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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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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Here I am, gobsmacked, at Elandsfontein Private Nature Reserve, about an hour north of Cape Town along the West Coast.

It’s so blimmin’ nice here and I hadn’t expected it. Sonqua Manor - the accommodation on the Elandsfontein reserve - is a full-on safari lodge of the best sort, in an area where good taste is not usually a driving factor. (Nearby lagoon-side Langebaan town is a prime example of bad taste houses in a beautiful setting).

But Sonqua Manor isn’t like that. It’s got safari style in abundance, allowing the gently undulating, fynbos wilderness to take centre stage. Completely open to the view, the lounge and dining areas have no front wall, which forces you to stare out to the low bush and a horizon of blue sky.

There’s a constant hum of insects, frogs, birds and bees, with the occasional antelope, buffalo, zebra or ostrich breaking the blurred outline of the bush. I keep looking up from my screen to admire it and to see what bird is chirping so loudly or whether the leaf-mimicking bug has moved. Then  pop! my laptop battery goes - oh what the hell, do I really have to work right now?

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My first introduction to Makanyane Safari Lodge was a face to face meeting with an elephant at the door of my cottage. “I’ll just go and shoo him away, said the lodge manager, Garth Kew. So he walked towards said elephant and shouted “Shoo!”  Elephant ignored him, so Garth ran towards him waving his arms shouting “Stop eating my trees.”

Ele got a fright and like a dog caught being naughty, tucked his tail between his squeezed-tight buttocks and took off at high speed down the path, straight towards me!

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On a private concession inside Kruger National Park….

Rhino Walking Safaris have, in my opinion, got it right. They have a variety of safari experiences in their three accommodation options; 4×4 safari drives, bush walks and a multi-level large wooden platform in the middle of nowhere, where you can spend a night in the branches overlooking a little waterhole.

There are three different accommodation options here and they suggest starting in Rhino Post Camp, their solid-walled safari lodge on the banks of a dry riverbed. It combines rustic and luxury (if that is possible) with innovative design features like dry packed stone walls held in check by wire casings. From here they give the option of walks or 4×4 drives - the night drive is fascinating, when bushbabies leap from tree to tree and owls stare into the spotlight.

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