By Roxanne Reid
The Karoo in South Africa’s interior is well known as a place of wide spaces and opportunities to regenerate your mind and soul. You get all that as well as something even more special when you go on an Eastern Cape safari at Samara Game Reserve in the Karoo.
The Karoo in South Africa’s interior is well known as a place of wide spaces and opportunities to regenerate your mind and soul. You get all that as well as something even more special when you go on an Eastern Cape safari at Samara Game Reserve in the Karoo.
The Samara Private Game Reserve near Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape Karoo is just a 2.5-hour drive from Port Elizabeth. It was founded in 1997 from 11 former livestock farms. The idea was to restore degraded veld and reintroduce wildlife that used to occur in this part of the Karoo in previous centuries. The result from a game viewing perspective is superb – as you’ll be able to tell when you read about some of the sightings we had in just two days.
What I love too is that Samara provides a home for the Tracker Academy, which is part of the SA College for Tourism in Graaff-Reinet. Some of its graduates get internships or jobs at Samara, others are helped to find permanent employment elsewhere. It’s a great example of efforts to uplift people from disadvantaged communities. When you visit Samara you may meet Justa Frans, the first formally accredited female tracker in South Africa.
What I love too is that Samara provides a home for the Tracker Academy, which is part of the SA College for Tourism in Graaff-Reinet. Some of its graduates get internships or jobs at Samara, others are helped to find permanent employment elsewhere. It’s a great example of efforts to uplift people from disadvantaged communities. When you visit Samara you may meet Justa Frans, the first formally accredited female tracker in South Africa.
Karoo mountains and valleys at Samara
Aardvark by day
It’s unmistakeable. No other animal on earth looks even vaguely like it. On our first afternoon drive at Samara we’d been tracking an aardvark. After just 20 minutes we’d found one and were now following it on foot, tracker Jason Williams and guide Benedict Phepheng keeping us safe on our Eastern Cape safari.
The aardvark is a strange mish-mash of parts, all uniquely suited to its lifestyle of digging for the ants and termites that make up the bulk of its diet. The nose is a bit like a pig’s but very long, with slit-like nostrils that can close when the aardvark digs. The long tongue can extend 25 to 30cm and is sticky so the insects attach to it.
The long pointed ears look like they might have come from a donkey. The aardvark also has a long tail that’s thick at the base, and sturdy legs with four strong, clawed toes on the front feet. These are perfectly honed for digging, both in search of food and to dig their burrows for shelter. They’re champion diggers: according to Peter Apps’ Smithers Mammals of Southern Africa field guide, they can dig a metre of tunnel in just five minutes. Aardvark holes provide shelter for at least 18 mammal species.
It’s unmistakeable. No other animal on earth looks even vaguely like it. On our first afternoon drive at Samara we’d been tracking an aardvark. After just 20 minutes we’d found one and were now following it on foot, tracker Jason Williams and guide Benedict Phepheng keeping us safe on our Eastern Cape safari.
The aardvark is a strange mish-mash of parts, all uniquely suited to its lifestyle of digging for the ants and termites that make up the bulk of its diet. The nose is a bit like a pig’s but very long, with slit-like nostrils that can close when the aardvark digs. The long tongue can extend 25 to 30cm and is sticky so the insects attach to it.
The long pointed ears look like they might have come from a donkey. The aardvark also has a long tail that’s thick at the base, and sturdy legs with four strong, clawed toes on the front feet. These are perfectly honed for digging, both in search of food and to dig their burrows for shelter. They’re champion diggers: according to Peter Apps’ Smithers Mammals of Southern Africa field guide, they can dig a metre of tunnel in just five minutes. Aardvark holes provide shelter for at least 18 mammal species.
An aardvark in daylight is an amazing sight
‘The burrow has seven compartments and they close it when they’re inside,’ one of the guides told us. The young can start digging for their own food at six months; until then the mother returns to the burrow and regurgitates food for them.
They’re usually solitary, like this young female we were following. What was unusual was that she was foraging during the day, although the aardvark is a nocturnal creature. This is the joy of visiting Samara in winter, when the nights are cold and the clever little aardvarks prefer to start their quest for food during warmer daylight hours. They can travel up to 9km as they forage and they always open mounds on the west side where termites gather as the setting sun warms that side of the nest.
