Bloemfontein & Kimberley ODIs

Depart from the hotel at 8am and head to Naval Hill. With its panoramic view of the city, you will discover the origins and history of Bloemfontein and its surrounding areas. There will also be an opportunity to take a drive through the unique Franklin Game Reserve, where various antelope and giraffe roam. We will the head out to Sannaspos Battlefield (31st March 1900) where General Christiaan de Wet inflicted his first guerrilla tactic victory over the British forces. We the move onto the Woman’s War Memorial and Museum. A unique monument erected in the memory of the 26 370 women and children who died in concentration camps
during the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902).

The tour will then pause for lunch at Lewers Resturant in Westdene (own account).

Proceed then to the Oliewenhuis Art Gallery, before finishing our tour in the Free State Botanical Gardens, an area of extreme beauty with indigenous trees and plants, the only botanical garden in the Free State province. This 70-hectare garden spans a valley between dolerite hills and is home to more than 144 species of birds and 32 mammal species.

We will arrive back to the hotels by 5pm.

Cost £40pp

Upon arrival in Kimberley, you will be transfered to the Mattanu Private Game Reserve in a seperate shuttle. The reserve is around 50km from Kimberley and match transfers will take around one-hour.

Enjoy three nights in the game reserve on a full-board basis, including two-game drives per day. This is the only reserve in South Africa where you can view breeding programmes of Roan, Sable, Buffalo, Royal Oryx, Golden Oryx, Golden Gnu, Black Impala, Tsessebe and Livingstone Eland together on the same property.

Depart from the hotel at 8:30am and proceed to the biggest man made hole in the world, the Kimberley Big Hole. We will have the opportunity to see how diamonds put this town on the map and how it shaped the history of South Africa. There is a great open air museum which we can explore and you will get an idea on what it was like in Kimberley heydays! We then move onto the McGregor Museum. This museum gives the visitor a great opportunity to see what it was like during the siege of Kimberley as well as displays on anthropology, geology and history. On the same grounds we will also visit the Duggan-Cronin Gallery where a fine display of early photos taken by Martin Duggan-Cronin are exhibited.

Lunch at the Halfway House (own account).

After lunch we then depart to the Magersfontein Battlefield situated about 25kms south west of the town. It was here on the 11th December 1899 that the British forces under General Methuen suffered a major setback from the Boer forces entrenched at the base of the Magersfontein hills.

We will arrive back to the hotels by 4pm.

Cost £48pp