Gondwana Game Viewer
The open game-viewing Defender 110 of Gondwana Game Reserve in the Western Cape: three stepped rows of padded bench seats behind the cab, a mesh guard across the front and a tracker's seat perched above the front corner — the standard South African safari conversion, photographed on the reserve in 2008.
History
Gondwana is a private game reserve near Mossel Bay on the Western Cape's Garden Route, opened in the 2000s to bring the Big Five back to fynbos country. Like most South African reserves it runs game drives in open Defenders: a Defender 110 with the rear body cut away and replaced by tiers of forward-facing bench seats, each row higher than the one in front so that every guest can see over the guide, padded grab rails, a mesh guard over the windscreen frame, and a tracker's seat on a bracket above the front wing for the man who reads the ground ahead.
The vehicle in this record was photographed at Gondwana in 2008, and Wikimedia Commons categorises it as a Defender 110 of the L315 generation. Which engine it carries, who built the game-viewing body and how many Gondwana runs are not published; South Africa's game-viewer trade is a cottage industry of local converters, and the registry's Defender 130 safari record covers the type more generally.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover
- Manufactured
- Defender 110 in service by 2008, when photographed
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- South African game-viewing conversion (converter not recorded)
- Engine type
- Defender 110 (L315) — 300 Tdi, Td5 or Puma by year; not stated in the source
- Production run
- Unknown — one vehicle documented
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom / South Africa
- Operated in
- South Africa
- Status
- in service
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 110″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- File:Gameviewerlandrover.JPG (Game Viewer at Gondwana Game Reserve; uploaded 7 July 2008; public domain; categorised Land Rover Defender 110 (L315), Safari vehicles in South Africa) ↗ — Wikimedia Commons (Welcomematt22) (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Land Rover Defender buyer's guide (200Tdi 1990–94; 300Tdi 1994–98; Td5 1998–2007; Puma from 2007) ↗ — Classics World (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gameviewerlandrover.JPG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gameviewerlandrover.JPG ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T03:15:39.619Z · status: researched