Monwana Game Lodge

Monwana Game Lodge is a small safari lodge in the Thornybush Nature Reserve, a private Big Five reserve of about 14 000 hectares that is unfenced to the Greater Kruger. There are only six suites at the lodge, plus a separate exclusive-use villa, so evenings around the waterhole feel more like a house party than a hotel. Many of the team have worked here for years, and it shows in the easy, personal welcome.

The suites are built for slow afternoons between drives. Each has a private terrace and a temperature-controlled plunge pool, an outdoor shower, a lounge and floor-to-ceiling glass looking out over the bush and the waterhole. Inside there is underfloor heating, a freestanding bath, mosquito-netted beds and air conditioning. The two-bedroom Family Suites add a second room for children and come with their own safari vehicle, so families can head out on their own schedule.

Days follow the rhythm of the bush: an early game drive and a late afternoon drive, each with an FGASA-qualified field guide and tracker and never more than six guests to a vehicle, with coffee at sunrise or drinks at sunset. Guests 16 and older can walk with an armed guide. Meals move around the property, from breakfast on the deck to boma dinners and lantern-lit tables in a dry riverbed. The kitchen cooks seasonal South African produce with a relaxed bistro feel, and a sommelier leads wine tastings.

Children aged 10 and over are welcome in the lodge, and the Mosaba Rangers programme keeps young guests busy between drives with archery, tracking and spoor casting, and survival skills like making fire and finding water underground, alongside games and pizza making with the chef. The lodge runs almost entirely off-grid on solar power, with water-based heating and cooling and reverse osmosis drinking water, and a behind-the-scenes sustainability tour shows how it works. A bush spa and a fitness centre overlooking the trees round things off.