Upon arrival at Kimberley Airport, your private guide will meet you and facilitate a short transfer out to Marrick Safari, a pristine 3,000-hectare private reserve set in the vast semi-arid thornveld. After checking into your guesthouse and settling in, you will embark on a late-afternoon orientation game drive across the red-sand savanna plains.

Meals: Dinner

Comfortable, traditional Karoo guesthouse accommodation nestled under expansive shade trees. Offers private en-suite bedrooms, a spacious veranda for wildlife viewing, and country-style dining.

Spend the full day navigating Mokala National Park's red-sand tracks, open plains, and rocky koppies, targeting rare antelopes and searching for breeding herds of disease-free buffalo and white rhinos.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Dedicated Night Drive

• Return to Marrick in the late afternoon for dinner, followed by another dedicated spotlight night drive.

Today we head south, traversing the sweeping, wide-open horizons of the Northern Cape into the Great Karoo. Our destination is the Khoisan Karoo Conservancy near Hanover, a pioneering private conservation initiative that rewilds classic Karoo ecosystems. Upon arrival at New Holme Guest Farm, we take time to explore the farm grounds and Seekoei River banks.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

• Morning Sengi and Meerkat Search: A specialized morning sengi and meerkat search around Marrick before embarking on a short drive southwest to Mokala National Park.

We begin the morning with an early search for the resident habituated Meerkat colonies and Karoo sengis as they emerge into the morning sun atop the rocky dolerite outcrops.

The rest of the daylight hours are dedicated to low-tempo exploration of the conservancy's varied habitats, visiting river pools to view the resident Karoo hippos and scanning the grassy scrub for day-active small mammals, raptors, and ancient Khoisan petroglyphs.

After sunset and a hearty dinner, we venture back out into the cool night air for our second open-vehicle night drive across the conservancy.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We will spend another night in the fantastic New Holme Guest Farm

After breakfast, we drive south towards Beaufort West, descending towards the dramatic Nuweveld Mountain escarpment which forms the backdrop of Karoo National Park. After checking into the main rest camp, we take an afternoon game drive winding up the Klipspringer Pass. The park’s dramatic erosion valleys and mountain plateau are home to mountain-dwelling ungulates and classic arid predators.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We begin early as we depart the Karoo basin and wind south through the dramatic mountain passes of the Cape Fold Belt, watching the arid dwarf scrub give way to the verdant agricultural valleys of the Overberg.

By mid-afternoon, we arrive at the gates of the world-renowned De Hoop Nature Reserve on the southern Cape coast, checking into our accommodations at the De Hoop Collection.

We spend our late afternoon exploring the fynbos trails and the shoreline of the De Hoop Vlei, where large herds of the endemic Bontebok graze peacefully alongside Cape Mountain Zebra and Eland against the backdrop of limestone hills and coastal milkwood trees. As darkness falls, we keep a keen lookout for nocturnal arrivals around the camp fringes.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

In the morning, we explore the coastline at Koppie Alleen, searching the coastal dunes and rock pools for Cape Clawless Otters and scanning the scrub for endemic fynbos mammals like Caracal, Cape Grysbok, Large Grey Mongoose, and Honey Badger.

The dramatic dunes and turquoise ocean also provide opportunities to observe coastal birdlife and marine mammals against pristine white sands.

In the afternoon, we focus on the De Hoop Vlei wetlands and surrounding protea fynbos, tracking specialized small mammals and endemic birds, such as Cape Sugarbird, Southern Black Korhaan, and Black Harrier.

A final evening spotlight excursion along the reserve roads offers our best chance to spot Cape Genets, Striped Polecats, and foraging Porcupines in the coastal thickets.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

After a final morning drive around the milkwood groves, the back of the coastal dune, and along the vlei to search out some remaining target species and enjoy the blissful landscape, we check out and begin our final leg of the journey.

We drive west through the rolling wheat and canola fields of the Overberg, taking in views of the Hottentots Holland Mountains. We arrive at Cape Town International Airport in the early afternoon, bringing this ultimate rare mammal safari to a memorable close.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch