Thanda Private Game Reserve

Thanda Private Game Reserve offers a luxurious and immersive safari experience, combining wildlife viewing with a deep connection to the rich Zulu culture. It is one of the few places in South Africa where conservation and community efforts come together. Visitors come here to enjoy sightings of the Big 5 while also supporting vital wildlife conservation programs. With its private and exclusive nature, the reserve offers unparalleled opportunities to experience wildlife up close, including behind-the-scenes access to conservation efforts. The cultural immersion into Zulu traditions and the breathtaking landscapes of KwaZulu-Natal further enrich your visit.

Short answer:
Big 5 safaris, volunteering, cultural experiences, luxury relaxation

Long answer:
The main attraction at Thanda is its Big 5 safaris. With experienced guides, you can explore the bushveld and encounter Africa’s most iconic wildlife. Private game drives provide intimate and uninterrupted encounters with nature, while walking safaris offer a more immersive experience. The reserve also features cultural tours, where guests can learn about the Zulu people, visit traditional homesteads, and engage with local communities. For those looking to relax, Thanda offers luxury accommodations and spa treatments with a view of the surrounding wildlife. At night, enjoy stargazing in the clear skies of the reserve or take part in a traditional Zulu storytelling session around a campfire.

Conservation enthusiasts can also get involved with the reserve’s wildlife initiatives through volunteering with the Ulwazi Research & Volunteer Programme, where you get to experience hands-on conservation work, from elephant collaring to cheetah monitoring. Volunteers do not stay at Thanda’s high end luxury camps or lodges, but stay at the very adequate Intibane Research & Training Centre. As a volunteer, you pay less to stay longer, and thus experience more. As someone who has experienced Thanda both as a volunteering destination and as an expensive luxury safari destination, I will recommend volunteering any day, any time!

The best time to visit Thanda Private Game Reserve is during the dry winter months (May to September). During this period, the vegetation is less dense, making wildlife easier to spot as animals gather around waterholes. Temperatures are also milder, providing comfortable conditions for game drives. The rainy season (November to March) brings lush greenery, but the wildlife can be more dispersed due to the abundance of water. October, which is at the end of the dry season and beginning of the rainy season is a preferred month of mine, as the first rain makes the reserve greener, but vegetation continues to be less dense.

Thanda Private Game Reserve is located next to the N2 highway, approximately 3 hours’ drive from Durban. The exit to the reserve is on the left-hand side of the highway. Visitors can fly into King Shaka International Airport in Durban and then either drive or arrange a private transfer to the reserve. For a more luxurious option, charter flights can be arranged directly to the reserve’s airstrip. It’s advisable to fill up on fuel and supplies in nearby towns like Hluhluwe before making your way to the reserve, as there are limited services in the area.

The reserve is also about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive north from the small tourist town of St. Lucia, which I always recommend to use as a hub when exploring the nature and wildlife areas of KwaZulu-Natal.

Thanda Private Game Reserve was my first experience with South African wildlife and my second experience with African wildlife, after doing field work for my Master’s degree in the Serengeti in Tanzania a couple of years prior. I came here in September of 2012, to volunteer on a research project for 12 weeks. I had worked and saved up money for six months to come and stay here, as I longed to return to the African wilderness after my experience in the Serengeti.

Volunteering in Thanda (with African Impact)

The volunteering experience was a bit different then than it is now, I would guess, as the company I volunteered with was African Impact (which is no longer active in the reserve). Wildlife Act, another conservation and research oriented volunteering organization, was also active in Thanda at the time, but is no longer. I had signed up to work on the large carnivores of the reserve, particularly lion and cheetah, in addition to some work on leopards and African wild dogs (wild dogs are no longer present in the reserve). When I got there, we were grouped together as one large research group. No matter what program we had signed up for before hand, we all had to work on the same species, which meant I also had to work on elephants, and occasionally rhinos. That didn’t bother me at all, as I got plenty of work with the big cats.

I think we were about 12 people in the research program, with some people only staying for 2 weeks, some for 4 weeks, and some, such as myself, for longer. Up to 12 weeks was max (due to the 90 day tourist visa), but one of the girls (from the Netherlands) stayed for as long as 16 weeks (if I remember correctly). The whole program was incredible! We were trained by staff, as well as the volunteers that had been there for a few weeks already. And we set off to work with wildlife almost instantly. So, what we did we do?

