Ant's Big Five Safari
21 March 2026
The Riding
The Accommodation
Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?
I did not want for anything. We were looked after like royalty by Penny, Zane and all the team at River Lodge. All the rooms look out over the river, and there is a large indoor communal area with an outside decked area. A boma too for dinners under the stars. My room, Kudu, was very comfortable in every respect with a lovely shower and roll top bath in the bathroom. Tea and coffee and a well stocked fridge. Amazing laundry service, I could have brought far fewer riding clothes. The food was amazing, Eric, and his sidekick Peter, produced some amazing local dishes and gluten free did not seem to cause any problem, vegetarian too. A lot of the meals suited all members of the group. Tasty bush lunch BBQ under a huge tree one day, with the horses tied to surrounding trees munching their lunch.
Before Your Holiday
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I felt very honoured to be invited on Ant's inaugural Big 5 safari at River Lodge in the Kaingo Private Reserve. It took me just 20 minutes to reply to the email to say "count me in"!
I had the time of my life and will be going back next year. The river flooded so we were only able to ride on half of the reserve as the bridge was impassable, but that did not have any affect on the standard of rides, all Ant's rides are memorable. We had close encounters with a big bull elephant, saw both black and white rhino, the disappearing back end of a cheetah, lots of lion and leopard tracks but unfortunately no actual big cat. Cantered with giraffe and wildebeest; wonderful.
Angie who has been on 26 In The Saddle rides. I had the time of my life | I loved my horse, Maru, she was a joy to ride. Ant always takes a good ride and this holiday was no exception. The reserve is huge with varied terrain and lots of sandy roads and tracks, open grassland, challenging ascents/descents and streams. Lots of lovely long canters and opportunities to go 'off piste' to follow a variety of animal tracks. Having ridden at Ant's 4 times before, I did not doubt that my expectations would be met, they were, however, exceeded. Brilliant.