New Monarto Safari Lodge offers African adventure right here in SA | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT
I went glamping with giraffes and zebras … just one hour from Adelaide
Forget the long-haul flight – you can now enjoy a wildlife drive right in our backyard.
Glamping tents at Monarto Safari Lodge.
BySarah Maguire
July 16, 2026
In this article
All through the late afternoon there’s an odd animal sound carrying over the mallee plains to my safari tent. From the deck, I can make out zebras in the distance. Through binoculars, a trio of them comes into focus, and they start galloping towards a fourth member of their dazzle (African animals have the best collective nouns). So that peculiar noise, somewhere between a dog’s bark and a goose’s honk, comes from zebras? I have never heard it before, even on safari in South Africa. Instead, I’ve had to come to South Australia to hear these creatures for the first time. Truly, small wonders never cease.
I’m at the brand-new Monarto Safari Lodge, in the Murraylands less than an hour from Adelaide, for a weekend of wildlife viewing, high-end dining and sleeping (plus relaxing) in a roomy, glass-fronted glamping tent decked out in impeccable style and with all the mod-cons. Except a TV. “It’s organic television,” says Hana as she shows me around my tent, gesturing towards the endless view outside. It’s been raining for days when I arrive, and the wind is howling that first day – a noise that’s amplified inside the tent, like a primeval lullaby when it comes time to sleep.
But that only happens after cocktail hour and a shared banquet in the dining room. There are 20 tents at the adults-only lodge, placed in a vast, sweeping arc with the main lodge at its centre – reception, the bar and restaurant, indoor and outdoor lounges, swimming and plunge pools, a gym and a pickleball court.
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All the tents are booked this weekend so it’s busy around the bar come 6.30pm, but the wait is not long for my peach gin Orchard Shakedown and there are canapes in the meantime. Delicious things. A potato croissant with ca
Cheetahs at rest.
As we are about to have confirmed, food is taken seriously here. It’s South Australia after all, home to the nation’s first Michelin Guide (out later this year). A procession of share plates loaded with local produce start landing on the communal table; pork belly, duck, lamb and fish, all sauced, seasoned and tender. Pearl barley and beetroot salads complement the line-up, and it all concludes with a tiramisu, served individually in earthy, designer ceramic bowls. Everyone in my vicinity at the long dining table is Australian; in fact, mostly locals, from Adelaide and even closer. One of them is a wildlife enthusiast passionate about zoo visits, who shows us pictures of the rhinoceroses – her favourite animals – and hippopotamuses she saw that day on safari.
I’m awoken in the morning by scratching at the canvas above my head and a brooding sound that, unlike the zebra’s call, is familiar but takes a few sleepy moments to place. Ah. Pigeons. They’ve taken up residence in the ceiling. It feels like an affront to all the magnificent beasts who are roaming just beyond. This morning, white specks in the distance turn out to be scimitar-horned oryx and – as I’m walking back from breakfast – ostriches are sashaying beyond the lodge’s electrified perimeter and a tower of four giraffes are snacking from a feeder, getting stuck into their daily task of eating 26 kilograms worth of tucker.
Inside a safari tent.
The lodge – like the 78-room, 14-month-old Monarto Safari Resort Hotel on the same 65 hectares of former farmland – is next door to the Monarto Safari Park, Australia’s biggest open-range zoo that’s dedicated to conservation and home to more than 500 animals. A stay at the lodge includes free entry to the park, where all manner of tours get visitors up close to the beasts, from lions and lemurs to meerkats and cheetahs. But the resort is all about replicating an African experience and the centrepiece of a stay at the lodge begins at 2.45pm, when we climb aboard open-sided, nine-seater trucks and set off over the savannah, rugged up and with binoculars at the ready, on a sunset safari.
INTO WILD AFRICA
“Close your eyes; transport yourself all the way across the world to wild Africa,” says our guide and driver Bre who’s miked up in the cabin of the truck. I’m the stranger among a group of Adelaide friends who have travelled together extensively and are stoked with the lodge experience. “It’s beyond expectations,” says one. “The formula is brilliant; it shows off our state brilliantly.”
Scimitar-horned oryx.
Bre continues: “We are entering Wild Africa, so please, keep all appendages within the vehicle.” As the speed picks up over bumpy tracks, the wind is freezing and the supplied blankets are welcome. As we range across 550 hectares, it’s never long between sightings; we see oryx and zebra within minutes, before heading through a double set of electrified sliding gates into an enclosure where the grass is long and there are no trees. Bre points out this is evidence that herbivores do not live here. It’s the home of two young female cheetahs, sisters, who are prowling the perimeter, surely aware of all the live prey beyond it but they are fed carcasses here.