What we did

We had two major focuses as we drove around in the reserve: The first one, which I was most actively part of, was observing and documenting lion behavior. This was part of a larger project, which was looking at behavioral differences between completely wild lions (such as those in Thanda), and released captively reared lions (from Antelope Park in Zimbabwe – also ran by African Impact). The second focus area was observing and documenting elephant behavior. As we went out looking for lions and elephants (we mostly had one of the two as an objective for each drive), we also actively looked for cheetahs and rhinos (and of course leopards, but that was always pure luck). Besides driving, we also did a lot of hands-on conservation work on the ground in the reserve, such as clearing out invasive plant species, creating bomas for incoming animals from other reserves, and sometimes even taking part in the capture and relocation of African wild dogs (who often escaped the reserve – which is why they are no longer there).

I got one specific task quite early on, since I had signed up for the carnivore program, and that was to learn to identify and figure out the sex of four tiny lion cubs that had been born a short while before I got there, as well as getting good photos of them for ID-purposes. I learned how to tell lions apart (which you do by looking at their whisker pattern), and with camera at hand, I soon managed to separate and identify the four little cubs. I was the only one, during my entire stay (I think), who could confidently tell the four apart. They were 3 girls and one little boy.

The lions of Thanda (2012)

The four cubs I worked on were born into the North Pride of lions, one of only two prides in the reserve, with the other being the South Pride. All the North Pride lions had names beginning with the letter N, and all of the South Pride lions had names beginning with the letter S. The North Pride was not shy and seldom hard to find, but the South Pride, however, was very shy and rarely seen by us. The leader of the North Pride was Narnia. She had one older daughter, Nala, from a previous litter, and two daughters and a son from a later litter (Naomi, Nikita, and Nibbles). The four young cubs were Nala’s cubs, making Narnia their grandmother. We never got to name them (this was reserved to tourists at the luxury lodge).

There was only one dominant male in the reserve at the time: Mufasa. He was the father of the four cubs, but he was not part of any pride. We often found him alone, but towards the end of my stay, he actively tried to mate with one of the South Pride-females (Sahara – I think), and was mostly found with them. Sahara was their leader. Like Narnia, she had an older daughter from a previous litter, called Savannah, who also had a couple of cubs (younger then Nala’s, but I never saw them if I remember correctly). Sahara had one more daughter, Sierra, as well as two sons, Simba and Shaka. All three “teenagers” from the same litter. 

The North Pride was so accustomed to our presence, that we could just drive up to them, and they would behave as if we weren’t there. They would often play around, and sometimes walk all the way up to and next to our vehicles, where we sat in the open (with no roof or barriers between us and them). One time Naomi was playing with one of her siblings (she was an almost fully grown adult), and she ran around the area we were parked. Suddenly, she ran towards my vehicle and as she came right up next to it she looked up, straight at me. It was not much more than a meter between us, and I thought she was about to jump up at me, but she just stopped, stared at me, and ran away. That I will never forget.

The elephants of Thanda (2012)

I do not remember the elephants as well as the lions, but there was one big family herd we found quite often, where the matriarch, their leader, was without tusks (so she was easy to identify). There were often big bulls following the herd, and the biggest and oldest was Thulani (meaning “the quiet one”). He was a gentle giant, and always a treat to come across. He had an evil twin, however, Mpatha. Mpatha was almost identical to Thulani, and about the same size, but he had a longer tail. He was also rarely seen with other elephants. Mpatha was very aggressive, and would chase cars when they got too close. We were also told that Mpatha had killed a person at some point before. We were all terrified of him and even the guides and staff tried to avoid him at all costs. We luckily didn’t see him much, but we did enjoy the herd when we came across them, and one time we found them with a newborn baby, which was a very nice experience.

My wildlife photography journey begins here
I had bought my first DSLR camera before coming to Thanda (a Canon 600D, with a 250mm zoom lens), in the hopes of trying to capture some good shots of the wildlife. I fell in love with photographing all the animals, particularly all the big cats, but what really got me hooked was being around a whole bunch of more experienced photographers. African Impact also had a wildlife photography program as part of their volunteering offerings, and aspiring wildlife photographers would come and stay at the camp for 4 weeks at a time. We also got to know these volunteers really well, as we all lived together at Intibane Lodge. I frequently sat in on their photography and editing sessions to learn more and get inspiration. I even managed to get my hands on Lightroom (image editing software), as they all got it for free from one of the photography lecturers. At the end of my stay, I felt almost as much part of the photography group as I did the research group. The only difference was that they drove in a vehicle separate from us researchers.

