Death of Tshukudu Game Lodge Founder and Son

I am very sorry to announce that the founder of Tshukudu Game Lodge in Limpopo, Ala Sussens and her son Ian Sussens were killed in a car accident on 6 April 2010. Ala was a safari doyenne, one who cared deeply for animals and was known to take in any injured animal and nurse them back to life. This is why on any visit to Tshukudu you are likely to find tame animals like leopard, cheetah, elephant and any number of other creatures that you can actually touch.

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………aka Fawlty Towers.

You may wonder where does a spoilt Safari Tart go for her Christmas holidays?  I needed a place to veg out, do absolutely nothing, get up late, read a lot and turn up for breakfast at 10.30am.  I also wanted to feel like I belonged and be entertained a little. Sounds good doesn’t it? I found just the place - a real life Fawlty Towers complete with Basil and other crazy characters in the countryside near Cape Town.

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You don’t have to do yoga to go on a Southern Africa Yoga Safari, but it helps.

In a hidden location amongst giant sandstone rocks on the West Coast of South Africa near Eland’s Bay, Southern African Yoga Safaris makes use of a rocky retreat for a getaway with a difference. While doing your ‘Salute to the Sun’ or Tree Posture (seen here), you stare out and may meet the eyes of some of the antelopes or zebra that live in this nature reserve.  Or if you are very yogic, you may be looking inwards and finding the peace within.

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Lion action at Tuningi on 31 August 2009

These curious young lions and lionesses came to see the goings-on as guests from Tuningi Safari Lodge enjoyed their sundowner game drive drinks & snacks in the Madikwe Game Reserve. Madikwe Collection game rangers and guests watched from a safe distance as the lions investigated the contents of the cooler boxes.

“Evening game drives include a short stop for bushveld snacks and sundowner drinks, allowing guests to stretch their legs and, in this case, get close and personal with the ‘locals’.” - commented Grant Marcus, Senior game ranger and photographer of these pictures.

I had a great time at Tuningi, while I was writing the Exclusives Safari Lodges of South Africa book. During that visit an elephant came to drink out of the dam just a few metres from the swimming pool.

They have an excellent kids safari programme too, and a separate area for children on safari to avoid them get too noisy for other guests.

Tuningi Safari Lodge is nice an intimate with four luxury suites and a further two family cottages with two bedrooms and adjoining lounge, kitchenette and dining room. Little Tuningi is a part of the main lodge but can be booked as stand alone accommodation for those that want the place to themselves. Little Tuningi has a double room and a family unit as well as a private pool and boma (for outdoor meals around the fire).

For rates contact: safaritart@wydahtours.com.

‘Number One Hotel in the World’ 

according to 2009 US Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards reader’s survey.

Crikey, what an accolade!  Read my review of Bushman’s Kloof Wilderness Reserve http://www.safaritart.com/?p=119 on this site and find out why it won this award. Who does the voting and how many people who voted have actually been there I wonder, but this exclusive 5-star wilderness retreat at the foothills of the Cederberg Mountains (about 270m north of Cape Town), is certainly one of my favourite places.

I have fond memories of when my friend fell into the ice cold mountain dam after trying to extricate himself from a canoe that he could not control. And mountain biking with zebra and antelopes grazing on the plain and sitting by a remote spot where the strangely shaped yellow and ochre rocks created a landscape of natural sculptures. And then there was a press visit when I was forced to eat a ten-course taster menu - each nibble was more delicious than the last and I ended up with a stomach twice the size of my body but still wanted more.

This day ended with a massage from hands that knew how to unlock the tension.

Oh for that day to be right now!

And whaddyaknow, Bushman’s Kloof also took pole position as the Number 1 Lodge/Resort in Africa and the Middle East and their sister property, The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, in CapeTown, was voted the Best City Hotel in Africa & Middle East, as well as Best Hotel Spa in Africa & the Middle East.

Enough now!  If you want to know more you’d better look on www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest

Or see www.bushmanskloof.co.za, email: safaritart@wydahtours.com

 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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It is not often that I get the chance to sleep within the sounds of snoring elephant, but I did at the Knysna Elephant Park guest house, Elephant Lodge. I also had the chance to ride one of the elephants, all of whom have been rescued and now make up a tight knit herd. Knysna Elephant Park are one of the good guys of elephant back riding, with strong ethics and the welfare of their animals paramount.

When Harry met Carrie

Harry is the dominant bull of the herd and the largest at about 3 metres tall. I felt like a pimple on his back, my legs didn’t even reach the end of the blanket. 

Harry is enormous, and I had my arms firmly clasped around my softly-spoken guide. Harry was born in 1989, but arrived at Knysna Elephant Park with Sally when he was 5 years old - still a real youngster. Harry is a gentle giant and shows tenderness towards the babies, which is apparantly unusual for a bull elephant.

Harry and I were going along nicely when he decided it was time for bed and started trotting across the field towards his bed chamber. The Knysna Elephant Park ele’s have very nice quarters, each with their own stable (somewhat larger than for a horse) filled with leafy branches to strip and a bed of hay and straw. When an elephant trots, especially one the size of Harry, you know about it and I felt rather wobbly and liable to fall off at any minute. 

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As I galloped along the water’s edge of Oyster Bay Lodge’s own 3.5km beach, I couldn’t help letting out a “yeehaa”.

I was supposed to stay just one night at Oyster Bay Lodge, but arriving at dusk and leaving early morning on a media tour, just wasn’t enough. So, being a safari tart, I asked if they wouldn’t mind if I stayed another night. They thought I was a chancer, which I probably am, but a quick google search of yours truly showed that I am a real travel writer, and no novice. I’m so glad they agreed, because otherwise I would have missed my “yeehaa” and all the feelgood that is still running through my veins after a perfect beach ride. I would have also missed chatting to owner Hans Verstrate, who is a man that makes you search into your soul and question yourself.

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If you want to buy into ‘Green Tourism’, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, about an hour and a half from Cape Town, should be on your list. It has been winning Responsible and Environmental Tourism awards since 2000.

When the exuberant owner of Grootbos, Michael Lutzeyer, told me the story of how he slowly but surely acquired pieces of land he couldn’t afford, to create his own spectacular, ocean-facing, private nature reserve, I was inspired. It made me wonder if I too could kick-start my dream in the same way and find my own piece of paradise. Then I realised I would never have sufficient hyperactive energy, such a driven work ethic, or the ability to talk my way into or out of anything, in the way that Lutzeyer can and does.
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