Gondwana Private Game Reserve

Gondwana is a Big Five reserve in the fynbos near Mossel Bay, on the Western Cape's Garden Route. The lodge has 11 suites. We book it for exclusive use when a family needs the whole place. It is malaria-free, and about an hour's flight from Cape Town.

The landscape is the surprise. The game drive tracks run through proteas, heathers and restios. A specialist guide walks you through the plants of the Cape Floristic Region, the proteas and the medicinal plants among them, and the children usually come back knowing more than their parents. In the afternoons you drive the reserve with your own vehicle and guide. Elephant come down to the lodge waterhole, so grandparents can watch from the pool deck while everyone else is out.

How you arrive depends on the journey. On The Cape Wilderness a helicopter flies you east along the coast from Hermanus. On The Zambezi & the Wild South the family flies from Cape Town to Mossel Bay Airport, about an hour, and drives the rest. On South Africa Complete you drive in from Hermanus through the Overberg.

Gondwana suits families with young children, and anyone who wants a Big Five safari close to the Cape with no malaria and no long transfers.

Good to know

• Malaria-free.
• Children are welcome; the fynbos walk works for every age.
• Good all year, and close enough to George for a round at Fancourt on another day.

Country: South Africa