OUR STORY
A CONSERVATIONIST’S FAMILY HOME
Founders Lodge is the private home of Adrian Gardiner, the South African conservationist who founded Shamwari in 1992. Today, it welcomes guests to seven suites, a single sitting-room dining table, and a private reserve of rewilded Eastern Cape wilderness.
THE FOUNDER
Adrian Gardiner
Born in Chingola, Zambia, in 1943, Adrian Gardiner grew up in a copper-mining town on the edge of a continent he would later help rewild. After a career in business, he bought a single farm in the Eastern Cape in 1989. What began as a weekend retreat became Shamwari Game Reserve, founded in 1992, and, in 2000, the Mantis Collection of boutique properties.
He sold Shamwari in 2008. But he kept one parcel of land, the land his family had lived on for 21 years. That land is now the Founders Reserve, and the manor on it is Founders Lodge.
THE LAND
The Founders Reserve
A privately-owned stretch of rewilded Eastern Cape bushveld, home to plains game and resident white rhino, adjacent to the malaria-free Shamwari Private Game Reserve. Guests access Big Five viewing on Shamwari under contractual traversing rights, with twice-daily game drives from Founders Lodge.
Guests of Founders Lodge also enjoy traversing rights onto the neighbouring Shamwari reserve, extending the wilderness well beyond the Founders Reserve boundary.
THE HOUSE
A 1940s manor,
21 years a family home
Built in the 1940s as a private residence, this manor was the Gardiner family home for 21 years before opening as a small luxury lodge in October 2016. The long veranda, the stone fireplaces, the walnut panelling, none of it was designed for hotel guests. It was designed for a family, and it still feels like one.
TODAY
Seven suites and a Railway Carriage
The lodge has seven en-suite rooms in the main manor, a Master Suite, a Heritage Suite, four Contemporary Suites and a Honeymoon Pod, plus a restored private Railway Carriage that sleeps up to five on an exclusive-use basis. A single sitting-room table dining experience, a swimming pool, a small spa treatment area, and a telescope on the lawn for after-dinner stargazing.
The lodge is run small, intentionally. Never more than a handful of guests at a time.
EXPLORE DEEPER
Three ways to go deeper
THE RESERVE
Founders Reserve
400 malaria-free hectares. Rewilded Big Five. Traversing rights onto neighbouring Shamwari.
OUR HERITAGE
The Gardiner story
From Chingola to Shamwari to Mantis. A conservationist’s half-century of rewilding.
YOUR STAY
Plan your safari
When to come, how to get here, what to pack, what to expect on game drives.
BOOK YOUR STAY