About the Samara Private Game Reserve

"Heart-stoppingly beautiful" is how award-winning Samara Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape is best described. Samara is a passionate conservation undertaking, the leader in its area and a catalyst for change in the Great Karoo region of South Africa's Eastern Cape.

The 70,000-acre reserve is located in the Great Karoo, the country's vast heartland, a landscape of seemingly infinite space, dramatic mountain ranges and vast skies. A pioneer in conservation in the Great Karoo, Samara was started in 1997 through the purchase of 11 overgrazed livestock farms. We tore down the internal fencing, removed the destructive sheep and goats and allowed the badly degraded land to rest for several years before reintroducing indigenous wildlife. Our focus has been on land restoration, rehabilitation and rewilding. 

The Location

Characterised by vast open plains bordered by dolerite-capped mountain ranges and quaint farm-style charm, the Karoo holds a unique and humbling magic. Its timelessness evokes a special kind of nostalgia and possesses a mysterious force that draws visitors back again and again.

The sense of space, the silence and the stars of the Karoo are the stuff of South African legend. There is no better place to clear your lungs, reconnect with your senses, and feel the stresses of daily life begin to slip away. 

The Karoo is roughly split into two sections: the expansive Great Karoo wilderness in the north-east, and the smaller and tamer Little Karoo (Klein Karoo) in the south-west. Samara lies within the Great Karoo, which itself covers more than 400,000 km² of semi-desert landscape, a region characterised by low rainfall and expansive, cloudless skies.

Our Vision

Our vision for the region extends beyond our boundaries: Samara is the catalyst in a project to create South Africa’s third largest protected area of 1.3 million acres in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot - linking the Camdeboo National Park to the Mountain Zebra National Park as the largest private landowner in the region. 

Our History

We see the land as a 'living laboratory' - the perfect place to learn more about the natural world. Since its inception, Samara has sought to develop its potential as a site of learning and discovery. We have entered into partnership with a number of universities from around the world who send Masters, PhD, post-doc students and their professors to Samara to conduct original and often groundbreaking research. Our longest-running research project began in 2008, and constitutes a collaboration between a number of universities. Currently, the four main protagonists are the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), the University of South Africa, the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). The aims of the research are several fold, but focus predominantly on the social organisation and adaptation to climate change of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) .

In 2010, we started a Volunteer Programme to enable young people from across the world to better understand the hard work that goes into building and running a game reserve. Our vision has always been one of co-creation, and we want you to help contribute to Samara's ongoing conservation journey. Since then we have had a couple of hundred volunteers from all over the world.