Blyde-Olifants Conservancy

Blyde River Canyon near Blyde-Olifants Conservancy

The Blyde-Olifants Conservancy consolidates a group of privately owned game farms in the central Lowveld region into an official nature reserve. Lying roughly between Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa, the conservancy also happens to lie within the Kruger to Canyons (K2C) Biosphere Reserve, which straddles the boundary between Mpumalanga and Limpopo extending from the beautiful Blyde River Canyon to the Kruger National Park.

South Africa is the third most biologically diverse country in the world, and the K2C biosphere is no exception, uniting widely varied landscapes through which the visitor can travel. The Blyde-Olifants Conservancy, as its name suggests, has an unusual attribute for this dry part of the world. Through it run two incredibly different rivers - on the one hand is the river most often associated with the colour brown - the powerful Olifants River - behind which runs the Drakensberg escarpment, creating a striking backdrop, whilst on the other is the clear, sparkling Blyde River, a tributary of the Olifants River.

The Blyde-Olifants Conservancy is home to an abundance of plains game, hyena, kudu, giraffe, leopard, squirrel and zebra, whilst the rivers are well occupied with hippo and crocodiles. Lion and elephant roam these plains freely and fairly regularly, but it is the beauty of the region that draws people here.

Follow the Blyde River to the Blyde River Canyon (renamed Motlatse and arguably one of the most scenic and spectacular sights in this part of the country). This gorgeous canyon is the world’s third deepest and extends over twenty kilometres containing some of the most incredible views over cliffs, mountains and river.