Mateya Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, North West Province, South Africa

There are few safari lodges offering more elegance and luxury than Mateya in the Madikwe Game Reserve. Safari writer Carrie Hampton went to Mateya and wrote this in her latest book, ‘Exclusive Safari Lodges of South Africa’, with stunning wildlife and lodge photographs by Gerald Hoberman.

Mateya Safari Lodge, in North West province, draws inspiration from Queen Mateya’s legendary ruined settlement. The story starts with a terrible drought in the queen’s territory in the northern parts of South Africa, which saddened her so much that she decided to go in search of Modjadji, the Rain Queen.

After much travelling, Queen Mateya set up camp in the area now known as Madikwe, a wild land on the fringe of the Kalahari. After many months, she found the Rain Queen and presented her with an exquisite jewel-encrusted necklace, specially made by Queen Mateya’s highly skilled smiths.

The Rain Queen must have been impressed as rains started to flow in the land of Mateya. Unfortunately, according to legend, Queen Mateya never made it back to her people.

Standing upon stone supports on a rocky outcrop of the Gabbro hills in Madikwe Game Reserve, Mateya Safari Lodge commands an expansive view of the surrounding grass plains. There is certainly something regal about the place.

This is immediately apparent in the bronze bust of Queen Mateya, sculpted by Donald Greig, that greets you at the entrance. And in the stately, ancient Zanzibari elephant doors that open onto the elegant interior of this most luxurious safari lodge.

Mateya’s reign as one of the most sophisticated grande dames of safari lodges in South Africa is assured by its inclusion of all things fine. This goes for table silver, haute cuisine, five enormous suites, marble bathrooms, walk-in dressing rooms, fine Egyptian cotton linen, mahogany furniture, tailor-made game drives and walks and, most notably, Mateya’s art collection.

In fact, such is Mathis’s passion that the spaces were built to accommodate the art, not the other way round. This explains why the large wildlife and landscape paintings by Paul Augustinus have ample hanging space and why Robert Glen’s huge bronze of a lion hunting an impala, entitled Near Miss, holds centre stage in the living room.