Dinokeng Game Reserve - Self Drive Experience was the worst : pricey and no Big 5. Situated next to a main road with free access

I would not recommend visiting this Game reserve as it was an incredible waste of time and money. I'm only giving this place a 1 star because Google Reviews don't allow me to give it None.

The Game reserve boasts that they have the Big 5 but in the 5 hours that we spent we did not see a single one (save for the water buffalo's) . Possibly due to the fact that the areas you can access as a guest are relatively small and it has a main road running around the Game reserve property which for obvious reasons will mean that there will be no animals (least of all the Big 5 close to a main road).

We visited this Game reserve on the 11 July 2020 and recieved a highly inaccurate map which did not contain all the roads within the game reserve but that did not matter because the limited roads we were allowed to travel as guests did not even host any animals save for a few zebras, giraffes and impalas.

The above, coupled with the fact that the water holes in the areas you could drive were all dried up and ironically those are the areas you would find animals. In this case, three quarters of the game reserve (a huge chunk of the middle portion of the map they give you) was completely unaccounted for and the remainder of the areas you could access prohibited access to more than half of the accessible property for self drives.

Along with guest access being prohibited onto the private resort. These resorts contained inaccessible sign boards to guests in order to mark that it was closed off for viewing. What irked us more was the fact that these resorts monopolized the water holes where there did appear to be a flowing river which you could see from a distance. If there were any animals worth seeing (big 5 included) it means that it would be close to those watering holes and and as guests we could not access the property. Incidently it is close to these restricted resorts that we saw the zebras and other animals as they would obviously be around areas where they would be able to obtain water to drink.

We were also disgusted with the rangers as we stopped to ask one whole was on a safari vehicle of we could get access to the restricted road he had come from and he point blank indicated that we were not allowed on it because it was private property. Yet the rangers were doing safari tours for guests who opted for the safari option and not the self drive on the restricted roads.

The attitude of the other rangers where also pathetic and rude as they would often pull up next to other self drive vehicles that where stationary for a viewing and obscure their viewings. It is clear that the 'white privilege' mentality still exists in their minds and it cannot be a coincidence at all that all the rangers are white. Well we are sure they will go very far in life with that mentality. After all they are rangers :).

On a closing note, if you would still like to give the game reserve a try, don't even bother paying and entering through the gate - a useful tip from me would be to join the main road and find take a side road to entrance to the game reserve. There are so many gravel roads off the main road that will lead you directly into the game reserve. Or go into the game reserves main gate and get their map then enter the main road details onto your gps (this is the road around the property) you'll see there are so many gravel roads that lead out into main road (another explanation why there is no big 5 on the game reserve which would explain further that this is the reason why they are in the restricted area which guests cannot access). Considering that we didn't see 4 of the big 5 we doubt it will be at all dangerous. But if you love being amidst tall grass and trees with only the occasional glimpse of a giraffe or zebra - then this is your place to be. Not that that would matter though because once you come across a ranger whilst doing a private viewing, you are guaranteed to lose your viewing spot so make it last as much as possible.