OUR HERITAGE

Our heritage, how Founders Lodge came to be

From a single Eastern Cape farm to Shamwari, Mantis and a family holiday home: the Gardiner conservation story across five decades.

THE FOUNDER

Adrian Gardiner, in brief

Founders Lodge is owned personally by Adrian Gardiner, a South-African-based conservationist and hotelier born in Chingola, Zambia, in 1943.

In 1989 Gardiner bought a farm in the Eastern Cape as a weekend retreat. Three years later, in 1992, he converted that farm into Shamwari Private Game Reserve, the first private Big Five reserve in the malaria-free Eastern Cape. Shamwari now extends to around 25,000 hectares and is declared a Protected Environment under South African law.

In 2000 he founded the Mantis Collection, a group of conservation-led hotels, eco-lodges and waterway experiences. The name ‘Mantis’ was suggested by the conservationist Ian Player one evening at the reserve; the acronym, Man And Nature Together Is Sustainable, was coined later by the Mantis team itself. In 2018, Accor acquired a 50% stake in Mantis in a strategic partnership, and Mantis co-founded the Community Conservation Fund Africa the same year.

Gardiner sold Shamwari in 2008 but retained a portion of his personal land, the present-day Founders Reserve, which remained the family’s private property.

“If you take the wildlife out of Africa there will be little to no tourism.”

ADRIAN GARDINER

THE TIMELINE

FIVE DECADES, ONE LANDSCAPE

1943 · Born in Chingola, Zambia. Schooled in Rhodesia; a University of Cape Town graduate.

1989 · A farm in the Eastern Cape’s Sundays River Valley, bought as a family weekend retreat.

1992 · The farm becomes Shamwari Private Game Reserve, the first private Big Five reserve in the malaria-free Eastern Cape.

2000 · The Mantis Collection is founded, growing into a portfolio of conservation-led properties across Africa and beyond.

2008 · Shamwari is sold. The family retains the land that is now the Founders Reserve.

2016 · The manor opens its doors as Founders Lodge.

2018 · Accor acquires a 50% stake in Mantis; the Community Conservation Fund Africa is co-founded the same year.

BEYOND SHAMWARI

A WIDER CONSERVATION FOOTPRINT

The Founders story does not end at the fence line. The same family founded Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape, a vast stretch of restored Karoo landscape, and helped establish the Community Conservation Fund Africa, which channels tourism into conservation and community work across the continent.

What guests find at Founders Lodge is the personal thread of that story: the house it began in, the reserve kept back when Shamwari was sold, and a way of hosting that has stayed deliberately small. Seven suites. One table. The manor as it was lived in.

Travel writers have covered the lodge from the inside, from winter escapes to the rhino conservation work. Their features are collected on the Press & Awards page.

THE BUILDING

A 1940s colonial manor, twenty-one years a family home

The lodge building itself is a 1940s colonial manor house.

For roughly twenty-one years before it opened commercially, the house served as the Gardiner family’s holiday home, where the family hosted conservationists, political figures and friends drawn to the reserve’s conservation mission.

In October 2016, the house was converted into a commercial lodge so guests could experience the landscape and the Gardiner family’s conservation work at first hand. Plan a stay to see what that looks like.

For the guests who stay here now, that history is not behind glass. Dinner is served in the rooms the family used. The verandas face the same waterhole. The house asks to be lived in, which is precisely what a stay here is.

SEE THE RESERVE

OPERATED BY MANTIS

Bookable directly, or via Accor Live Limitless

Founders Lodge operates under the Mantis Collection brand and is bookable directly with Mantis, through Accor’s ALL, Accor Live Limitless loyalty programme, and via selected authorised trade partners.

Day-to-day operations are led by general managers Craig and Glynnis Turner, supported by a local team of guides, trackers, chefs and hosts.

BOOK WITH ACCOR LIVE LIMITLESS

THE WORK CONTINUES

CONSERVATION, STILL LIVED DAILY

The conservation story on these pages is not archival. The reserve runs an active rhino conservation project, and guests join its daily rhythm through rhino observation and monitoring sessions led by the field team.

That guest-facing conservation work is the same thread that runs from the first rewilded farm to the Community Conservation Fund Africa: tourism paying for protection, and guests leaving with an intimate insight into nature conservation rather than a checklist of sightings.

QUICK ANSWERS

Frequently asked

Who owns Founders Lodge?

Founders Lodge is owned personally by Adrian Gardiner, the conservationist who founded Shamwari Private Game Reserve (1992) and the Mantis Collection (2000).

Is Founders Lodge part of the Mantis Collection?

Yes. Founders Lodge operates under the Mantis Collection brand and is bookable directly or via Accor’s ALL, Accor Live Limitless loyalty programme.

How old is the lodge?

The building is a 1940s colonial manor house. It was the Gardiner family’s private holiday home for roughly twenty-one years before opening commercially in October 2016.

What does Mantis stand for?

Man And Nature Together Is Sustainable. The name ‘Mantis’ was suggested by the conservationist Ian Player during an evening at the reserve; the acronym was coined later by the Mantis team itself.

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Stay where the story began

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