You’d think a prolonged sighting – on foot, nogal – would be excitement enough for one day, but our afternoon game drive had only just begun.
Benedict pointed out a shepherd’s tree (witgat), with its white bark and small green leaves even in this time of drought. Known as the ‘tree of life’, it’s an important source of nutrition for the animals. Its dense shade is also attractive to them on a hot day; temperatures in the shade of a shepherd’s tree can be up to 21 degrees Celsius cooler than the surroundings.
This particular tree has an electric fence around it. ‘It’s 800 years old and they’re special enough to be on Samara’s logo so we want to protect it from the elephants who might want to eat, debark or push it over,’ explained Benedict. Elephants used to roam this part of the Karoo in days gone by and the first elephants were reintroduced to Samara in 2017 after more than a century.
They’re usually solitary, like this young female we were following. What was unusual was that she was foraging during the day, although the aardvark is a nocturnal creature. This is the joy of visiting Samara in winter, when the nights are cold and the clever little aardvarks prefer to start their quest for food during warmer daylight hours. They can travel up to 9km as they forage and they always open mounds on the west side where termites gather as the setting sun warms that side of the nest.
You’d think a prolonged sighting – on foot, nogal – would be excitement enough for one day, but our afternoon game drive had only just begun.
Benedict pointed out a shepherd’s tree (witgat), with its white bark and small green leaves even in this time of drought. Known as the ‘tree of life’, it’s an important source of nutrition for the animals. Its dense shade is also attractive to them on a hot day; temperatures in the shade of a shepherd’s tree can be up to 21 degrees Celsius cooler than the surroundings.
This particular tree has an electric fence around it. ‘It’s 800 years old and they’re special enough to be on Samara’s logo so we want to protect it from the elephants who might want to eat, debark or push it over,’ explained Benedict. Elephants used to roam this part of the Karoo in days gone by and the first elephants were reintroduced to Samara in 2017 after more than a century.
Our guide Benedict Phepheng (left) and tracker Jason Williams
A black-backed jackal ran across the road ahead of the vehicle, we spied a lone meerkat scout scanning for predators and saw some buffalos in an acacia thorn thicket where they can protect themselves from another recent addition to the Samara veld – lions that were reintroduced to their old Karoo stomping grounds here at the start of 2019. Historical records show the last wild lion in the area was seen as far back as 1840 (which is back when David Livingstone left Britain for Africa and about 15 years before he first clapped eyes on the Victoria Falls).
Six cheetahs on a kill
Then we found six cheetahs on a kill and got out of the vehicle to approach closer on foot. Around a bush, down a steep incline and there they were, some resting in a patch of shade, others still worrying at the springbok carcass. This was Chilli and her five one-year-old cubs. ‘The mother would have taken down the springbok,’ said Benedict. ‘The young ones are just starting to learn to kill, but won’t hunt properly till they’re about 18 months old. Then the mother will get them feeding on a carcass and just walk away and leave them.’
Six cheetahs on a kill
Then we found six cheetahs on a kill and got out of the vehicle to approach closer on foot. Around a bush, down a steep incline and there they were, some resting in a patch of shade, others still worrying at the springbok carcass. This was Chilli and her five one-year-old cubs. ‘The mother would have taken down the springbok,’ said Benedict. ‘The young ones are just starting to learn to kill, but won’t hunt properly till they’re about 18 months old. Then the mother will get them feeding on a carcass and just walk away and leave them.’
Six cheetahs at a springbok kill
Most of the springbok was already in the six tummies, just a small snack for so many. They have to eat at least every three days, and this small antelope wouldn’t keep all six sated for long. ‘She might try to kill again tomorrow,’ said Benedict. This is the same mother we saw with cubs last time we visited Samara, but with a different group of cubs. One of those earlier female cubs, now an independent adult, is still at Samara and another was relocated to Majete in Malawi.
A very early morning drive
Given that the last time we’d been to Samara in 2017 the elephants and lions hadn’t yet arrived, we were keen to see them both. But we had to work at it. According to Benedict the best chance of seeing the lions (a male and a female, with another female due to join them shortly) was to start out in the cold and dark at 5.30am.
