Savannah and beyond

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This was published 13 years ago

Savannah and beyond

In reserve ... the deck at Rock Lodge at sunset has views to the Mozambique border.

In reserve ... the deck at Rock Lodge at sunset has views to the Mozambique border.

Mark Chipperfield finds elephant herds and a commitment to the local villages at Richard Branson's game reserve.

It's a sound I will never forget: a terrific thump that seems to reverberate through every plank in my tree house, as though a sumo wrestler has suddenly landed on the verandah.

I feel like a man under siege. Someone (or something) is outside, rattling the french doors and window catches.

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Then they're at the front door.

I inch apart the heavy drapes and spy my tormenters on the deck outside: a family of large baboons, as nonchalant as a gang of teenage hooligans waiting for the fuzz to show up.

At Ulusaba, a private 13,500-hectare game reserve on South Africa's north-eastern border, visitors quickly learn that they are as much guests of the wildlife as they are of Richard Branson, who owns the reserve and its two luxurious lodges. The most photogenic, Rock Lodge, is perched on a hill, or koppie, like the setting for an early James Bond movie.

Surrounded by dense bush, Ulusaba and its precious Xikwenga Dam are magnets for every famous mammal you can think of, not just the thuggish chacma baboons. Hippopotamuses lounge in the nearby waterway and there is the constant anticipation of a nocturnal visit by a lion or another savage beast. Guests are escorted to and from their quarters by wardens armed with heavy torches.

While some safari types comb southern Africa to see the fabled ''Big Five'' - lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros and buffalo - no such effort is required at Ulusaba, part of the giant Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which borders Kruger National Park. ''We really don't have a shortage of animals,'' says our safari guide, Stuart. ''We have plenty of elephants and lions. And hippos. You'll even see leopard here, which is quite rare. The big problem is loss of habitat. We urgently need more space so they can roam.''

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True to his word, within two hours of touching down at the resort's bush airstrip - the charter flight takes 80 minutes from Johannesburg - we have already ticked off the Big Five, including an astonishingly intimate moment with a leopard as it feasts on the carcass of an impala.

From the air it is impossible to imagine that this apparently empty savannah that stretches from the Drakensberg escarpment to the Mozambique border can support such a profusion of wildlife. On our second evening, we find a 50-strong herd of elephants cavorting near a waterhole, including a gaggle of youngsters playing on the sandbanks.

Stuart and his animal spotter, John, track them through the dense reeds, edging the trusty Land Rover into the very centre of the herd. With the engine turned off, the elephants seem oblivious to our presence and the click of camera shutters.

''Elephants don't actually sleep,'' Stuart whispers, keeping an eye on an aggressive-looking male. ''They just take a series of little catnaps during the day but they like this place because of the water and they like resting on the dunes here. It relieves the pressure on their hearts.''

Like all Ulusaba's khaki-clad wildlife guides, Stuart is brilliantly informed about the animals that live in the reserve, turning what might have been a routine sighting into an epiphany. He constantly delights us with the breadth of his knowledge, plucking millipedes and chameleons from the thorny undergrowth or leaping from the vehicle to examine leopard poo.

Catching sight of a group of zebras, we learn that despite their apparent similarity, every animal has a unique pattern of stripes and that every effort to domesticate them has failed. ''It's something to do with their physiology,'' our guide says. ''The skin is too loose on their body, so a saddle won't sit very comfortably, and their back muscles aren't very strong. Did you know that a zebra's stress level is five times higher than ours? They can actually die of stress-related illness.''

Whatever its other attractions, Ulusaba's customised Land Rovers (each with an elephant gun and fold-down bar) manned by diligent, professional guides is enough to cement its reputation.

''You know the secret to good guiding?'' Stuart tells me. ''Patience. Being patient is the No.1 attribute if you want to see these creatures in the wild. The patient man is always rewarded.''

Although the glamour of rising at dawn and heading into the African bush on safari is intoxicating, Ulusaba is not a five-star cocoon. The property works closely with the local community and supports a number of charities.

When Branson bought Ulusaba 15 years ago, he wanted to create a lodge experience that would rival that of Necker, his island resort in the Caribbean, and simultaneously make Ulusaba Game Reserve a model of sustainable, responsible, nature-based tourism on the African continent.

''I'm interested about everything in life,'' he tells me over breakfast in the lodge. ''If people come to somewhere like this I think it's important not to be in a little bubble. You're not going to get the most from the experience.''

Apart from its conservation work in the 66,000-hectare Sabi Sand Reserve, Ulusaba has launched a number of initiatives to help the local Shangaan villages, which are ravaged by unemployment, HIV and drought. Lodge guests are encouraged to visit the orphanages, health clinics and schools supported by the Virgin Unite foundation and its local charity, Pride 'n Purpose. Many guests are so moved by this experience they become lifelong benefactors.

''To come to Africa and not see Africans is just wrong,'' Branson says. ''A lot of the game reserves don't really allow you to go out into the villages but I think it's important.''

Ulusaba means ''place of little fear'' in the Shangaan language. Since it became a private game reserve in 1965, work has been under way to repair more than a century's damage to habitat and wildlife by European farmers, gold-diggers and big-game hunters. Today, 135 years after the first Dutch farmers arrived here on the Great Trek, the Mpumalanga Lowveld is being allowed to return to its natural state. The distinctive terrain of rolling granite hills and broad, flat valleys supports huge herds of antelopes, buffaloes, zebras and rhinos. Elephant and lion numbers are rising and giraffes once again roam the savannah.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the beauty of this place is from the deck of Rock Lodge, cantilevered on to the side of a 500-metre-high outcrop. From here you can gaze out over the khaki-coloured plains, stretching all the way to the Lebombo Mountains and, beyond them, the Mozambique border.

Ulusaba is one of many safari lodges in South Africa. It did not invent the concept of five-star bush luxury, or dinner under the stars with flaming torches and the sound of African drumming. But it is hard to imagine anywhere else that could make you feel so cosseted and yet so close to the beating heart of Africa.

Mark Chipperfield travelled courtesy of Ulusaba Private Game Reserve and V Australia.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

V Australia flies to Johannesburg non-stop from Melbourne (15hr) for about $1400 low-season return including tax. Sydney passengers pay about the same and fly Virgin Blue to Melbourne to connect. (Note: V Australia will cease flights to South Africa in February 2011) Qantas flies non-stop from Sydney only. There are charter flights from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport to Ulusaba, or you can drive from Johannesburg. Return charter flights from Johannesburg cost 5382 rand ($800).

Staying there

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve is in the Sabi Sand Reserve. There are two lodges on the property, Rock Lodge and Safari Lodge, with 21 rooms and suites, swimming pools, tennis courts, a wellness centre, kids' club, gymnasium, bars and dining rooms (indoor and outdoor). Standard rooms cost from 4750 rand a person a night and suites from 9600 rand a person a night. Tariffs include airport transfers, guides, meals, beverages and laundry. See www.ulusaba.virgin.com.

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