About Shamwari Private Game Reserve

A Rare Finds resort, Shamwari Private Game reserve is set in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, unfolding across 25,000 hectares of malaria-free wilderness. Home to the Big Five and where five of South Africa’s nine biomes converge, the reserve is shaped by conservation, wildlife and the people who protect both. Six lodges and one explorer camp sit within the landscape, offering a refined safari experience rooted in space, privacy and quiet luxury.

Shamwari Private Game Reserve was born from a need to restore this enclave of the Eastern Cape to its former glory, conserving the land while protecting its abundant wildlife, birdlife and ecological diversity.

No two days at Shamwari Private Game Reserve follow the same rhythm. Walking safaris, night drives and conservation experiences unfold alongside game drives, each shaped by the movement of wildlife and the changing landscape. The Big Five move across 25,000 hectares alongside cheetah, spotted hyena, more than 370 bird species and smaller wildlife that reward closer observation. Across the Eastern Cape’s varied biomes, the landscape shifts as you travel through the reserve, revealing a safari experience defined by diversity and scale.

The History

By the late 20th century, the Eastern Cape had lost most of what had made it one of southern Africa’s richest wildlife regions. Centuries of agriculture had displaced the animals, altered the vegetation and changed the land. In 1990, the work of restoring it began.

Elephant, white rhino and hippo were reintroduced in 1992. As the large herbivores moved through what had been cultivated fields, they began reshaping the land as they always had: turning soil, dispersing seeds and clearing paths. Black rhino and buffalo followed in 1993. Cheetah, lion and brown hyena arrived in 2000. Serval and leopard the year after.

In 2001, Shamwari became the first Big Five game reserve in the Eastern Cape. Eight years earlier, most had considered it impossible.

Not everything went smoothly. When oxpeckers were introduced from the Kruger National Park, they landed on Shamwari’s rhinos, animals that had never experienced birds picking ticks from their hides. The rhinos stampeded. The oxpeckers flew. It appeared to have failed. Some time later, juvenile oxpeckers were spotted in the reserve. The rhinos had adapted. The birds had stayed and were breeding.

That pattern, challenge, perseverance, adaptation shaped how Shamwari grew and how it continues to operate today. Now part of Kerzner International’s Rare Finds Resorts, Shamwari promises an authentic safari experience, rooted in a deep sense of place.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Nothing of this scale had ever been attempted in the region and lessons were learnt and knowledge gathered as the project progressed.

When oxpeckers from the Kruger National Park were introduced, the little birds landed on Shamwari’s rhinos. Unused to the sensation of birds pecking for ticks, the rhinos stampeded, and the birds flew off. It looked like the experiment had failed, until a while later junior oxpeckers were spotted. The rhinos had adapted, the birds had stayed and were breeding.

It is this sort of trial and error, perseverance, the willingness to learn and exchange knowledge and share experience that has contributed to Shamwari’s success as well as that of the safari sector in the Eastern Cape and beyond.

Conservation Continues

Today, the Shamwari Foundation runs alongside the reserve, carrying the crucial conservation work beyond the land. Wildlife rehabilitation, anti-poaching programmes, environmental education and community initiatives are central to the reserve’s remarkable guest experience.

“Hospitality, the guest experience and the conservation of indigenous fauna and flora are interdependent. Without our guests, the conservation work could not happen.” Joe Cloete, CEO, Shamwari Private Game Reserve.

Getting Here

Shamwari Air offers direct, on-demand flights from Cape Town International and OR Tambo International airports, bringing the Eastern Cape within two hours of Cape Town and just over two hours of Johannesburg. Private lounges at both airports ensure the journey is unhurried from the outset.

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