So there we were, all layered up with jackets and scarves and beanies, driving up Kondoa mountain and hoping to find a lion in an open patch on top. ‘They go down to where it’s inaccessible quite early, so this is our best chance,’ he explained.
A very early morning drive
Given that the last time we’d been to Samara in 2017 the elephants and lions hadn’t yet arrived, we were keen to see them both. But we had to work at it. According to Benedict the best chance of seeing the lions (a male and a female, with another female due to join them shortly) was to start out in the cold and dark at 5.30am.
So there we were, all layered up with jackets and scarves and beanies, driving up Kondoa mountain and hoping to find a lion in an open patch on top. ‘They go down to where it’s inaccessible quite early, so this is our best chance,’ he explained.
The Samara male lion (photo by Marnus Ochse)
It was a long, rough drive in the cold on the open safari vehicle. We heard him before we saw him, roaring there on the plateau before dawn. Benedict drove off road to get a little closer and I held my breath at the beauty of it, the idea that this wild lion was now back in the land of his ancestors. He was less impressed with us and didn’t take long before turning his back on us and walking away down the mountain.
Benedict had been right to get us up so early for at least a glimpse of him, the sound of his roaring booming across the mountains.
That wild lions now have safe haven here at Samara is important. With just 3000 wild lions left in South Africa – and threats posed by the cub-petting, bred-for-the-bullet canned lion industry – it’s great to see a conservation strategy that actually helps conserve wild lions rather than breeding captive lions for no good reason. [Update: the first litter of wild lion cubs was born at Samara in late 2019.]
Nearby on open savannah on top of the mountain was a big herd of black wildebeest, their white tails in sharp focus just before the sun rose over a distant koppie. To me they’re attractive creatures with a lot of character, especially when they gallop around and cavort in the early morning – just because they can, as if life is fun.
Benedict had been right to get us up so early for at least a glimpse of him, the sound of his roaring booming across the mountains.
That wild lions now have safe haven here at Samara is important. With just 3000 wild lions left in South Africa – and threats posed by the cub-petting, bred-for-the-bullet canned lion industry – it’s great to see a conservation strategy that actually helps conserve wild lions rather than breeding captive lions for no good reason. [Update: the first litter of wild lion cubs was born at Samara in late 2019.]
Nearby on open savannah on top of the mountain was a big herd of black wildebeest, their white tails in sharp focus just before the sun rose over a distant koppie. To me they’re attractive creatures with a lot of character, especially when they gallop around and cavort in the early morning – just because they can, as if life is fun.
Visitors watching elephants feeding in the thicket
Then we drove down the mountain on the other side along another rough track that displayed views of layers of greyish mountains in the distance, rocky mountains closer by, lots of thorn trees, spekboom and cabbage trees.
Benedict parked in the valley and herded us together to try to get closer on foot to two bull elephants feeding in the thicket. ‘They’re still exploring their territory so not really relaxed with people so we can’t get too close and have to be very quiet,’ he warned. Walking on eggshells, afraid of the crack of a twig, we approached. The elephants carried on feeding for a bit then must have smelt us and turned to face us. Nothing threatening or aggressive, but they were disturbed enough to stop feeding, so we decided to leave them in peace.
There are also six female elephants here (two adults and four sub-adults), and Samara is waiting to see how they settle before bringing in more. The carrying capacity of the veld here has been calculated to be 16.
Benedict parked in the valley and herded us together to try to get closer on foot to two bull elephants feeding in the thicket. ‘They’re still exploring their territory so not really relaxed with people so we can’t get too close and have to be very quiet,’ he warned. Walking on eggshells, afraid of the crack of a twig, we approached. The elephants carried on feeding for a bit then must have smelt us and turned to face us. Nothing threatening or aggressive, but they were disturbed enough to stop feeding, so we decided to leave them in peace.
There are also six female elephants here (two adults and four sub-adults), and Samara is waiting to see how they settle before bringing in more. The carrying capacity of the veld here has been calculated to be 16.