The people I met
What probably made the entire stay at Thanda so magical was all the people I met there. Likeminded people from all over the world, of all ages, enjoying the African wilderness together. After many years of feeling that I didn’t belong with most people, I finally found my place here. Even though I hardly communicate with any one of them now, 12 years later, I still consider many of them friends for life. We had so much fun together!

I also got my very first girlfriend at Thanda, a young American girl, just out of high school. We both fell in love with South Africa (and each other), and moved there the very next year (she helped me on my leopard project). We had a great time together, her and me, and she helped me find my confidence and grow as a person. However, it was clear it was never meant to last, and we split up after a couple of years. I will always be thankful for the time we had together and for the time I got to spend with her amazing family in America. 

A few standout experiences from volunteering at Thanda

1. Lion kill
One time we came across the North Pride as they were about to hunt, and we followed them from laying down in the grass all the way until they had captured and killed a wildebeest not far from the road. To see how they worked together and what each lion did in the hunt was an incredible experience, especially because we knew each lion so well.

Here’s a video of the experience (notice that Nala is the one chasing the wildebeest):
https://youtu.be/14sR_TuX0Rc

2. Leopards mating
During a night drive, we came across a couple of leopards mating. This was one of the most exciting and, again, incredible experiences I have ever had. It was because of this experience that I fell absolutely in love with leopards and decided that I wanted to do research on them, which led me to come back the next year and start my work on leopards in Tembe Elephant Park and Ndumo Game Reserve.

Here’s a video of it:
https://youtu.be/vjveCW5CWkw

3. Cheetah brothers
If we had a slow morning and didn’t find much, we almost always had the lazy cheetah brothers to cheer us up. These two brothers kept together all the time, and they really enjoyed hanging out by the northern fence line of the park (we think they were interested in a female in the reserve on the other side). We quite often drove up to where they liked to hang out, and we would often find them just laying down in the grass, not doing much. 

Here’s a close up video of them relaxing:
https://youtu.be/guIYJ9Hn-iY

4. The capture and relocation of an African wild dog
The African wild dogs loved to escape the reserve (which was a bit too small for such a species). Because of this, they had to be captured and relocated quite often. Wildlife Act did most of the work with the wild dogs, but one time they needed help from us as well. They had captured the entire pack, which was in a boma waiting for release, but the alpha male, Sky, had eluded them. So, we had to team up and try to capture him. We went to a remote section of the reserve where he was last seen, and lured him in with bait and sound recordings. He eventually showed up, and the veterinarian darted him with a tranquilizer to get him to fall asleep. We then put him in the back of the car, were we sat, and we literally had him laying at our feet. That was quite the experience, and my, do African wild dogs stink! A part of their social decorum is to roll around in their own feces, making them quite smelly.

Here is a video of the darting of Sky:
https://youtu.be/jiyIViDLXT0

A stay at the Thanda luxury camp
About 18 months after my stay as a volunteer at Thanda, with me being deep into my leopard research in Tembe and Ndumo, my sister and her then boyfriend came to visit us. She wanted a taste of a more expensive safari experience (we took them around on a budget), and we decided to give the more expensive side of Thanda a go for a couple of nights. It was a bit weird seeing Thanda from this side, and the accommodation, food and everything else was very high-end and luxurious. For the price, I felt it wasn’t worth it at all compared to how much time we could spend as a volunteer for the same amount. I also thought our drives as volunteers were more exciting and meaningful. We did come across Narnia and Nala, as well as the cheetah brothers, but didn’t see any of the cubs or South Pride lions. We did see a brand new male, however, which was beautiful (and is on the first image at the top of the page). 

Final thoughts
Deciding to volunteer at Thanda is probably the best decision I made in my entire life! It was the start of so many exciting life paths and adventures, and I finally got know who I was and what I wanted to get out of life. If you ever get the chance to volunteer at this place, just do it! Even though the volunteering program has changed, and neither African Impact nor Wildlife Act is present, I bet that the current program is great. They still stay at Intibane Lodge, and by the looks of the new images of the place, it seems to be even nicer there now. I really have an itch to go back there again, and experience it all anew. I probably won’t, however, as that is a closed chapter of my life, but it was definitely one of the most important ones!