RockFig Madikwe: A five-star experience away from the city

As someone born and bred in the city, I tend to be awestruck whenever in nature. A jacaranda tree is part of nature, but I never get awestruck when driving around the Capital City.

The awe I’m referring to is the kind I instantly get when I’m at the beach, taking in the vastness of the ocean or being surrounded by secluded mountains. The smaller I feel in nature, the more beautiful the experience. These were some of the feelings when I visited RockFig Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West.

The backstory

After acquiring a lease at Madikwe game reserve in 2000, Andrew Walker built a family home there and in 2013. Walker decided to turn it into a private commercial lodge and was officially opened for business in 2018. Walker passed away in 2021 and his family has kept the business going since.

Located just a stone’s throw away from Gaborone, Botswana, RockFig provides guests an equal sense of privacy, luxury and being in the wild. Each lodge was provided a max occupancy to ensure that there are not too many lodges and people in the park. RockFig can accommodate a maximum of 14 guests. Seeing an animal in its natural habitat is unlike spotting it inside a cage at a zoo.

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Into the wild

On our first drive in the afternoon we were welcomed by the smell of dung as we approached a dam where an elephant quenched its thirst.

“Bull elephants usually want to be by themselves,” Honest, our guide on the drive explains to us. I felt minuscule as our bakkie parked a few metres away from the large, intimidating mammal. It’s a humbling feeling one gets when in the presence of the largest mammals on earth, which can squash us within minutes. It was particularly interesting that the elephant was the most significant animal we spotted on our first drive.

The villa that was my abode during my stay is named Tlou, which means elephant in Setswana. There are four villas in the whole lodge, each named after an animal. “The villas are called Inkwe (leopard), Nare (buffalo), Tshukudu (Rhino) and Tlou. The main lodge building is called Tau (lion),” explains Diana Prins from the marketing department of the lodge. At first I didn’t understand why we needed to go on two game drives twice a day, one early in the morning and later in the afternoon.

The animals can be quite elusive and spotting your favourite requires some patience. It helped having an experienced guide like Honest, who has been working at RockFig Madikwe for four years but has previously worked at the Kruger National Park for more than five years.

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The animals

Honest spotted lion footprints on the ground and followed them until we arrived at a place where a mother and her two cubs were un- winding just after sunset. Before then, we gate-crashed a wild-dogs dinner as they were enjoying a kill. The pungent smell of animal blood made the whole experience more palpable. There are other lodges in the area and it’s normal for the guides from the different lodges to share information on sighting animals.

Throughout our drives, Honest kept communicating with the other guides about which animals are located. “We do neighbour other lodges, but there is a fairly large distance between each of them. We do share some services like electricity and a borehole which was quite challenging initially but this has been running smoothly for a few years now,” says Prins.

“We do see other vehicles on our game drives, however, we have a great relationship with all lodges in the area and chat with other lodges’ guides often regarding sightings (this actually improves the opportunities of great sighting.)

“There are strict rules in the reserve regarding how many vehicles can be on various sightings, so we stay in touch to ensure we give our guests the opportunity to see these animals, while also adhering to the rules of the reserve.” This was evident as we parked near one of the biggest dams, named Tlou dam, where only four vehicles were permitted near the animals. The sunsets by Tlou dam are gorgeous especially when a variety of animals are there enjoying a sip.

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Rhino safety

Seeing rhinos that aren’t dehorned has become a luxury in recent years due to the high number of rhino poachers. The rhinos at RockFig Madikwe have their horns intact, which makes for a beautiful site. The lodge has invested largely in technology that fends off poachers.

“Madikwe has put a lot of effort to preservation of rhinos. State of the art security systems have been deployed throughout the park and the park has a very good anti- poaching unit,” Prins says. They can’t speak extensively about the anti-poaching opera- tions they have due to security concerns. “There are camera and sensors all over,” says Honest, who admits that they as guides aren’t admits that they as guides aren’t aware of where these security measures are placed.

RockFig Madikwe is quite pricey but well-worth it when you look at the experience of the guides, the privacy it offers and high standard in catering and comfort.

“It is fairly balanced between internationals and South Africans. We saw a large increase in South African interest after Covid lockdowns,” says Prins about the guest they attract.

She says Rock- Fig gets busier from October to January. I visited in winter when the temperatures were quite chilly, especially during the morning game drives.

If visiting during winter, make sure you request a lodge that has a fireplace inside as I stayed in a lodge that felt like a freezer – the air-con wasn’t sufficient for the icy morning and evening temperatures.

The lodge’s isolation from a big city wasn’t an issue for us as guests, but Prins says it presents a challenge for the business itself at times. “Our staff has to live on-site which can be hard on their personal lives. We need to ensure we get good quality fresh food, fresh drinking water, provide constant electricity; basically, we need to provide a five-star experience while being far from any major towns,” she says.

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