Madikwe River Lodge Trip Report

We last visited Madikwe game reserve in 2018, hence it was so good to return this year! (You can read our 2018 Madikwe River Lodge Trip Report here.)

We spent 4 nights at Madikwe River Lodge making this our 6th stay at the lodge.

Entrance to the lodge with an elephant to welcome us

Madikwe River Lodge is like our second home – after a six-year break most of the staff members remembered us. We have stayed at about 12 Madikwe lodges ranging from 3 to 5-star and Madikwe River Lodge is in our top-3 favourites for several reasons:

Being 3-star, their rates are substantially lower than most of the other lodges yet their food is five-star. Their staff members are friendly and humble, nothing is too much trouble, so we receive excellent service.

Their comfortable rooms all face the Groot Marico River and we had some amazing animal sightings from our room!

Jenny photographing an elephant herd from our spacious chalet

The herd of elephants crossing the causeway

Then of course there are the game drives, which can make or break any African safari.

Charles Tacora was our field guide and he managed to show us the super-seven animals (big-five plus cheetah and wild dogs): leopard x 2, cheetah x 2, wild dogs x 3, lots of rhinos, elephants, buffalo and of course lots of lions, plus he got us to our favourite sunrise and sunset spots on time so that we could capture these amazing events!

So, we entered at Abatjerskop gate in the west and took a slow drive, heading to Madikwe River Lodge in the NE. We didn't see much until we were on the Madikwe River Lodge concession - just 1.2 kms from the Lodge, we spotted all these giraffe staring in one direction. 

Herd of giraffe all staring in one direction

We reversed and looked into the bush - we had driven past a male lion with his mother from the Kwena pride on a kill!

adolescent Meyiwa male lion

We informed Charles our guide, who was grateful for the info as they are under pressure to find the big cats each day. Our four days were going to revolve around these lions and the two big Meyiwa males, as they stayed on the concession all 4 days.

On arrival we were welcomed by Petunia, Cynthia the GM and Charles our guide. It was like coming home to family.

After our refreshing welcome drink and a short catch-up on how everyone was, it was time to off load our luggage at our favourite chalet number 17.

This would be our home for the next 4 nights.

Madikwe River Lodge: the Food 

Breakfasts: Fruit, yoghurt, croissants, cereals, plus eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, hasbrowns, fried tomato and bake beans.

Our delicious breakfast

Lunches: Oxtail, Grilled Kingklip, Lamb chops with mash or lamb chops with potato wedges……

Oxtail lunch - tender and delicious!

Kingklip lunch - scrumptious!

lamb chops - my favourite! We had lamb chops twice - once with mash and once with potato wedges.

High Tea: We skipped some high teas because we just could not eat another thing after the delicious lunches! Savoury puffs, fruit platter and peanut brittle with iced coffee and iced tea...

High tea.

Dinners: starters of deep fried crab sticks, salmon salad 

crab stick starters

salmon salad starter

and mains of ostrich fillets, fillet steak and savoury rice, fillet medallions... 

ostrich fillet dinner

beef fillet medallions

and a boma dinner...

Boma dinner of braai, salads, vegetables, vino and dessert!

The desserts were amazing. We have found many good chefs can cook great starters and main courses but they fall short with the desserts. Not so here - the desserts are really good!

cheese cake with the crushed biscuit base on top!

Crème Brûlée

peppermint crisp tart

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #1

We couldn’t locate the lions we had seen when arriving at the lodge but did find the large Meyiwa male called Dark Mane, the father of junior that we spotted when arriving at the lodge.

Jenny shooting the dark mane Meyiwa male lion

He had stolen a wildebeest kill from a cheetah, that was about 100 meters away and lying flat...

Cheetah that had his meal stolen by dark mane

After sundowners we came back past where we had seen the lion. He had finished the wildebeest and moved off but a black-backed jackal and brown hyena had descended on the remains.

Brown hyena grabbed what was left of the carcass and left

black backed jackal eating scraps

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #2

We mentioned to Charles the day before, that we would like to photograph the sunrise at Tshukudu dam, so he asked us to be ready to leave at 05h00 instead of 05h30 – not many guides will do this!

So we had our early morning coffee and left at 05h00.

We are ready way before 05h30 as we have our coffee and rusks while waiting for Charles to arrive.

We captured the most amazing colours in the sky 

Tshukudu dam at blue hour

The colors in the sky kept changing as it got closer to sunrise

The colors in the sky kept changing as it got closer to sunrise. No filters used - these images are as captured.

I walk right to the water's edge to capture the image

and we got some lovely bird silhouettes...

Heron silhouette at Tshukudu dam just before sunrise

After the sunrise we found a pack of wild dogs running down the road.

Wild dog on Derdepoort main road

They bumped into some giraffe but they were all adults, too large for the dogs to tackle so they both just eyed each other...

pack of wild dogs approaching giraffe

Hello up there...!

Hello down there...!

We then stopped at Grant's Rest for our morning Amarula coffees!

The large Shepherd's Tree is called Grant's Rest and is good place to stop for morning Amarula coffee!

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #3

We headed to Kolobeng Dam for our sundowners and captured some super sunset pics.

Jenny and Charles having sundowners while I'm down at the waterlevel shooting animalscapes.

elephant drinking at sunset - Kolobeng dam - captured from the dam wall

elephant drinking at sunset - Kolobeng dam - captured from water-level

Mario photographing sunset from water-level at Kolobeng dam

Rhino after sunset. We noticed so many guides pack up after the sun sets yet you can get the best colour in the sky up to 20 minutes after sunset, like with this rhino image.

We were then heading back to the lodge for dinner and Charles had called in the 10-minute notification for the chef when he saw the young male lion and lioness stalking in the bush, just 500 meters from the lodge.

