In November, Gondwana Game Reserve (www.gondwanagr.co.za) on the Garden Route will launch its Pioneer Trail – a three-day walking safari for groups of up to eight guests.

As most game-walking trails take place in the lowveld area, Gondwana offers the first such opportunity in a fynbos-covered, malaria-free landscape in the Western Cape, within easy reach of Cape Town.

The Pioneer Trail will operate from November 2019 to April 2020. The first official guest trail will start on December 2.

Exploring the 11 000 hectare Big 5 game reserve on foot will give guests a deeper, more intimate connection with their surroundings.

Expert trail guides will expose guests to Gondwana’s biodiversity and eco systems while experiencing the Big Five and multiple species of antelope. Covering 15-20km over two days, the wilderness trail takes walkers on exclusive, remote footpaths and game trails to three different remote tented camps.

Guests will spend each night in a different unfenced camp and will carry only a light day pack, while their overnight kit is sent ahead to the next camp – the ultimate slack-packing adventure. 

A high tea and G&Ts will be served to hikers as they arrive at their new camp each day. Walk-in tents appointed in a different theme per camp include en-suite bathroom facilities with claw-foot tubs. Homemade meals, made around the campfire, are served in the dining tent or under the stars by the campfire in the boma. 

Gondwana is home to big game including lion, hippo, elephant, rhino, buffalo, and plains animals such as eland, giraffe, and zebra. The reserve has over 1 000 different species of plants, many of them threatened fynbos species, and a few that can only be seen on the reserve and nowhere else in the world.

Mark Rutherfoord, Founder of Gondwana Game Reserve, says: “The Pioneer Trail will allow guests to not only experience an open-system game reserve on foot but to truly appreciate the reserve’s fynbos landscape, which comprises thousands of colourful flowers, bulbs and succulents that are best appreciated at close range. 

“The trail will reach areas of the game reserve that are inaccessible to vehicles, including the remote tented camp locations, which are spectacular and each occupies a different vegetation type on the game reserve.”

Set departure days are Mondays and Thursdays. Hikers must be 12 years and older and physically capable of walking six hours a day.

The three-night package costs R12 750 (€780) per person sharing. It includes tented accommodation, daily activities, all meals and selected local beverages.

For more information, please consult the fact sheet here.

For reservations, please email reservations@gondwanagr.co.za or call  +27 (0)21 555 0807.

Further information: www.gondwanagr.co.za.