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Londolozi Private Game Reserve
Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa · Londolozi · Grand Luxury
The reserve that invented luxury safari. The Varty family has held this Sabi Sand land since 1926; in 1969 fifteen-year-old Dave Varty refused to sell the bankrupt property, and he and brother John later launched a safari operation with 53 rand and one broken Land Rover. The modern reserve began in 1979 when a young female leopard first tolerated vehicles, initiating a habituation programme that today yields the highest leopard densities recorded in any protected area. Nelson Mandela visited after his 1990 release and called Londolozi 'a model of the dream I cherish for nature preservation.'
- Opened 1926
- Neighborhood: Londolozi reserve setting
About Londolozi Private Game Reserve
- Leopard habituation at Londolozi began with a single young female in 1979 who tolerated vehicles; John Varty and tracker Elmon Mhlongo spent the next 12 years filming her, capturing the first ever footage of leopards mating for the documentary *The Silent Hunter*. The Mother Leopard raised no fewer than 12 cubs to independence.
- Current leopard density in the central Sabi Sand — of which Londolozi forms a major part — is estimated at roughly 12 animals per 100 square kilometres, ranked the highest recorded density in any protected area globally and described as close to the upper biological limit for the species.
- Nelson Mandela visited Londolozi shortly after his release from 27 years in prison in 1990, and later publicly declared: 'Londolozi represents a model of the dream I cherish for the future of nature preservation in our country.' A walking path called Freedom's Way, lined with land-art works, commemorates his visits.
- Dave Varty, then fifteen years old, refused to sell the family's bankrupt cattle land in 1969; he and John subsequently converted what had been hunting grounds into a photographic safari reserve in the 1970s, pioneering the ecotourism-conservation development model that influenced protected-area management across southern Africa.
History
Londolozi traces its origins to 1926, when friends Charles Boyd Varty and Frank Unger bought a tract of bushveld on the banks of the Sand River, in what is now the Sabi Sand Game Reserve bordering Kruger. Named Sparta Farm and acquired from Transvaal Consolidated Investments, the land served for decades as a hunting farm where the founding families camped and hosted presidents and princesses.
Everything changed in 1969, when Charles Varty's grandsons Dave and John Varty, together with Shan Varty and Allan Taylor, laid down their rifles and reimagined the property as a photographic-safari destination, pioneering ecotourism in Southern Africa. The reserve was renamed Londolozi, a Zulu word meaning "protector of all living things." In 1993 Londolozi became the first game reserve in the world to be granted Relais & Châteaux status, and it remains a family-run icon, celebrating its centenary in 2026.
Awards
- MICHELIN Three Keys (2026)
- Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
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