Gondwana Private Game Reserve

Home
South Africa
Hessequa
Gondwana Private Game Reserve

Call Directions Website

Experience an authentic Cape safari at Gondwana Private Game Reserve! Encounter majestic wildlife & soak in the beauty of our Fynbos ecosystem.
(1817)

Explore 11,000 hectares of free-roaming Big 5 territory, where the Cape Floral Kingdom meets true wilderness. The award winning Reserve is ideally and accessibly located on South Africa’s popular Garden Route less than four-hour drive from Cape Town and 45 minutes from George domestic airport. World-class tourist facilities and attractions on Gondwana’s doorstep include championship golf courses at Pinnacle Point, Pezula, and Fancourt, great swimming and surfing beaches, wineries and the attractive coastal towns of Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. The Reserve is home to lion, elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, giraffe, hippo, zebra, eland, sable, wildebeest, impala, springbok and waterbuck. Over 15 antelope species and 18 predator species are found on Gondwana. Indigenous Fynbos vegetation cloaks the undulating valleys, adding vivid colour and interest to a Big Five wilderness experience with awe inspiring views of the Langeberg Mountains wherever you look. Family itineraries include the Junior Ranger Programme which offers fun and educational activities in the Reserve with a dedicated Field Guide as well as a cool backpack and a custom activity booklet to complete during their stay.

20/10/2026

Happy International Chefs Day to Chef William van Dyk and his kitchen team. Chef William cooks with locally sourced ingredients, and he is passionate about the unique, aromatic, edible herbs of the fynbos. He explores their tastes out in the field first, and together with his team he brings them onto our plates in fynbos-infused herb mixes, salts, reductions, butter and even gin.

Every meal at Gondwana is the work of a whole kitchen, and today we say thank you to all of them.

That’s what we mean by Cape Fynbos Safari cuisine: dishes made from where we are.

16/10/2026

YOUR OWN HOUSE IN THE FYNBOS
Imagine a house in the fynbos that is entirely yours, with a field guide, a chef and a game viewer of your own, so the day begins at your door and runs on your terms.

We have four private residences: Ulubisi House, with a butler as well; Black Rhino House, poised at the top of the valley; Ikhara House, all glass and clean lines; and Psamma House, with its own pool and sunset deck. Children of every age are welcome, and those aged three and over join the game drives.

Save this for when you start planning, and share it with whoever you’d bring along.

13/10/2026

Spring is slowly unfolding across the fynbos, part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of the smallest and richest floral regions on earth. Out on the reserve, it arrives in small, quiet details: a colour on a ridgeline, a flower you only notice when the vehicle slows down.

These are the blooms our guides have been finding over the last few weeks, from delicate ground orchids to brilliant bulbs, photographed raw and in the field, exactly as they were found. Swipe through slowly, and save this one for when you’re planning your own visit.

09/10/2026

“Such a magical place and the staff are outstanding.”
A five-star Google review from a recent guest, with rooms, service and location all scored five out of five. Thank you, we’ll pass it on to the team.

03/10/2026

Planning a South Africa itinerary and wondering where Gondwana fits in? We're four hours from Cape Town by road, malaria free, and home to the free-roaming Big Five in a critically endangered fynbos landscape we have spent twenty years rewilding.

Swipe through what a stay looks like: expert field guides, two game drives a day, fynbos walks and e-bike safaris, the southernmost free-roaming elephants in the Western Cape, and a choice of two lodges or four private residences, whether you're a couple, a family or a group.

Save this for when you start planning, and share it with whoever you'd bring along.

28/09/2026

Everywhere else, a cheetah is built for open savanna, for distance, for nothing standing between it and the horizon. At Gondwana, ours learned something different: how to hunt through dense fynbos scrub, where speed alone was never going to carry them through.

But it's the quiet moments that tell the real story. In the heat of the day, our resident coalition, three brothers, aren't hunting at all. They're lying close together, grooming each other, playing the way only brothers do when there's nothing left to prove. That closeness is exactly what carries them through the rest of it: shared territory, shared kills, a bond most cheetahs never get to have. Male cheetahs who stay together like this survive longer and hold ground better than those who go it alone, and with fewer than 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild, that bond has become something close to essential.

Some lessons, the wild still teaches better than we do.

Ashia Cheetah Conservation
WWF South Africa
Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve
CapeNature

24/09/2026

A LIVING HERITAGE

What does it mean to protect our heritage?

For us, it means protecting more than the stories and traditions that shape us. It also means protecting the living landscapes, species and wild places that form part of the natural heritage of the Southern Cape.

Rhino are part of that heritage.

At Gondwana, more than 20 years of rewilding, habitat restoration and dedicated conservation work have helped restore this landscape and bring wildlife back.

But restoration is only part of the story. Protecting what has been restored is an ongoing responsibility.

Our Anti-Poaching Unit plays an important role in safeguarding Gondwana’s wildlife and protecting the conservation progress built over two decades.

And then there are moments like this: two young rhino playing, exploring and growing up in a landscape where they belong.

They are a reminder that conservation is ultimately about creating a future where wildlife has the space and security to simply be wild.

A heritage worth protecting.
A future worth leaving wild.

Happy Heritage Day.

20/09/2026

A PLACE TO BREED

September is one of the peak egg-laying periods for the Black Harrier, one of Southern Africa’s rarest endemic raptors.

At Gondwana, protected fynbos provides important breeding habitat for this elusive species, with breeding pairs recorded across the reserve.

For more than 20 years, Gondwana has been rewilding a landscape once shaped by livestock farming, restoring habitat and bringing important species back to the Southern Cape.

Because rewilding is about more than bringing wildlife back.

It is about restoring a functioning landscape where species can breed, survive and remain part of it.

For the Black Harrier, Gondwana is more than habitat.

It is breeding ground.

15/09/2026

THE STORIES THAT LINGER
We love sharing Gondwana with our guests and creating the kind of experiences that stay with you long after you leave.
Because the greatest gift is knowing that a few days in this landscape can become memories you carry in your heart for years to come.

09/09/2026

Ulubisi House is built around privacy: your own private villa, surrounded by mountain views, privately staffed with a dedicated chef and field guide, and a schedule that runs entirely to your own itinerary.

It sits inside the reserve's protected walking area, where bontebok, giraffe, and other antelope roam nearby, without ever needing to share the space with other guests.

It's the perfect getaway for a family or group, luxurious and tailored entirely to what you need.

Address

Gondwana Game Reserve
Hessequa
6506

Telephone

+27634022546

Website

https://www.gondwanagr.co.za/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=bio&utm_campaign=profile_link

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gondwana Private Game Reserve posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your hotel to be the top-listed hotel in Hessequa?