When we stop for a sundowner, having passed by an anger of Gandalf-bearded Barbary sheep finishing up a bath in orange dust, the tableau from our human enclosure is breathtaking. A glass of champagne in hand, we behold a trio of southern white rhinos grazing on green grasses and aglow in the late afternoon sunlight, as are two giraffes chomping away at treetops. These creatures are so graceful one minute and ungainly the next. One breaks away to walk languidly towards a waterhole before splaying her front legs awkwardly so she can reach the water for a drink. There’s just a breeze now and, along with our oohs and aahs, the air is alive with birdsong.
Giraffes in the late afternoon light. Picture by Sarah Maguire
On the way back to the lodge, we pass by the hippo pond, thrilled to discover that its two elusive nocturnal residents, Brindabella and Pansy, have arisen and are eating breakfast, munching on the grasses at the edge of their waterhole where’ve they’ve been sleeping all day. It’s a paradox, the fact these herbivores are the most dangerous creatures in the world to humans. They kill 500 in Africa every year, their powerful jaws capable of crunching that other great predator, the crocodile, in half. We’re close enough to see the flash of their ivory teeth as they chew their food. Then someone’s phone rings, a startling sound in the moment. Bre asks for the phone to be turned off. “We don’t want to spook the animals,” she says, as a lolling eye fixes on our truck.
DATE WITH A DEGUSTATION
Needless to say, we all get back to the lodge in one piece, and at 7pm head to the restaurant for a degustation dinner. It’s not a group-dining affair tonight; everyone eats with their own people – but there is chatting between tables nonetheless.
The meticulously plated courses roll out – a tomato mousse that’s glossy red on its tomato-shaped outside, and saffron yellow within; nori-wrapped cured salmon with pickled fennel and riesling sauce; a delicate chicken mille-feuille topped with duck liver parfait. I choose a drink from an animal-themed wine list: my Langhorne Creek chardonnay is from the “Giraffes” section – “well bodied yet elegant and gentle”. Next up are my favourite dishes of the night – a rich duet of wagyu and pancetta with herb aioli, and a punchy tuna tartare cured in smoked soy sauce and sat on roasted macadamia puree.
Salmon dish on the degustation menu. Picture by Sarah Maguire
The menu has been curated by the lodge’s executive chef DeBuys Nortier, but executive sous chef David Cardoso has been the main man in the kitchen tonight. He pops out to say hello, and tells us that the 60-year-old starter and recipe used to make our sourdough (served with black garlic butter) came from his Nonna.
After dinner, it’s a dark and misty walk back to my tent. The cheetah’s enclosure is just to the left, and you wonder what might be watching. But I sleep like a well-fed baby and as it comes time to leave the next day, Congo and Bongo the emus are strutting by. There are zebras on the tree line, too. It feels like a farewell of sorts – that’s how Lin, who’s come in the buggy to collect me and my luggage, describes it. “They’ve come to say goodbye,” she says, and after arriving in the rain, I am leaving in sunshine.
TRIP NOTES
Explore verdict: A world-class experience, perfectly suited to special-occasion getaways for couples, grown-up families or groups of friends.
Getting there: Monarto Safari Resort, which incorporates a hotel and the lodge, is about an hour’s drive from Adelaide airport. The lodge can arrange transfers to and from the airport.
Staying there: A two-night stay at Safari Lodge is from $2850 per twin-share tent, minimum two-night stay, and includes meals, mini-bar, a safari experience and a multi-day pass to the Monarto Safari Park.
Eating there: Ambitions are high even at breakfast, where the a la carte menu states its dishes – from smashed avo to dutch pancakes – reflect the surrounding landscape: “wild, generous and full of flavour”. Lunch is a charcuterie and cheese platter, a delight to graze on while gazing at the view.
Don’t miss: The Marula Day Spa at the next-door Monarto Safari Hotel is a dreamy space where the menu includes massages and facials and all-day pamper packages. My 60-minute Soothe massage (from $165) on my final morning is a melting-moments bookend to a spectacular weekend.
Explore more:monartosafariresort.com/safari-lodge
The writer was a guest of Journey Beyond
Words bySarah Maguire
Sarah is Travel Editor for ACM. She has edited leading travel liftouts and magazines in Australia for the best part of 20 years, and is amazed at how the exhilaration of going travelling never fades.
My all-time favourite destination is … Italy. A three-week family holiday, from Rome to Veniceme true, every single day
Next on my bucket list is … South America – in particular Argentina, Peru and Colombia. I’d love to explore them all, the capital cities and beyond.
My top travel tip is … Make regular plans to travel and have adventures – however near or far from home – with the people you love most.
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