My sacred retreat - Olifants River Reserve

'Game rangers get paid in sunsets' Kobie Kruger

As you have probably gathered by now, the African bush is a very special place to me. My dad owned a share in a reserve called Olifants River Private Reserve for a number of years and it broke my heart when he decided to sell it in 2011. Between the roads from Hoedspruit to Durban deteriorating and the subsequent road works to try and fix said deterioration the 9 hour drive was getting longer and more uncomfortable every time.

So he purchased a small four seater Cessna plane and flew himself there. This thing terrified me so fortunately I was only a passenger and victim to my fathers flying abilities once and that was before the giraffee ate a piece of the tail wing off.

Cessna

Some great times were had there from special trips with my family to more crazy trips with friends from University, including going swimming in the pool at 3am with no cameras only to come across a pride of seven lions who subsequently killed an impala about three metres from our car and my mums wild bush pig that frequented the house every night (possibly one of the ugliest animals I have ever seen).

Our house

My best flash backs have to be the early morning drives, parked by a dam with the sun rising and a hot chocolate in one hand, Ouma's rusk in the other - pure delight! Followed closely by the nightime braai's around the fire with the clearest skies you have ever seen and not a peep of sound from civilisation. There is something truly euphoric about sitting out there in your deck chair, in the middle of no where with no fences between you and Africa's greatest predators.

This is the proper way to experience the African bush. Five star camps with all the trimmings are amazing as well as being waited on hand and foot but you never quite get the feeling of complete isolation. We had our own game viewing vehicle that we could take whenever we wanted and so weren't restricted to the 5am and 4pm drives.

Our vehicle

As tranquil as the bush is it's sometimes easy to forget that it's not a zoo and there are wild animals roaming around. Unfortunately, there have been a number of incidents at Olifants that have resulted in death, including a school leaver who got drunk and decided to jump in the river and was never seen again, a worker who got taken whilst building a pulley across the river and another worker who stumbled into a breeding herd of elephants and got trampled to death. Even my dad has come a little too close to 'Happiness' (the rogue elephant) when she snuck up on him and some work colleagues having a sun downer by the river. Lucky for the them a massive baobab tree provided a barrier of protection. This is nature I guess and the bad can never take away our appreciation for the beauty and draw of the animal kingdom.

For every bad story there is fifty good ones and if you could sit down with the head ranger at Olifants, a lovely man called Mario Cesare, he could tell you stories that would leave you wanting to quit your boring day job, pack your bags and head to the African bush.

Like most game reserves in South Africa Olifants has been a victim of poaching and more recently rhino poaching. I remember one day the truck came back with the anti poacking team and they unloaded wire traps and snares for Africa (excuse my pun). Their faces were a picture of anger and disheartedness. These men who have dedicated their lives to preserving South Africas wildlife must find it terribly heart breaking to see their fellow man kind destroying it in such a brutal way. I follow the rhino poaching statistics quite closely and it devastates me how out of control the situation has become and that the fate of the rhino population is so close to extinction. The thought that my children could not get to experience these incredible mammals in the wild is very saddening. If you want to know more about the rhino poaching or see how you can help you can visit The San Wild Rhino Sanctuary.

I am blessed that I have been privaledged enough to be able to grow up with places like Olifants on my back door and when I think about it nothing rings more true than this quote my friend Mike sent me.......

Pictures: Richard Langford