Mist blankets the valley
There have been some interesting changes since the arrival of the lions and elephants. For instance, the elephants have been uprooting trees to get at the nutritious roots, and eating the cabbage trees. According to Benedict, the cheetahs are very aware of the lions and the need to stay away from these apex predators, which is easy enough at present since they know the territory much better than the lions do. It will be interesting to see if the survival rate of cheetah cubs decreases in future.
Last morning drive
After a second afternoon drive where guests again saw an aardvark and witnessed Chilli’s cubs dispatch a small warthog piglet, our last morning drive before we left Samara was very atmospheric because of a dense mist blanketing the veld in the southern section of the reserve. A long line of springbok emerged ghost-like from the mist, and we saw some eland, waterbuck and blesbok.
Last morning drive
After a second afternoon drive where guests again saw an aardvark and witnessed Chilli’s cubs dispatch a small warthog piglet, our last morning drive before we left Samara was very atmospheric because of a dense mist blanketing the veld in the southern section of the reserve. A long line of springbok emerged ghost-like from the mist, and we saw some eland, waterbuck and blesbok.
One of the best things about Samara is getting out of the vehicle and approaching animals on foot
We also found the two bull elephants again, a closer sighting than the day before. They were browsing in the sweet-thorn thicket, but one came out and got very close to us before walking off to another part of the thicket where we could hear branches cracking.
Bull elephant - you can just make out the other one in the thicket on the left
We also found Chilli’s adult daughter on a springbok kill and approached on foot. The cheetah was very relaxed if we kept our distance, and we stood warming up in the sun that had now burnt off the mist, the skies sunny and blue. I kept pinching myself to remind myself how privileged we were to be so close to such a beautiful wild animal going about her day undisturbed.
Chilli's adult daughter is still at Samara, an independent and successful hunter
Eye to eye with a wild cheetah, without ever getting too close for comfort - hers or ours
On the way back to camp we saw southern black korhaan, Ludwig’s bustard and blue crane – and best of all, a giraffe with a tiny calf that looked like a child’s stuffed toy. Given that giraffe numbers across Africa have plummeted by some 30% since the 1980s, this evidence of a new generation at Samara was just the kind of sighting to allow us to end our Eastern Cape safari on a high note.
A baby giraffe is always something to celebrate
The lodge
You’ll come to Samara for the wildlife, but you’ll by no means be roughing it to enjoy your game drives. The accommodation at Karoo Lodge is beautiful, with more comforts than home, including a fireplace and air conditioner in your bedroom, and a bubble bath run for you when you return from your afternoon drive.
You’ll come to Samara for the wildlife, but you’ll by no means be roughing it to enjoy your game drives. The accommodation at Karoo Lodge is beautiful, with more comforts than home, including a fireplace and air conditioner in your bedroom, and a bubble bath run for you when you return from your afternoon drive.
The Karoo Suite
You’re spoiled with friendly service and good food too. Think breakfast of fruit, bacon and eggs, or something more sophisticated (I loved the toast with avo, salmon and poached egg); think four-course dinner including butternut and beetroot soup, oxtail and crème brûlée.
Dinner is served on the stoep with a romantic Karoo touch
Some of the friendly staff (from left): Nokuthula, Precious and Pamela
Stay in Samara Karoo Lodge's Karoo Suites and you can sit on the stoep overlooking a waterhole and watch baboons, vervet monkeys, warthog, waterbuck, eland, kudu and red hartebeest come to drink or perhaps hear a jackal yowling in the distance.
The view from one of the Karoo Suites towards the waterhole
If you’re adventurous and are looking for something especially romantic, visit between October and April and book a sleep out at Samara’s star bed. From October 2019, Samara will also be offering a special summer walking adventure with fly camping.
Note: We were guests of Samara Karoo Lodge, but I was given free rein to write what I chose. We paid for all drinks and conservation fees.
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Note: We were guests of Samara Karoo Lodge, but I was given free rein to write what I chose. We paid for all drinks and conservation fees.
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Samara Karoo: follow cheetah and aardvark on foot
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Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
Samara Karoo: follow cheetah and aardvark on foot
12 things to do in Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo
Camdeboo National Park: the ultimate guide
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
