Waterberg Region

Waterberg reserve is located in the province of Limpopo, South Africa. We had the opportunity to visit the Welgevonden Game Reserve in August 2016. It is one of the most accessible, malaria-free reserve, and is home to over 50 different mammals, including the Big Five.

Each lodge in Welgevonden is secluded and hidden from view. Most of the lodges are only limited to 10 guests and you will immediately feel the attention to details and personalized services.

When we arrived at the main gate, we were greeted by our ranger who would be accompanying us throughout our stay. We then left our car at the main entrance and were driven to the lodge on the game vehicle. We stayed at the Ekuthuleni Lodge. Meal time is very personalized; the chef would come out and talked about dietary restrictions, etc. After staying in the Pilanesberg are for our four bush trips, Welgevonden is definitely a great start to enter the personalized, small lodges, bush experience. By this time, our children are very well conversed when it comes to game drives and bush trips and we don't necessarily need anymore kids club and/or separate kids activities. Those options are now "nice to have" but no longer a necessity :-)

Ekuthuleni is not fenced in, so it's probably not suitable for smaller children. Our rangers would walk us back to the lodges when it's dark and fortunately we never had to face any game animals while we were on foot.

All in all, it's a great game reserve if you are bored of the mainstream Pilanesberg :-)