Feel the heartbeat and rhythm of Africa at Amakhala Game Reserve. In addition to the king of the jungle the lions – timid leopards, clumsy rhinos, graceful elephants and mystic buffalo make up the Big Five.

A bio-diversity abundance exploding in a variety of antelope and other species such as giraffe, warthog and cheetah roam the plains.

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Our volunteer programme is the veins and arteries behind the heartbeat of Reserve conservation. If you are seeking an experience, which will enable you to explore somewhere unique, no matter how short a time, then the place to choose is Amakhala. All aspects of conservation areaddressed in this experience making Amakhala one of our most exciting projects. The reserve is continuously monitoring and managing game throughout the year. Feel the heartbeat and rhythm of Africa at our Amakhala Game Reserve, which has quickly become one of the finest tourist destinations in the Eastern Cape wilderness. It is a malaria free reserve boasting the Big Five of South Africa. It is a game reserve that will leave you in awe of life’s abundance, beauty and spectacular scenery.

Sunlit grassy savannah plains, a mosaic of Valley Bushveld plants including the Aloe from which Amakhala derives its isiXhosa name, the gently dappled light of the sand forest, many watering holes and the wide spellbinding Bushman’s River. This is home to great African mammals, birds and insects. It will humble and fascinate you.

As a conservation volunteer you are the veins and arteries behind the heart beat of Reserve conservation. All aspects of conservation are addressed on this programme, the longer your stay the more in depth your experience will be.

The reserve is continuously monitoring and managing game throughout the year. As a conservation ‘Pride’ volunteer you will assist ‘behind the scenes’ on various ongoing conservation projects and reserve priorities. Our duty is to provide the correct and up to date scientific information on the reserve and its animals to the people who make the life changing decisions within the reserve.

As a conservation ‘Pride’ volunteer at Amakhala your primary responsibility is managing the lions. You will also have the chance to assist with many ongoing short and long-term projects on the reserve. Reserve priorities at any one time may continuously change dependent on many external influences, your involvement in certain projects thus may be affected. Therefore the longer your placement the more in depth your involvement across many facets of conservation and reserve maintenance.

This course provides an insight into the environmental issues and management of a game reserve. The main focus is having FUN while doing conservation and rehabilitating the land back to its natural environment. The volunteers are also acquainted with the techniques of collecting, analysing and disseminating information on ecological aspects. The course will also allow participants to interact with each other in a life changing environment whilst contributing towards conservatio

Location Amakhala Game Reserve is situated in the Eastern Cape of South Africa only an hours drive from Port Elizabeth, an area historically with an abundance of wild game roaming free. The Eastern Cape is justifiably famous for a number of other game reserves. The great herds of Knysna Forest elephants were almost totally eradicated at the turn of this century, and yet, miraculously, the man most responsible for nearly wiping out an entire species, had a dramatic change of heart and spent the balance of his life fighting for a safe haven for these rare and wonderful animals.

Addo National Park and the Mountain Zebra Park saw almost exactly the same thing happen to the rare mountain zebra. Shot to the brink of extinction, in the 1930s this rare species struggled to come back. Click here to read more about South Africa