Wild Love at the Gondwana Game Reserve Kwena Lodge

Road-tripping has to be one of my favoring things to do with Carlinn, and what better way to spend our 15th Valentines Day together, than to start our road-trip up the Wild Coast one day early with a surprise trip to the Kwena Lodge at Gondwana Game Reserve.

Gondwana was not only the perfect place to celebrate Valentines Day, but it was the perfect way to break up a full day of driving from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, which was the original idea.

We could only leave Cape Town around 11am as we needed to wait for our Road-Trip Chariot to arrive from Land Rover, this Range Rover Evoque below, so we only arrived at Gondwana around 4:30pm, just missing the afternoon game-drive.

So, if you were thinking of booking your own night at Gondwana, be sure to get there by 1pm to fully enjoy everything that they have to offer from the welcome  drinks and welcome tour, to the game drive that kicks off at 4pm sharp where you’re taken on an afternoon adventure to find the Big Five.

That’s right, Gondwana Game Reserve are host to Lions, Elephants, Leopards, Buffalo and of course, their pride and joy Rhino that are cared for and monitored 24/7 by bush ninja’s waiting for any poacher to try their luck.

Back to the reason Carlinn and I were at Gondwana…

So, we’re on an adventure for 7 days up the Wild Coast of South Africa, to explore a side of our beautiful country we’ve never seen before and Gondwana was a surprise trip, as well as the perfect place to host our Valentines Day Facebook Live Special on the Facet Travel by Tastemade Page.

The Facebook Live was a complete success and if you watch the Live below, listen out for the Farting Zebra! It was hilarious from behind the camera haha!

After the perfect dinner, we made our way back to our room where we watched the stars from through tie skylight above our bed.

We got a 5am wake-up call the next day where we were taken out on a morning game drive to find some wildlife.

First we went in search of Lion, but to no avail, so we made our way into a protected area of the reserve where they keep their Mountain Zebra, which are an endangered species of Zebra. They are kept here to protect them from the Lion, who seem to think they are quite delicious, but they do have to keep an eye our though as a cheetah roams that area too.

The rest of the animals we encountered on our drive before heading back to the lodge for our poolside breakfast, were giraffe, regular zebra, a variety of antelope and of course, some of their other endangered wildlife who were a special sight to see.

If you’re making your way to Gondwana I’d highly recommend going for at least 2 nights so you have time to really enjoy what the reserve has to offer in terms of viewing animals, but if your budget is tight, 1 night is perfect too, just remember to arrive by 1pm.

Thanks Gondwana for making our time there so special! We will be back!!

Here are just a few more photos taken of and around Gondwana Game Reserve.