Founders Lodge – the birthplace of Eastern Cape conservation - offers safaris that restore and enrich your soul. Set atop a hill with panoramic views of the natural surrounds, the Lodge features a boma, gym, steam room and two swimming pools. It is the platform from which you will reconnect with nature and your African roots and experience our Mantra: ‘Man and Nature Together is Sustainable’ - first hand. 

The Lodge is more than just a safari destination. It is an embodiment of the lasting legacy of which founder, Adrian Gardiner, dreamt.  It is about preserving and nurturing, as well as conservation of our wildlife and nature for future generations.

Founders Lodge game reserve is set on the highest point overlooking the immense wildlife reserve with its unique biomes and abundance of wildlife, fauna and flora. It’s rather like a beautifully appointed eagle’s eyrie, from where you view the valley and waterhole below. 

Today, the experience gatherers and eco adventurers travel from far afield to escape, enjoy and experience the wilds of this enchanted part of South Africa. To learn about the remarkable rewilding that occurred here all those years ago…. It is so powerful, so enchanting that you will be transported to a time of serenity and authenticity.  Back to the essence of nature.

The Game Reserve is a celebration of essential beginnings in sustainable tourism, culture, conservation and community inclusion. It is a monument to conservation history and offers soul-reviving safaris in the place where Adrian Gardiner pioneered private game reserves and eco-tourism in the Eastern Cape.

You will enjoy intimate experiences inspired by the natural environment, including the Big 5 as well as smaller, lesser-known wildlife and ecology. Founders Lodge is both intimate in terms of hospitality and vast in terms of 4x4 guided game drives on 25 000ha of wilderness area.

GPS 33°27’27”S  26°7’28”E