And so we went bundu-bashing and found the young male and his mother with another lioness – the lioness had caught a small impala and the young male kept trying to get it.

lioness with the head of something in her mouth

the young Meyiwa male sniffing where the female was eating

Charles had to call the lodge and tell them we would be late. Game drives are usually 3-hours in duration, and we had departed at 16h30, which meant we should be back by around 19h30 for 20h00 dinner. Charles had spotted the lions at about 19h50 and we took our first photo at 20h03 and last photo at 20h27.

Charles knows that his guests are there for the animals – food can wait!

Many other lodges are very strict, and the guides must be back by 20h00 so some field guides would have driven past the lions and not even told their guests.   

We enjoyed a later dinner with bush babies jumping around the dining area while we ate!

lesser bush baby in the lodge restaurant!

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #4

We went back to Tshukudu dam in the morning but the sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as the day before.

Tshukudu dam sunrise on day two - not as impressive as day-1!

However, on the way to the dam we spotted two shapes in the road – it was the Tswene female Leopard with her cub!

Tswene female Leopard - her cub had disappeared into the bush

We managed to get just a few photographs of her before they both disappeared into the bush – what a bonus - it pays to leave early!

We then found a very relaxed cheetah... 

Chilling cheetah

During the day we tried to rest between meals and drives but we didn't get that right as so many animals kept coming down to the river to drink and play!

View from our chalet - note the outdoor shower!

We had elephants, rhinos and more in front of our chalet every day.

elephants outside our chalet

rhino in front of our chalet

malachite kingfisher in front of our chalet

African Monarch butterfly outside our chalet

There is so much to photograph in the lodge by day and night...

Large-spotted Genet in tree. We always have our cameras with us as we never know what we will see. We spotted the genet while walking from our chalet to dinner.

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #5

Our day-3 afternoon drive was uneventful, meaning we didn't see anything unusual or spectacular - just impala, wildebeest, elephants and rhinos. 

We did, however, get some elephant refelctions and a lovely sunset at Tshukudu dam...

elephant reflection at Tshukudu dam

sunset at Tshukudu dam

It was the 'calm before the storm' as the next day was going to be very special...!

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #6

We had heard lions roaring during the night so went to look for them and found the young male Meyiwa lying in the road with a small buffalo kill stashed in the bushes behind him. He was just past the causeway, so around 110 meters from chalet #17.

Charles wondered where the females were, so we drove a short way down the road and as we approached the fence, which forms the border between the reserve and the blueberry farm, we saw three wild dogs run past us, heading towards the male lion!

Madikwe Berry is the only blueberry farm in the world inside a game reserve as it borders Madikwe River Lodge and Makanyane concessions. As we were about to turn and follow the dogs, we see a leopard sitting on the Blueberry side looking at us!

We have time to capture just a few shots before the leopard disappears.

leopard on blueberry farm - we photographed him through the fence.

We then follow the dogs – it seems they can smell the buffalo carcass - and the lion - so they don’t stop but carry on past the lodge, heading north.

wild dogs behind young lion

We follow the dogs and while we are photographing them, we see two male lions approaching behind us – it’s Blondie and Dark Mane Meyiwas - 

wild dogs at the back of Madikwe River Lodge

and they chase after the dogs who run over the causeway to the Makanyane concession.

Blondie Meyiwa chasing after the dogs - Blondie seems more agressive than Dark-mane.

One of them is the father of the young male that we found with the buffalo kill. He is of the age where he should be kicked out the pride but the two males seem to be tolerating him.

But let's get back to our trip!

The two males are about 1 kilometre from junior but they hear alarm calls from baboons that are near the young male so they start to head in that direction.

We drive back to the young male and his mother has arrived. She can sense the two males approaching so she convinces her son to go with her.

The two males arrive and smell the carcass and enjoy the meal for the rest of the day.

Blondie and Darkmane on the buffalo kill

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #7

We came back on the afternoon drive and the two males lions are still there eating!

Their son and the female are about 150 meters away, near where we spotted the leopard at the Blueberry Farm.

There are elephants and rhinos walking past them so we capture some images with all three of the big-five animals…

three of the big-five animals in one frame

A large herd of elephants came down to drink at the river and chased junior Meyiwa and his mother down to the river.

Junior Meyiwa male lion at the Marico River

We then moved out of the sighting to give other vehicles a chance – we crossed the drift to capture some images of the elephants coming to drink and, while there, the two males decided to come and drink, so we had a great position to photograph them…

Blondie drinking at the causeway

Darkmane drinking at the causeway on the Marico River

We stayed with the lions until dark and then went to dinner - what a day!!

Dark mane Meyiwa resting while Blondie eats behind him

How's that for a day's sightings! Lions, wild dogs, a leopard, elephants, rhino and a (dead) buffalo. All we needed was a cheetah to make the super-seven animals in one day! 

Madikwe River Lodge trip report: game drive #8

The following morning on our last drive, which was drive 8, we find the two males about a kilometer away, resting while the sun was rising.

Blondie and Dark-mane Meyiwa lions resting at sunrise

We left them and found a lioness on a zebra kill close to Derdepoort main road...

and then located a pack of wild dogs on the northern fence line and decided to stay with them.

wild dog in great light

The wild dog pups were having a wonderful time playing...

wild dogs playing

wild dogs playing on termite mound

We then stopped for coffee along the banks of the Marico River and saw a herd of elephant walking past on the opposite bank.

A few minutes later, we heard splashing and walked down to the river's edge and found two elephants swimming and playing in the water. 

elephant bathing in Groot Marico River

elephants playing in Marico River

What a wonderful ending to our 4-night stay!

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