Shamwari Game Reserve

Welcome to Shamwari Game Reserve, the ultimate luxury big five African adventure and conservation effort coupled with responsible tourism.

Shamwari Private Game Reserve is home to Africa’s Big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard), is malaria free and is situated in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This reserve has received numerous international awards, including the World’s Leading Conservation Company and Game Reserve for many consecutive years. It is situated in verdant bush along the Bushmans River, halfway between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, a pleasant drive from Cape Town and forms a natural extension to the famous Garden Route.

Luxury accommodation is offered in 6 different lodges on this private game reserve. Choose a lodge that compliments your ideal African experience.

Shamwari is about conserving a vanishing way of life and is the realisation of one man’s dream, and the success of many people’s passion.

Steeped in pioneer history, and dating back to the time when a multitude of game roamed wild and free, the 25 000 hectare reserve boasts five eco-systems, thus enabling the support of many forms of plant, animal and bird life.

Shamwari – "my friend"

''Away-away from the dwellings of men,
By the wild deer's haunt, by the buffalo's glen,
By valleys remote where the oribi plays,
Where the gnu, the gazelle and the hartebeest graze,
And the kudu and eland undaunted recline
By the skirts of grey forests o'erhung with wild vine,
Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood,
And the river-horse gambols unscared in the flood,
And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will,
In the fen where the wild-ass is drinking his fill."

Thomas Pringle. 1820