It may be hard to believe when gazing across our dusty, semi-arid countryside, but if the clock could be turned back 250 million years, a great inland sea would occupy the land now home to The Magic Hills Private Collection. The passing of millennia and gradual climate change transformed the sea into a vast swamp filled with amphibians and reptiles.

Finally – in a more recent era – the land dried out, becoming the Great Karoo that we see today. Traversed by Khoi and San tribes, and witness to the Anglo-Boer battles that raged in the republic’s early history, the Magic Hills Private Collection Game Reserve now enjoys an age of peace and restoration.

This latest transformation began over two decades ago, when a young Slovak man, Erik Kovacs, travelled to the Eastern Cape and fell under the spell of the Great Karoo. Returning again and again, and soon joined by his beautiful wife, Alexandra, Erik began buying up farms that had been ravaged by overgrazing and droughts. Erik and Alexandra now own a magnificent 20 100 hectares of Karoo bushveld and they dream of restoring the land – much of it degraded, arid and uninhabitable – to its former beauty.

Custodians of the Karoo

At Magic Hills, and kaKhulu Karoo, we are committed to being a centre of conservation excellence in the Eastern Cape Province, and to be recognised as a blueprint for how to responsibly and intentionally rewild and restore previously devastated landscapes and wildlife dynamics. By helping the land to heal, and re-balancing the animal populations who live here, we hope to leave a legacy of custodianship for the generations to come.

Tourism that Reconnects Nature and Humanity

kaKhulu welcomes adventurers from near and far to escape to a primal experience, to explore the human-to-nature bond that exists in all of us. Offering wild camping facilities in brick hides, elevated timber hides, and basic camping sites, kaKhulu delivers an immersive wild getaway for those who long for a soulful, stripped-down connection with the brutality and unbridled beauty of the Karoo.

Join Our Journey

Be a part of our story. Whether you are a guest, an investor, a student or an active humanitarian, we welcome you to partner with us. All profits received from tourism activities, following the deduction of running costs, are reinvested into the Magic Hills Private Collection Game Reserve, and allocated to caring for the land and its wildlife.