Maroi Conservancy

 

Maroi Conservancy South Africa

Maroi Conservancy is located in the Limpopo Valley in South Africa.

The Maroi Conservancy is located in the Limpopo Valley on the banks of the Limpopo River in South Africa and was created in 1993.  The park it watches over is about 864 acres and is a farm for foods such as melons, tomatoes, citrus fruits and other crops on rotation.  The group exports fruit all around the world, including places like North Korea and China.

While the conservancy grows crops as a farm, it also contracts hunting parties to hunt the wild animals that live on the grounds.  The group caters to local and overseas hunting safaris as a business.  About 21,000 acres are set aside for hunting grounds.

Those choosing to hunt at the conservancy will be fairly pampered.  The camp comes with a full catered tent with air-conditioned rooms.  This is not a typical campout with mom and dad.  However, it is still much rougher than staying in a hotel.

Maroi Conservancy South Africa

The Maroi Conservancy in South Africa is a farm and hunting ground.
Image: Shutterstock

Hunting is not all you will be allowed to do if you stay at the park.  They offer fresh and salt water fishing, photography of the nature reserve, observation of game birds and many other activities.

As for the fishing, the crew will arrange a trip to the Zambezi River to hunt for largemouth bass including hunting in your own private dam surrounded by sandstone kopjes.

According to the Conservancy, “This is the place where plenty of game comes to drink water; the dam also is home to plenty of water birds, including the great Fish Eagle. The dam is stocked with largemouth bass and a variety of tilapia (bream), including the aggressive Niloticus. For our foreign clients, this facility is included in the hunting package.”

Hunting on the reserve is not cheap, but the owners say the prices go to things such as shoring up fences, defending the park from poachers and maintenance of the park.  They also mention that any meat collected in a kill goes to feed local people in the region.

So, the price really depends on what you want to hunt.  To stay at the catered tent campsite, it’s $350 per day with a minimum stay of seven days.  That’s without the cost of hunting or fishing.  Hunting prices range from $185 to kill a warthog to $2000 for a giraffe or nyala, which resembles a striped deer.

The Maroi Conservancy got into some hot water recently after Outdoor TV personality Melissa Bachman posted a picture of herself with a dead lion.  Apparently, the Maroi Conservancy helped set up the safari hunt even though lions are rapidly dwindling in the wild.  They claimed that lions are not native to their park, and, indeed, they are not listed on the price list.

The group argued that controlled hunting is legal in South African and that they did nothing wrong.  Bachman had all the proper government permits to hunt, but many people felt it was morally wrong.