I have been going on safari in Africa every year for 15 years, yet it was at Samara Private Game Reserve, in the middle of nowhere in the Graaff-Reinet Karoo, that I found two elements of a safari that had so far eluded me; a yoga mat and an aardvark.

A strange duo I agree, but a pairing that makes Samara a special safari venue in the absence of Africa’s really big game….. I regretted that line as soon as I wrote it, because it shows what a spoilt safari tart I have become!

You don’t find anything taller than giraffe, any stronger than rhino, any faster than cheetah, or any meaner than buffalo and Samara has them all, as well as antelopes and of course aardvark (which I will speak more of later).  

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 Written by Safari Tartlet, Renate de Villiers.

Bossy (the Nokia Navigator GPS) was talking nicely to us giving us directions, because Carrie had forgotten the way to African Game Lodge in the Western Cape Mountains near Montagu. But Bossy was a little out of sorts because we were going into the middle of the mountains and she was not familiar with this off-the-beaten-path track to nowhere. I am Renate de Villiers, Carrie’s intern from Pretoria University, spending a week with Carrie to learn how to become a travel writer. I didn’t realize I would start my career being a Safari Tartlet! But up until now, I’ve enjoyed it so much that I don’t feel like leaving very soon.

 The name, African Game Lodge, made me think that this lodge would have lots of wild animals, but that’s not what you should expect here. It is more of a self-catering nature reserve than a game lodge, with six whitewashed and thatched cottages well spaced apart and all with stunning reserve views.

There are some cheetah in enclosures (because if they were free-roaming, they would inevitably escape and probably get shot by farmers). You can pay for a close-up big cat encounter with Duma, the tamest cheetah, and hear him purring in extra loud raptures at being stroked.

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I was really impressed with Garden Route Game Lodge.  It is of course ’soft safari’, as are all the game reserves in the Western Cape.  It is because this populated region doesn’t have tracts of spare land the size of small European countries - like Kruger Park - in which the largest African animals can roam in complete freedom.

Garden Route Game Lodge is within sight of a major highway, yet as you drive in and see some elephants and look over domed hills to distant mountains, the memory that you turned off a major road just minutes before, fades into insignificance.

The transformation is that quick.

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Camp Jabulani left me feeling enriched in so many ways and I am now completely in love with elephants. Camp Jabulani is one of the good guys in elephant back riding - according to my safari tart friend Shaz, who did a magazine exposé on the elephant riding safari industry. And I became convinced of this on my own accord. Camp Jabulani is also one of the best safari lodges in Kruger National Park region, in terms of top accommodation, sublime food, décor elegance, sophistication, charming staff and the whole shebang.

I was lucky enough to be hosted by permission of the owner Lente Roode, whom I met and under whose spell it was easy to succumb. Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but she’s soppy on the inside and loves animals to distraction. I empathized completely.

Read on to find out how she rescued a baby elephant and how that led to her owing a whole herd of tame elephant.

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