Ahead of the game ... cheetahs lounge in the sunshine.
The ratio of animals to humans on this small game reserve means you can have your wildlife virtually to yourself, writes Sarah Maguire.
IS ONE meant to feel scared in an open safari vehicle on the South African veld, a lion and two of his pride only 10 metres away and the ranger out of sight, having walked off in the opposite direction - with the gun - looking for the very lions whose jaws are red with the blood of the kudu they're tearing apart before us? Strangely, I am not scared at all. Intellectually, I think I should be but I'm so calm, I could be lying on a beach somewhere.
Humanity originated in this part of the world, specifically in the Cradle of Humankind hundreds of kilometres to the north of us near Johannesburg, so perhaps my genes are having a "whatever" moment because, frankly, being face to face with a maneater is proving less stressful than a day at the office.
Granted, office days don't start with a cup of tea and a home-baked biscuit delivered by a ranger via a "butler hutch" in an exquisite en suite bedroom with pistachio-green walls, wrap-around verandah and a pool outside to which elephants come to drink.
I'm staying at Melton Manor, one of four luxury lodges on Kwandwe Private Game Reserve in the Great Fish River valley of the Eastern Cape. The reserve is 22,000 hectares of former sheep, goat and ostrich farmland. After intensive rehabilitation, including the removal of 2000 kilometres of fencing, it has been home for 10 years to thousands of wild animals and birds. Some, such as the Big Five, were reintroduced. Other, smaller animals, such as the aardwolf and the greater kudu, were always there. Operated by &Beyond, Kwandwe is a speck compared with the 19,000-square-kilometre Kruger National Park, or even the 1630-square-kilometre Addo Elephant National Park just up the road. However, with a maximum of 44 guests and only four safari vehicles on the go at any one time, you get your wild animals to yourself: head for the large parks and a Big-Five sighting can attract a traffic jam. At Kwandwe, being alone with a handful of people, bumping over gravel tracks from one sighting to the next, brings a sense of discovery that a mass-tourism experience can't deliver. A weirdly special feeling that yes, I could be eaten by a lion because with only two of us in the vehicle to choose from, my chances are good.
We're saved when ranger Brendon and tracker Siya emerge from the thicket with the all-important gun; Brendon drives the jeep even closer to the lions, who, sated by their kill, are now sprawling in the sunshine.
We move on and from an unimaginable distance, Siya sees cheetah. We eventually see them too, a pair lying side by side under a tree so in synch with each other that their heads turn back and forth simultaneously. Nearby, a family of warthogs is darting about in cartoon fashion.
It's not lunchtime yet but we're still to see a herd of elephants - or the tops of their heads, at least, as they thrash around in the thick foliage of a natural drainage line. (In a couple of days, a herd crosses the road right in front of us; a parade of young bulls, babies and the matriarch with her one tusk longer than the other and a different shaped head to the rest.)
We return to Melton Manor and a full-throated, harmonious African welcome, delivered by staff who have gathered to sing a traditional song to us as we climb from the four-wheel-drive. We applaud when they finish then enjoy a high tea waiting for us in the courtyard.
Food is an experience all its own at Kwandwe, not only what you find on your plate but where you eat it. The table is a musical one: for lunch, it might be outside the communal sitting room, where we eat little spanakopitas and beef ciabatta sandwiches; the night dinner is served outside my room, it's a "stick dinner" of kebabs; on one of the few occasions we eat dinner in the actual dining room, the ostrich fillet comes on a bed of corn with a fortified wine sauce. On the "night of guest delights", our first course of corn and coconut cream soup is eaten at an ox wagon boma, braziers and lanterns all around.
The night ends back in our rooms, where the fairies have visited with magic dust, leaving tealights all over the bathroom floor and around the edge of a steaming bubble bath. A sticky note on the mirror says "Goodnight gorgeous"; champagne and chocolate are on a table beside the bath, with a little sign saying "Eat me". With almost 50 lodges and camps in six African countries, &Beyond has made its name with touches such as these.
