Safari which brought in R18,000.00 for the family.