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A
It’s now possible to go on safari knowing your conscience will be as clear
as the ice cubes in your G&T. Mike Dolan discovers a company in South
Africa that cares for local communities as much as its bottom line.
SAFARIS
WITH
SOUL
WW | travel
MARTINHARVEY/NHPA/PHOTOSHOT.
UUU
On a Conservation
Corporation Africa safari,
guests get close to wild
elephants, but this contact
is from the safety of a
vehicle and not from the
precarious position of a
tame elephant’s back, such
as the ranger pictured here.
For information on elephant
back safaris, visit: www.
pilanesbergelephantback.co.za.
A SNOOZE by the swimming pool had seemed
like the perfect antidote to lunch and an early
morning safari, until my nap was interrupted by
a low rumbling – one of the unmistakable calls
of an elephant. Ten metres away, an old bull
was standing by the pool sucking up litres of
water with its trunk. Crouching next to the
sun-bed was my guide, Jesus, rifle in hand, who
whispered four words, “Keep still. Don’t speak”.
The elephant was so close I could count
its eyelashes. Thick and jet black, they were
surprisingly long and curly. As it drank, its
right eye never left us. Then, casually, it
lifted its trunk out of the water and gave it a
nonchalant swing, before slowly reversing
down the bank like an overladen truck.
“Your first elephant,” Jesus said, beaming,
after the animal had ambled off into the bush.
“You must be happy.” Happy was not the word
that sprang to mind. Astonished and a little
scared, I replied. Jesus burst out laughing and,
in the distance, the elephant fired back a short,
sharp toot with its trunk. After all, to an elephant,
a swimming pool is just another water hole.
This was my second close encounter with
a wild animal at Phinda Private Game Reserve’s
Forest Lodge. The first was at 6am, when I came
across a nyala antelope nibbling leaves from a
shrub as I strolled to the lodge for breakfast.
Needless to say, Phinda, a 22,000-hectare
reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal
province, has no fences around its seven

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lodges. At Forest Lodge, an electrified
wire around the accommodation villas
prevents elephants from knocking on your
bedroom door in the middle of the night.
Too high to stop any other animal except
a giraffe, the wire allows lions free range.
This explains the lodge’s one strict
rule: never leave the villa after nightfall
without phoning a guard. After all, a human
is little more than “protein on two legs” in
the eyes of a lion.
My guide, Jesus (who, incidentally, has
never had to warn off an animal by shooting
his rifle), is a Zulu, the son of a local
farmer, who once made a meagre living
from growing subsistence crops. Then, in
1990, Conservation Corporation Africa
(CC Africa), a safari reserve management
company, arrived and made an offer the
locals couldn’t refuse.
It agreed to lease their farms and open
a game reserve, returning the land to natural
bush before it reintroduced wild animals.
The farmers and their families would be
offered jobs and soon, it was hoped, the
tourist dollars would begin to flow. And,
sure enough, they did.
At last count, Phinda had 30 lions,
100 elephants, 100 white rhino, 18 black
rhino, 30 cheetahs, 15 leopards, hundreds
of giraffe, zebra and warthog, a herd of
buffalo and countless species of smaller
game, including nyala, reed buck and
impala, and almost 400 species of birds.
CC Africa’s modus operandi is simple:
wild animals attract tourists and tourist
dollars help local communities. Today,
the company has 45 lodges in six African
countries and each lodge has a special
relationship with its local community.
At Phinda, CC Africa and its chariatable
arm, Africa Foundation, has established
a women’s craft market, a technology
centre (with internet access and computer
classes) and a care centre at one of the
primary schools, where more than
270 orphans and vulnerable children
are fed and looked after.
The Africa Foundation has also helped
build 130 classrooms, 20 creches and two
health clinics, and has launched numerous
HIV/AIDS education programs. Each
year, CC Africa generates $3million for
conservation and community projects in
sub-Saharan Africa. To date, it has helped
provide tertiary education for more than
180 students, launched 3500 clean water
initiatives and created more than 3000
jobs that support 35,000 people.
The company’s enlightened attitude is
summed up in the case of Zibane Mazibuko,
a poacher turned gamekeeper, who was
caught with a dead antelope on the Phinda
reserve. Instead of turning Mr Mazibuko
in to the police, CC Africa handed him
over to the village headman. Normally,
he would have been fined a cow, but
Mr Mazibuko was too poor to own a cow,
so a deal was arranged – he would work
free at Phinda for three months, making
bricks by hand.
After the penalty period, Mr Mazibuko
asked to stay on for pay. With a CC Africa
loan, he bought a brick-making machine
and now has 10 employees making bricks
for customers in nearby towns.
The company also buys seeds for local
farmers and teaches them how to grow
exotic vegetables, varieties it can buy to
feed its guests. The rationale behind this
generosity is partly neighbourliness and
partly a gamble that the bigger the stake
local people have in the lodges, the less
likely they will be to poach a rhino or sue
when an elephant runs amok in a cornfield.
And it seems to be working. Phinda
has not lost a single rhino since 1992. Also,
any disagreements between lodge and
community are now sorted out amicably.
What CC Africa is also known for
is well-trained – and often dashingly
handsome – rangers. They do not just
spot elephants and miniature jewel-like
chameleons, but can explain everything
from the life cycle of a dung beetle to the
fighting techniques of a male giraffe.
Inspired by the company’s credo –
“Care of the land, care of the wildlife, care
of the people” – the rangers are passionate
about their work.
“There are people who live beside this
reserve who’ve never seen an elephant,”
says ranger Mike Karantonis. “We bus in
kids, give them lunch, take them on a two-
hour game drive with one of our trackers
and then talk to them about eco-tourism.”