At Kwandwe, the ridiculous level of luxury is brought to you in South Africa's poorest province. The two-hour drive to the lodge from Port Elizabeth Airport is through Eastern Cape battlefield country, where Xhosa warriors fought frontier wars with the British and the Boers for 100 years. Poverty is evident in the humpies made of corrugated iron and the small shanty communities that flick past our windows.
&Beyond is internationally known for its pairing of luxury tourism with conservation work and contribution to local communities. Our ranger drops us for an afternoon at KwaPontak, one of two villages on Kwandwe from which many of the lodge staff are recruited and where Kwandwe's social development arm, the Angus Gillis Foundation, is involved in schooling, child care, a doll-making enterprise and the construction of a community centre.
After being mobbed by preschoolers clamouring to have their photo taken, we visit the nursery, where a baby is napping in a plastic tub, then watch the women of the Siyakula Doll Co-operative making gorgeous African dolls, which we are able to buy in the Kwandwe gift shop.
Overnight on my last at Melton Manor, the rain pours and the wind howls, drowning out the baboons whose barks have echoed around the nearby cliffs on previous nights.
The next morning, I am the only guest left but wearing full-body ponchos, Brendon, Siya and I nonetheless set off in the rain. We are on a mission for hippopotamus. We head for the Great Fish River, driving through an eerie old orchard of pecan trees in straight, stark lines, past shivering impala and drenched guinea fowl cowering in the rain.
After stopping at four points along the river, we still haven't found any hippos. Despite concerted efforts over three days, buffalo and leopard have also eluded us; we have seen only three of the Big Five - rhinoceros, lion and elephant - but I couldn't care less. How to beat my first sighting of zebra in the wild, illuminated in the late-afternoon sunshine of an African day; or an afternoon walk near the manor on which we come across six giraffes; or the cheetah cubs we watch gambolling on the savannah when we know lionesses are hunting just beyond the ridge.
That evening, when I climb into a safari vehicle for the last time, there are rainbows abroad and the rain has washed away the dust and brought green to the landscape. We follow a lion roaring his way to a reunion with his pride. It is the most powerful sound I've heard. The ranger tells us of a deaf woman in her 40s who burst into tears on one of his drives when a lion came close to the 4WD and roared. It was the first thing she had ever heard.
When the time comes, I am sad to leave. A safari is a thousand storybooks, movies and cartoons brought to life before your eyes. Done in luxury or not, it's a bucket-list experience.
The writer was a guest of &Beyond and flew courtesy of Qantas.
Trip notes
Getting there
Qantas flies from Sydney to Johannesburg, qantas.com.au; South African Airways flies to Port Elizabeth, flysaa.com. &Beyond organises transfers to Kwandwe.
Staying there
Melton Manor is a sole-use, four-bedroom villa that sleeps up to eight. Rates start at R23,090 ($3480) a day for up to four people and include a butler, chef, ranger, safari drives and meals. +27 11 809 4300, andbeyondafrica.com.
Ecca Lodge has six suites, from R3695 a person a day, sharing.
Uplands Homestead sleeps six, from R17,325 a day.
Great Fish River Lodge has nine suites, from R3695 a person a day, sharing.
If you need to stay overnight in Johannesburg, Athol Place is a superb boutique hotel near the upmarket suburb of Sandton, atholplace.co.za.
With the kids
AS MELTON manor takes only single bookings, it's geared for family groups as long as kids are happy to sleep in their own suite (triple suites available only for infants). Uplands Homestead, a restored 1905 farmhouse that's also sole-use and sleeps up to six, is probably the No. 1 pick for a young family. At both lodges, staff will organise a range of activities upon request. These include safaris for the under-sixes, fishing trips and tracking for beginners. On "Pooh walks", rangers help kids look for animal dung and identify who is responsible. In the evening, stories of the African bush are told around a campfire. A children's menu is also available: think hippo hamburgers and mongoose macaroni. Granted, a luxury safari lodge is an expensive family holiday but it's one they'll never forget. A bonus: Eastern Cape is malaria-free.
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