Discover luxury safari lodges and tented camps in Welgevonden Game Reserve, South Africa

Just three hours’ drive from Johannesburg, Welgevonden Game Reserve is a malaria-free swathe of hilly bushland and wide plains. Spread over 34,000 hectares of Limpopo province, this private reserve is at the northern edge of South Africa, bordering Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Less well known than some of the reserves to the south, it has fewer visitors and far less game traffic, delivering that back-to-the-wild feeling in spades. It’s home to more than 50 species of animal, including the ‘big five’: rare white rhino, giraffe, cheetah and hippo. But no less interesting are the reserve’s smaller inhabitants, which include aardvarks, pangolins and more than 300 types of bird. Along with game drives, lodges usually offer guided bush walks and rhino tracking sessions, so you can leave the road and get closer to the animals – the best way to secure that once-in-a-lifetime shot.