CC Africa may have a big heart, but
unless it attracts tourists to its lodges, it
has no future. Tourists come to see wild
animals and, fortunately for CC Africa,
its parks are famous for game viewing.
On our first game drive at Phinda, we
found a mother leopard and her two cubs
lounging in a yellow-barked fever tree.
The family was so close, no one needed
a telephoto lens. Behind the leopards,
zebra and giraffe ambled across a golden
plain. Above the herd, a giant flock of tiny
finches flitted in unison, creating an ever-
shifting shadow, the size and colour of
a thunder cloud, against the blue sky.
Next, in a woodland, we came across
an elephant herd of 10 mothers and
attendant aunts, chaperoning numerous
youngsters. One baby elephant, smaller
than a supermarket trolley, decided to
mock charge our safari vehicle, its ears
out and stringy trunk held aloft. Its mother
watched on indulgently.
On our second day, we followed three
cheetahs as they gingerly circumnavigated
a large herd of buffalo and, later, we tracked
down two white rhino, a mother and its
adult daughter.
Going on safari can be expensive.
WE FOUND A MOTHER LEOPARD AND HER
TWO CUBS ... THE FAMILY WAS SO CLOSE,
NO ONE NEEDED A TELEPHOTO LENS.
UUU
Above: A personal plunge pool at one of the accommodation villas on Phinda Private
Game Reserve – the perfect place to relax gazing over the forest after a game drive.
COURTESYOFCCAFRICA.

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A four-night stay at Phinda Forest Lodge
starts from $1572 per person ($393 a night),
but, unlike a hotel tariff, all your day
activities and meals are included.
A full day includes rising at 5am for
a three-hour game drive, breakfast and
free time to enjoy the pool, lunch, an
afternoon bush walk with a ranger and
a four-hour evening drive with cocktails
at sundown. Finally, there’s a three-course
dinner. No one has to do the full program.
CC Africa lodges also throw in surprises,
such as a white linen bush breakfast under
an acacia tree in the middle of nowhere, or
a torch-lit cocktail party by a river at sunset.
At Phinda Forest Lodge, guest villas
are tucked away in a sand forest, where
1000 hectares of ancient twisted trees
support a luxuriant canopy over a sandy
floor. Each villa is built on stilts, with a
large deck. The walls of plate glass give
guests superb views of the forest. The
interiors are chic and have a king-size
bed, sofa and deluxe bathroom.
Also available to rent is Phinda Getty
House, the personal safari retreat of Tara
Getty, a major CC Africa shareholder and
son of the late billionaire John Paul Getty
II. It overlooks an extinct volcano and
comes with a private butler, chef, ranger
and the sole use of a 4WD safari vehicle.
Private game parks are big business.
They have to be when you consider many
are started from scratch. A black rhino
costs $100,000 and a prime lion around
$10,000. It takes a group of courageous,
eco-minded entrepreneurs with deep
pockets to invest in a swathe of degraded
farmland and gradually nurture it back to
sustainable habitats for wild animals.
Luckily for Phinda, huge tracts of its
land had not been degraded by farming.
Within its borders are seven lodges in
seven habitats – forest, mountain, river
valley, wetland, broadleaf woodland,
savannah and palm veldt.
“This is an incredibly special part of
Africa that’s being preserved for future
generations of locals and visitors. It’s
a huge achievement for conservation,”
says ranger Mike Karantonis.
Not that a visitor on a game drive
around the reserve would ever guess the
habitats that make Phinda so special were
once on the endangered list, which brings
me back to my close encounter with the
five-tonne elephant. Jesus later explained
that I was in no danger. “The bank by the
pool is built so elephants can drink, but
the last metre is too steep for them to walk
onto the pool terrace,” he confided.
“Then why did you tell me to keep still
and not speak?” I asked.
“Just in case you frightened him
away,” he replied. I
To read about South African self-drive
safaris and how to fly long-haul in greater
comfort, visit The Weekly’s website at
www.aww.ninemsn.com.au/travel
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
FLY: Qantas (tel: 13 13 13;
Qantas.com.au) and South African
Airways (tel: 1300 345 972; www.
flysaa.com) fly from Sydney and
Perth to Johannesburg 10 times
a week. On April 1, Qantas
introduces a more spacious
Premium Economy cabin with
wider seats, more leg room,
larger video monitors and a Neil
Perry-inspired menu on planes
flying from Sydney to Jo’burg,
London and Hong Kong. South
African Express flies from Jo’burg
to Richards Bay, where Phinda
staff pick up guests.
CONTACT: CC Africa for more
information (www.ccafrica.com)
or book with your preferred
travel agent.
Other CC Africa safari lodges
and camps in South Africa:
G Ngala Safari Lodge and Tented
Safari Camp in an unfenced
reserve on the Timbavati River
that borders the Kruger National
Park. Famous for its walking
safaris, tracking rhino, elephant
and buffalo on foot. It’s also
known for its lions and leopards.
G Kirkman’s Kamp, a former 19th-
century homestead, is located in
Sabi Sand Game Reserve and is
reputed to have some of the best
big cat, buffalo, elephant and
rhino viewing in Africa.
South African Tourism (tel: 02 9261
5000; www.southafrica.net).
“THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY SPECIAL PART OF
AFRICA THAT’S BEING PRESERVED FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONS OF LOCALS AND VISITORS.”
A dining hall at one
of Phinda’s lodges.
Left: A young leopard
hangs loose. Below left:
A ranger and children
get close to a nyala faun
on a walking safari.
PHOTOGRAPHYBYMIKEDOLAN.COURTESYOFCCAFRICA.