If it’s a true African bush or hunting experience you are looking for, with a focus on rural farm life and fire-side barbecues in a traditional Africa-style Lapa, Mooipan is what you are looking for.

First proclaimed as a frontier farm in 1924, Mooipan (Afrikaans: mooi ‘scenic’ - pronounced a bit like "movie" with the "v" removed - and Afrikaans pan, a slight depression or small lake without a natural outflow) is located in the very heart of the South African bushveld.

Bushveld is considered a vernacular term used for the vegetation that comprises South Africa’s Savanna Biome (green area in map), which is similar to that of the Lowveld where the world famous Kruger National Park is located.

Elevation varies from 2500’ to 4000’ above sea level, and the annual rainfall ranges from 14 inches (350 mm) in the west to 24 inches (600 mm) in parts of the northeast. At night mid-winter temperatures rarely drop below 50°F (10°C) with day temperatures typically between 65°F (18̊°C) and 80°F (26°C), but mid-summer day temperatures will often rise above 105 °F (low 40’s Centigrade).

​As most of the region tends to be dry, the bushveld is mostly cattle and game farming country.
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Most South Africans of Afrikaans (Dutch-German) extraction have more than a spattering of pioneering, bushveld farming and hunting mentality embedded in their DNA, and father-and-son team Paul and Leon Potgieter is no exception. The Potgieter clan featured strongly in the 1838 Great Trek from the British-occupied Cape Province into the wild Interior, and later following the discovery of diamonds (Kimberley) and Gold (Johannesburg), in the War of Independence (1900 Anglo-Boer War) against the encroaching British Colonial Empire.

​When Mooipan, regarded as one of the top game farms in the area, came onto the market some three years ago, the Potgieters jumped at the opportunity. The upside of the COVID 19 havoc was that a lot of attention could directed towards expanding and upgrading the homesteads and catching up on the maintenance and general layout of the farm.

​So our story is – do not expect a manicured luxury lodge. Come to Mooipan to enjoy true hospitality and comfort in a traditional thatch-roofed African homestead on a South African bushveld game breeding and hunting farm. ​