Tuningi Safari Lodge

Tuningi Safari Lodge is set in a valley on the western side of the Madikwe Game Reserve in the North-West Province. Madikwe Game Reserve is one of the largest reserves in South Africa, traversing over 75,000 hectares of vast plains.

The lodge has four luxury Suites and two-family Suites each consisting of two bedrooms with a lounge, kitchenette and dining room separating the two rooms. The interior is ‘Colonial African Chic’ and the main thatched lodge offers beautiful indoor and outdoor lounges, an elegant dining room and a magnificent rim flow pool that overlooks a waterhole.

All accommodation at Tuningi has air-conditioning, ceiling fans, fireplaces, en-suite bathrooms, beautiful double baths, outdoor showers and private wrap around wooden decks for enjoying the pristine bush and wildlife on view.

Tuningi Safari Lodge is a mere 4-hour drive from Johannesburg and for those that wish to experience an exhilarating fly-in safari, the reserve has an excellent all-weather 1,500-metre gravel airstrip with daily return shuttle flights from OR Tambo International Airport.

Safari: Rangers at Tuningi are highly qualified and offer guests a unique opportunity to be educated on many aspects of wildlife and bush etiquette, in a state-of-the-art, 4x4 open air vehicles while in search of the Big 5, for which the reserve is renowned.

Spa: You can order one of the following treatments in your room: Indian Head massage, foot massage, full body massage and manicure and pedicure.

Wedding Venues: At Tuningi, your wedding ceremony will become a subtle combination of African chic grace and charm. The ceremony will take place on a ‘koppie’ (hill) overlooking the northern part of the Madikwe Game Reserve.

Family friendly: Tuningi is one of few lodges in a Big 5 reserve that allows children of all ages at the lodge, and children from   five years old to join the first game drive with their parents. All children under the age of five will be taken on short 'kiddies bumbles' after breakfast in the mornings.

About Madikwe Game Reserve

Madikwe, a South African private game reserve created in 1991 from 75,000 ha of farmland, which had been extensively degraded by overgrazing, was chosen as the site of Operation Phoenix. The government-sponsored, biggest-ever game- relocation programme in Africa involved re-stocking and conserving flora and wildlife, which had long since disappeared from the region.

Ten thousand animals of 27 major species, including wild dog, cheetah, lion, white and black rhino, buffalo and elephant, have been re-introduced to the Madikwe Game Reserve over a six year period with animals coming from various reserves and breeding centres and game viewing is now at its prime.

Northwest Parks Board (formerly Bop Parks) has adhered to a strict policy of introducing only those species, which once occurred in the area). Madikwe is run as a three-way partnership between the State, the local communities and the private sector.

Madikwe, therefore, should not be looked at as solely a protected area or tourism destination, the reserve acts as a major social and economic core and engine around which the development of the region can be based.

The name of Operation Phoenix is appropriate: like the mythical bird that burnt itself to a crisp on the pyre and then rose from the ashes to live again with new vigour, nature has regained a stronghold on the land and the programme has been hugely successful.

Madikwe Game Reserve is currently the country's fourth largest game reserve. It is situated in the North West Province and is bordered by Botswana in the north, the spectacular Dwarsberg Mountains to the south, the Marico river to the east.

The diverse habitat in the reserve, from acacia, savannah to riverine, ensures a unique combination of species such as springbok, gemsbok, sable and impala. The birdlife is also spectacular, and this is one of the few South African private game reserves that are malaria free.