Shamwari is located about an 40mins drive from Port Elisabeth, which is pretty central on the southern coast of South Africa. It's about 50,000 acres in size, with part of it donated to the Born Free Foundation which looks after old/sick big cats.
We were there as part of a two week fly-drive holiday, organised by the Born Free Foundation.
In South Africa, Shamwari is seen as a very exclusive and top of the range game reserve, only for those with cash.. which means tourists.. it's around £150 a night, but that includes all your meals, drives, accommodation etc. which isn't bad at all!
So here's the basic run-down of what happens...
You're placed into a game drive group, each with a ranger and a jeep, and you stay with this team until you leave. You have breakfast, lunch and dinner with them (the place works on an all-inclusive basis) so it's fingers crossed that they aren't too annoying for you! Then each day you're scheduled to go on game drives at 6am and 4pm. As well as the meals, there's high tea, and pre-dinner drinks too, so you're well looked after in regards to food and drink!
One thing we weren't too keen on was that at 6am and 4pm, every guest at the reserve jumps into their jeeps with the ranger and they drive off to see the animals.. The problem with Shamwari was that there were too many jeeps, the roads were too well worn, and it really felt as though we were just on a theme park ride, except that this one lasted for 3-4 hours! The jeeps were the standard 9 seater open-top safari style, and both blankets and canvas rain ponchos were provided for the chilly mornings.
We always saw the giraffes first.. then the elephants, then rhinos, lions and cheetahs last... plus plenty of springbok and other antelopes on route... After a couple of drives we started to get a bit bored with some of the animals.. there wasn't the edge of danger or uncertainty as to where the animals were or whether you'd see them. There was no need for any tracking skills, as with so many jeeps driving around the rangers just radioed each other if they saw something.. if it was anything interesting then there'd be a race for the other jeeps to get there too.!! One good rule that the Shamwari did have was that only two jeeps at any one time could be close to a "siting", with the others queuing up further away.. not exactly fun.. it was just like queuing up at the zoo to see the animal...
Our ranger was certainly pleasant and knowledgeable but he wasn't very talkative, which meant that it was up to you to shout forwards to him if you wanted to know what a certain animal, bird or plant was.. even then you'd just get the answer and no other extra information..
The rooms vary in standard from the basic (which is still large, and quite comfy), to huge suites.. but you get what you pay for! The food was great, everything served buffett style because of the large number of people, but very tasty and of course included plenty of local foods (Ostrich tastes amazing, and low fat too!!) Every other night they have dinner outside BBQ style, which means that as long as you stay for two nights you'll have this experience.
Along with everywhere else we found in South Africa, the Customer Service was out of this world... the staff could not do enough for you, were so friendly and warming, it was a great atmosphere.. it was just some of the visiting tourists that let the side down!
I'd reccommend going to Shamwari, for two reasons, firstly that you're guaranteed to see the big five plus many more other animals, but also because of the Born Free Foundation enclosures which are so worthwhile.
Just a tip though, I'd reccommend staying only one night at Shamwari... and spend a week at Sanbona (See my review on Sanbona) which was much more exclusive, enjoyable and relaxing.
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