We recently went to Madikwe, which for those who don’t know is in the North West Province bordering to Botswana . This private Game Reserve has loads of different lodges, catering to your specific requirements. Motswiri Private Safari Lodge was the only one that was reasonably priced; that allowed toddlers. I don’t just mean at the lodge but also allowed them to join in at diner, which was held at their deck or boma. The location of your dinner is depending on the day of the week, number of guest and what the Lodge has planned. The other lodges In Madikwe were above our budget and others would not allow the kids to join us at dinner. Meaning we would have to either eat dinner early or in our room which is not convenient at all , when you are there with other people.
Mostwiri is a full board accommodation, meaning breakfast, lunch and dinner were included. On arrival they asked about our dietary requirements and made sure to cater to them. My highlight of the whole trip was that after breakfast they arranged take our daughter on her own little game drive. She would see all other animals except the predators and she honestly didn’t mind. All she cared about was being on a game drive and seeing the animals. The staff were very friendly and catered to our group in an exceptional way. Even offering to babysit for us, if my husband and I wanted to go on the evening game drive together.
Our rooms looked out onto a small watering hole. And in the evening we would see wild animals coming for a drink. It was very peaceful and the weather was fantastic. Please note that this place is in the wild so you are constantly surrounded by insects especially at meal times.
Our main reason for going to North West Province was mainly because it is malaria free area. This meant we didn’t have to worry about what would happen if our daughter had a mosquito bite. Another important thing is that the whole of Madikwe Game reserve has paramedics on site. As well as a medical helicopter should there really be a serous medical emergency that required a hospital.
What you need to note is that Madikwe Game Reserve does not allow self-dives to go see the animals, which I think is a fantastic thing. Basically you drive in to go check in at your accommodation. They will valet park your vehicle and you will it will be brought to lodge reception entrance on your departure.Our lodge even washed our car for us-that was amazing.
On our safari’s (which there are 2 a day one morning and one evening) we saw four of the big 5, unfortunately on the one morning I decided to skip out on the game drive-they saw the ever-elusive Leopard.
We enjoyed our stay at Motswiri and will defiantly be going back.
Do you enjoy discovering our beautiful country? What cool child friendly places do you know and would suggest we visit?
Love and Light
Rach…