Gardens of Africa

I often say that it is in Africa’s great wildernesses that transformation begins. Nature has a way of revealing what matters most, inspiring and healing us, and in South Africa’s gardens – some carefully composed, others gloriously wild – this sentiment comes alive. These gardens are places where time stretches and the natural world speaks in details of texture, scent and colour, rooting us and revealing who we are beneath the noise.

This is the inspiration behind The Gardens of Africa, a new ROAR AFRICA journey that explores South Africa’s botanical richness. Taking place from October 22 – 27, 2025, the rare itinerary draws from the Western Cape’s most celebrated cultivated and wild gardens, tracing the roots and exploring the incredible biodiversity of the Cape Floristic Region, the smallest and richest floral kingdom on Earth.

A staggering 9,000 plant species grow in this exquisite corner of South Africa, 6,200 of which exist nowhere else on earth. These ancient floral lineages are reminders of our story as human beings and nowhere is this clearer than in the Cape’s endemic fynbos, a vegetation so unique and complex that it sustains one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems. Remarkably, five of South Africa’s 12 endemic plant families and 160 endemic genera are found only in this region. Among the most iconic is the protea, particularly the king protea (Protea cynaroides), South Africa’s national flower and one of the oldest flowering plant species on the planet.

Wild beauty quietly kept

The journey begins at Leeukoppie, a 300-acre sanctuary that covers a protected, biodiverse hillside in Hout Bay in Cape Town. Once the family estate of the late Sol Kerzner, Leeukoppie is somewhere to feel alive and profoundly rooted, its forest paths and fynbos-covered slopes that have been so lovingly restored emanating an energy that wraps you in warmth. Here, you’ll arrange seasonal blooms gathered from the estate’s bounty and surrender to the splendour and vast spaciousness of the landscape. Then, in an experience found nowhere else in the world, join expert Giselle Courtney for a ‘flavour trail’ to explore the ancient intelligence of fynbos. Eleven wild botanicals (including buchu, renosterbos and mint pelargonium) are paired with tapas, allowing one to taste and engage with the oldest floral kingdom on the planet.

We have also secured rare private access to Stellenberg Gardens, a Cape Dutch estate that is considered one of the most refined private gardens in South Africa. Designed over decades by Sandy Ovenstone and leading horticulturalists, the 16 landscaped rooms are a masterclass in classical and contemporary garden design, from the White Garden and Medieval Vegetable Garden to the Paradise Garden and Vine Walk.

Then, there is Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, founded in 1913 and nestled against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is the only major botanical garden devoted entirely to indigenous flora. You’ll explore the 7,000+ plant species in the company of a local botanical specialist and gain insight into its ambitious conservation and seed banking efforts.

Landscape as expression

From the coast, we will move inland to the heart of the Cape Winelands, a jaw droppingly beautiful region that is incomparable to anywhere in the world. Cape Dutch architecture, vineyards and purple-hued mountains leave one in constant awe.

A private tour of the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Gardens by the artist himself reveals more than 60 sculptures placed with precision and poetic resonance along three miles of winding paths. With its wild grasses and indigenous flora, the garden is a living expression of beauty and one designed to explore the deep inner landscapes that define us all.

At L'Ormarins, the largest private fynbos garden in the world awaits. Painstakingly developed in collaboration with leading botanists and conservationists, the garden is a living archive of the Cape Floristic Region’s most rare and threatened species. Over the past decade, hundreds of hectares have been rewilded with proteas, ericas, restios and other endemic plants, many of which exist in only one other location on earth, if at all.

And of course, we will eat and drink in this magnificent landscape that is home to some of the continent’s most revered chefs, savouring the taste of the land and the seasons and celebrating the way nature nourishes not only the body, but the soul.

The Gardens of Africa journey takes place October 22 – 27, 2025. If you would like to add some time on safari, in South Africa or elsewhere on the continent, please get in touch with us on welcome@roarafrica.com – it would be a beautiful, complementary ending to an exquisite journey.