Clive's Camp

• All drinks
• Conservation Levy (R490 per person per stay)
• Any additional activities not mentioned under inclusions. 

• Children of all ages are welcome and are included in the guest count of maximum 10 people. 

Clive’s Camp is a private safari lodge in the Greater Makalali Private Game Reserve, where the whole camp is yours and your people’s, and nobody else’s. Exclusive use means you set the pace. Sleep in, linger over breakfast or stay up late swapping sightings stories, because there’s no one to schedule around. It’s made for families, friends and celebrations that deserve a little more space.

The heart of the lodge is a bright, open-plan lounge, dining area and bar, with a designer kitchen and a fireplace for those crisp Lowveld evenings. Step outside and the sparkling pool looks out over the open plains, where the nearby waterhole keeps the wildlife busy. The camp is fully fenced and surrounded by sweeping green lawns, so you get peace of mind without losing a single view of the bushveld.

Dining here is all about the setting. Think sunrise coffee on the deck, relaxed braais and long meals in the outdoor dining area. When the sun drops, two traditional bomas come alive for fireside dinners under a sky full of stars, with the bush rustling just beyond the glow. A small, dedicated team looks after the camp, and Wi-Fi keeps you connected for the moment you decide you’d like to be.

Clive’s Camp is a place to slow down, switch off and enjoy the bush your way.

The Luxury Suites at Clive’s Camp are five in total, each tucked into the bushveld so you get the views without losing the privacy. Spacious interiors open onto your own wooden deck, which is just the spot for a morning coffee while the bush wakes up, or a sundowner while something wanders past in the distance.

Comfort is covered, too. Every suite has air-conditioning and ceiling fans, so you stay cool in the Lowveld heat, and the generous en-suite bathrooms come with indoor facilities as well as an outdoor shower. There’s something special about rinsing off beneath open skies with the sounds of the wild all around you.

Together the suites sleep up to ten guests, so the whole crew gets a space of their own.

Clive’s Camp sits inside the Greater Makalali Private Game Reserve, a vast, privately owned conservation area of well over 20,000 hectares. Makalali means “place of rest” in Shangaan, and it lives up to the name. The landscape here rolls and rises in gentle bushveld hills, with open savannah, riverine woodland and rocky outcrops, so the views are wide and the wildlife has plenty of places to be, and to be found.

This is Big Five country. Lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo all roam here, along with cheetah, wild dog, giraffe and zebra. Elephants were reintroduced in the 1990s, and the reserve has since become a standout in conservation, with cheetah reintroduction work and research projects that help protect the predators and giants that call Makalali home. It’s a wild place with purpose, and you can feel it.

Birders are in for a treat, too. The mix of habitats brings a lively list of feathered residents, from raptors in the sky to colourful flashes in the woodland.

Because Makalali is a private reserve, it feels unhurried and uncrowded, with a quieter, more personal kind of safari than you’ll find in the busier parks. And with the Kruger National Park just to the east and the bustling safari hub of Hoedspruit close by, you’re perfectly placed to add a little more adventure to your trip, if you can tear yourself away from the bush.

Days at Clive’s Camp follow the rhythm of the bush, and you get to decide how much of it you want. Here’s what’s on offer.

Game Drives Hop aboard an open safari vehicle for morning and afternoon drives led by experienced guides. They know where the action is and how to read the bush, so you’ll learn as much as you see. Because the camp is exclusive-use, the pace is yours, so you can linger at a sighting a little longer or start early to catch the bush waking up.

Guided Bush Walks Swap the vehicle for your own two feet and discover the details a game drive can’t show you. On foot, it’s the tracks, the tiny creatures, the plants and the sounds that tell the story of the wild.

Bush Dinners When the sun sets, the evenings get just as special. Dinner is served in scenic spots around the reserve, with only the stars, the fire and the sounds of the night for company.

The Sleep-Out Hide For those who want the full wilderness experience, an elevated wooden hide overlooking a waterhole is just a short distance from the lodge. Reached by a wooden stairway, it’s set up for two guests to spend a night beneath a vast African sky. As darkness settles, you might hear lions calling in the distance, the whoop of a hyena or the soft movements of animals coming to drink below. Comforts are simple but thoughtful, with a basin, toilet and cold outdoor shower, so it’s rustic in all the right ways. It’s the kind of night you’ll be talking about long after you’ve gone home.

Getting to Clive’s Camp is easier than you’d think for a place that feels this far from everything. The easiest way in is to fly into Hoedspruit Eastgate Airport (HDS), with direct flights from both Johannesburg and Cape Town. From Johannesburg it’s roughly an hour in the air, so you can leave the city in the morning and be watching the bush from your deck by the afternoon. Airlink is the airline most commonly flying these routes, and the airport is small and relaxed, with car hire available for those who’d like their own wheels.

From the airport, it’s a short journey into the Makalali Private Game Reserve, where the bushveld takes over and the pace of life slows right down. Clive’s Camp is a wonderfully remote retreat despite being so easy to reach, so travelling from Gauteng or the Cape means you spend your time exploring the bush, not getting there.