Back to the Eastern Cape…

It’s exactly six years since I was at Samara Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape. Why do I remember it so exactly? Because, quite by chance, it was six years to the day, November 6, that my late husband, Alan, and I spent our very last trip here together.
But this time, getting here was a challenge...

My good friend, Coral Reynolds, and I were taking turns at driving a hired car into the immensity of the Groot Karoo. Port Elizabeth to Graaf-Rienet – piece of cake, we thought. But we got very, very, lost, and our planned two and half hour journey turned into a five and a half hour one.
But…it was worth every moment because we saw the Karoo in all its glory. Miles of nothingness and vast expanses stretching to the horizon of blazing pink spekboom and glittering golden yellow pomegranate (rhigozum obovatum).
There is something about the Karoo that speaks to the soul. Yes, Mpumalanga is beautiful and the Western Cape spectacular, but the great emptiness of this region, its stark bare beauty, its rugged landscapes, its unending horizons, have a way of putting paltry humans into perspective, and reminding us that we are only a miniscule part of the interconnectedness of nature.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life...

However, enough of philosophy.

Samara Private Game Reserve straddles 28 000ha of indigenous vegetation – four of South Africa’s biomes. Once upon a time mighty herds of game roamed these mountains and plains, until the advent of settlers turned the area into unproductive, overgrazed farmland.
Today, Samara’s visonary owners, Mark and Sarah Tompkins, are steadily rehabilitating the land, stocking it with indigenous animals, and restoring it to its former pristine glory.
Symbolic of this return to the wild, is the legendary cheetah, Sibella. Rescued over a decade ago from a cage in Limpopo, abused, beaten and injured, she was nursed back to health and has since run free at Samara. Over the years, she has given birth to 20 cubs, the last two only 18 months ago, and is now responsible for 2% of South Africa’s present cheetah population.

Become a volunteer at Samara (when I was there, volunteer ages ranged from 18 -75), or treat yourself to a couple of nights at the award-winning lodges. I guarantee you will find yourself restored.

Each night I was there, I found a note on my bed from the Samara Team.
My favourite was a quote from pioneer conservationist, Rachel Carson, which read:

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth
Are never alone or weary of life.

---