Tanda Tula Safari Camp, Timbavati Private Game Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa

Immerse yourself in a true African wilderness experience at Tanda Tula, an exclusive luxury safari camp in the Timbavati Private Game Reserve in Limpopo. Although you are likely to sight the Big Five here – there are no fences between the reserve and its neighbour, the Kruger National Park – this need not be your ultimate goal. A compelling reason for being at Tanda Tula is to have a heightened gaming experience at the hands of some of the most highly skilled rangers and trackers in South Africa.

One of Tanda Tula’s trackers is a Senior Tracker – one of only fifteen qualified Senior Trackers in South Africa to date. So highly sought after are his skills that he was invited by the International Professional Tracker Association in the USA to give demonstrations and lectures on the role of trackers in private game reserves and the art of tracking dangerous game.

Tanda Tula’s other rangers and trackers aspire to follow in his footsteps and you too can try to do this when you join one of Tanda Tula’s walking safaris through the bushveld. This is a wonderful way to go from merely being an observer to becoming an active participant on the wonderful stage that is the African savanna.

Tanda Tula does not wish to intrude on that stage; rather, it prefers to blend into it and this safari lodge is so well concealed that you cannot see it until you reach the parking area.

There are no manicured lawns or flower beds, just natural bush pulsating with life – from the resident nyala antelopes to old buffalo bulls that hang around the camp and cheeky vervet monkeys looking down from the treetops.

There are elephants too, and scientists based at Tanda Tula are carrying out a long-term research study on elephant movement across an expanse of wilderness that transverses the Kruger National Park and parts of Zimbabwe to the north, Mozambique to the east and South African private game reserves to the west.

The staff at Tanda Tula are the real stars of the show and create such an harmonious atmosphere that all you will remember is smiling faces. Well-crafted food is created by the two Shangaan chefs, winners at the 2005 Bush Banquet Challenge. Producing feasts in the heart of the bush is their speciality and to keep the element of surprise, guests never eat in the same place twice.