We'd love to hear from you. Simply fill in the form below or reach out directly.
- +27(0)71 607 9279
- [email protected]
- District of Philippolis, Free State
Travel Information
Map of South Africa showing the airports and the location of Kishindo
A Google map of Vanderkloof dam & the location of Kishindo
Flying over Gariep Dam
Directions
By Air
Both Commercial or private charter flights are available for your trip.
All commercial flights from Johannesburg or Cape Town land in Bloemfontein at Bram Fischer Airport. It is a 2½ hour drive from Bloemfontein to Kishindo.
Kishindo has a preferred list of shuttle services, or car hire agents available in Bloemfontein.
All charter flights depart from ether Johannesburg or Cape Town and land land at the Gariep airstrip, which is 1 hour drive from Kishindo. A Kishindo vehicle will collect you from the Gariep airport.
Cape Town to Bloemfontein is approximately is a 1½ hour flight.
Johannesburg to Bloemfontein is approximately is a 1 hour flight.
Please contact us for further information.
Directions
By Road
We can arrange transfers from Bloemfontein, or you can self-drive.
From Bloemfontein: approximately a 2½ hour drive (±200km).
From Port Elizabeth: approximately a 6 hour drive (±500km).
From Johannesburg: approximately a 6½ hour drive (± 600km).
From Cape Town: approximately a 10 hour drive (± 900km).
Please note for self-drive the 25Km road from Philippolis to Kishindo is a dirt road. During rare heavy rains guests will be collected from Philippolis.
Please contact us for further information.
“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.”
Walt Whitman
FAQ's
Is there guest accommodation at Kishindo?
Yes, we offer luxury accommodation with spectacular views at our Canyon Lodge. Visit our accommodation page for more information.
Can I book Kishindo for exclusive use?
Yes, Kishindo can be booked for exclusive use and is ideal for a family or small group of friends who want to enjoy the ultimate private and exclusive safari experience. Click here to enquire today.
What is Kishindo’s child policy?
There are some aspects of the lodge and vehicles that are not safe for young children. We allow children from the age of 10yrs old and up.
What is the dining experience like? Can you cater for different dietary preferences?
Kishindo offers a good balance between fine dining and homestyle cooking, and we are able to cater to all our guests’ culinary needs. Apart from our meals served at the lodge, we also offer the chance to eat out in the bush at our designated “bush picnic” spots either overlooking the impressive and beautiful Vanderkloof dam or the incredible landscape that Kishindo has to offer.
Should I take precautions against malaria?
Fortunately, Kishindo falls well outside of South Africa’s malaria areas, therefore there is no need for concern.
Is Kishindo open to day visitors?
Yes, depending on the availability of our guides. We do not allow self-drive safaris. For more information on the day visitors offer, please click here [link to special offers page]. Please contact us to enquire.
What is the best way to travel to Kishindo?
Yes, depending on the availability of our guides. We do not allow self-drive safaris. For more information on the day visitors offer, please click here [link to special offers page]. Please contact us to enquire.
What is the best way to travel to Kishindo?
By air – Fly commercially to Bloemfontein airport and get a 2.5hr road transfer to the reserve, OR fly a chartered flight to Gariep Dam tar airstrip and get a 1hr road transfer to the reserve.
By road – Our reservations team can book a transfer for you, or you can self-drive to the reserve.
What activities can we do at Kishindo?
Apart from our game drives we do have a whole host of optional activities to participate in: we have a guided hike through the canyon focusing on the natural beauty of the area as well as fantastic birdwatching, stargazing, bush picnics where you can reconnect with nature while you enjoy a meal, night drives to search for some of our rarely seen nocturnal animals, and sightseeing trips to the historic town of Philippolis.
What is the weather like and what is the best time of the year to visit?
Fortunately, we enjoy good weather all year around. Winter evenings and early mornings (June, July, August) can be a bit on the cold side but the days are pleasantly warm. To cater for weather extremes our game drive vehicles are enclosed and blankets are provided to enhance your comfort. We find the best time to visit Kishindo is autumn and spring (March, April & May, and September, October & November) when temperatures are moderate.
Why have tigers in Africa?
Due to severe habitat loss, the Asian tiger is currently in a much more precarious position than any of the African Big Cats. Over the last 100 years, tigers have lost an estimated 95% of their historical range. Their wilderness has been destroyed, degraded, and fragmented by human activity. For this reason, the tiger is in dire need of help to survive the human overpopulation explosion. What the Tiger Canyon project has proven over the past 20 years is that captive-bred tigers can be rewilded. We have also seen that tigers adapt to foreign habitats with ease and are able to cope with African parasites, diseases, and prey species for food. In turn, tigers do not pose any threat to local biodiversity.
Apart from tigers, what other animals can we see at Kishindo?
Kishindo is a fully-fledged African game reserve located on the edge of South Africa’s Great Karoo. Therefore, we have a wide variety of wild animals that call the property home. Along with the tigers, our cheetah are certainly the jewel in the crown of Kishindo. However, you might be surprised to find that seeing some of the smaller, rare species can be equally exciting! If you are lucky, you could spot the African wild cat, the black footed cat, leguaan, water mongoose, porcupine or snakes such as the Puff Adder and Cape cobra. Our night-prowlers include the aardvark, aardwolf, serval, bat-eared fox, cape fox, springhare and a variety of small rodent species. Kishindo also offers a whole host of antelope species such as eland, kudu, waterbuck, blesbuck, blue wildebeest, plains zebra, impala, springbuck, mountain reedbuck, steenbuck and red hartebeest.
Are the tigers kept in cages at Kishindo?
No, we don’t keep any animals in cages. We are located on a 6,100-hectare property in the Free State province where our tigers, cheetahs and all other species roam, hunt and graze freely. In fact, we are home to the only wild population of tigers outside of Asia and the only wild free-roaming white tigers in the world.
What is Kishindo’s conservation goal?
Our goal is to support the global effort to save the endangered Asian tiger alongside the endangered African cheetah. Just as, in the 1960s, renowned conservationist Dr. Ian Player had the foresight to move rhino around the world to ensure their survival, so we believe that an ex-situ population of rewilded tigers in Africa can play an important role in saving this iconic animal from extinction. We are home to third and fourth generation wild-born, wild-raised tigers who are self-sustaining and completely capable of being returned to the wild.
How is Kishindo's conservation model different from other similar projects?
The main differences lie in the fact that our tiger conservation is ex-situ (outside of Asia) and that we specialise in the rewilding of big cats. This means we believe it is prudent to help save the Asian tiger in Africa because our knowledge, passion and confidence in managing wild big cats is unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. The number of wild tigers in the world is extremely low, much lower than wild cheetah, pumas, jaguars, lion and leopards. Because of this dire situation, we feel there’s a need to add to the in-situ conservation efforts that are taking place with ex-situ options. Kishindo is an example of a next generation private game reserve, one where endangered wild animals are protected wherever possible and regardless of where their normal home range is located.
Why is rewilding important to tiger conservation?
The only hope for certain subspecies of tiger to ever live wild and free again, as they should, is to rewild them from captive-born stock. Rewilding of big cats is a relatively new concept. Kishindo leads the way in rewilding tigers and cheetah. Currently, there are more tigers in captivity (an estimated 5000) than there are in the wild (fewer than 4000). Once a species reaches a critically endangered level (as defined by the IUCN), the only hope for it to ever live wild (free roaming) and free again in a genetically viable fashion is via a rewilding process where captive animals go through a rewilding program. All Kishindo big cats are descendants of rewilded animals, who are now living normal free roaming lives, unrestricted by the confines of captivity.
What experience does Kishindo have with rewilding tigers?
Over the past 20 years, Kishindo’s Tiger Canyon project has gained experience and confidence in, while building empirical knowledge of, the process of rewilding populations of critically-endangered subspecies of tiger.
Tiger Canyon calls itself an ex-situ conservation project. What does this mean exactly?
Literally meaning, “off-site conservation”, it is the process of protecting an endangered species outside its natural habitat. The plight of the Asian tiger has reached a point where, in order to save this apex predator from extinction, ex-situ conservation is crucial. Other examples of this type of conservation include Dr Ian Player’s remarkable project to bring white rhinos back from the brink of extinction in the 1960s by creating ex-situ populations of this species across the continent and the globe; and the Chimfunshi Chimp Orphanage in Zambia, which provides a safe home for over 145 Chimpanzee even though they don’t occur here naturally.
Can I pet the cheetah or tiger cubs?
No. Despite being habituated to humans, our cheetahs are wild animals and our goal is to keep them that way. In terms of our tigers, we do not allow any interaction beyond admiring them from within the safety of our enclosed safari vehicles.
Can I hunt at Kishindo?
No, we strongly condemn and distance ourselves entirely from hunting of any kind. All the animals at Kishindo live full wild and free lives where natural occurrences are the determining factors of their lives.
I heard something about a cheetah breeding programme. What’s that all about?
Good question! Kishindo’s cheetah project works in collaboration with the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) cheetah metapopulation project, which aims to ensure much-needed genetic diversification of cheetah populations across Africa. By relocating cheetahs between respected reserves and sanctuaries, the goal of the project is to mitigate inbreeding and strengthen the gene pool of the African cheetah. Read more about our cheetah [link to cheetah page]
Are there any similar conservation-focused breeding programmes for tigers?
As far as Kishindo is aware, there is no tiger metapopulation breeding programme in the world. Our Tiger Canyon project is working on introducing the cheetah metapopulation concept to international tiger conservation, as the diversification of wild tiger genetics is crucial to the survival of this iconic species. Every year while we manage our tiger and cheetah genetics and population sizes, our knowledge of big cat behaviour, care, management and relocation techniques grows; a valuable source of information for future conservation projects. We view our projects as a very important part of conservation for any big cat endangered species.
Kishindo is located on reclaimed stock farmland. Is this not problematic in terms of food security in Africa?
In 2013 the Drew family bought three domestic stock farms to increase the size of the reserve four-fold. The land was specifically rewilded to restore the original natural ecosystems and create a unique wildlife reserve, dedicated to providing suitable habitat for endangered big cats. We have seen a return of many endemic plant, bird and animal species.
Biodiversity is, of course, something that Sir David Attenborough has been advocating for years. Rewilding agricultural farming land restores its biodiversity which underpins the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants and micro-organisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat.