I first visited Phinda Resource Reserve in 1992. Twenty bloody years ago, as a young radio journalist in love with nature. Wildlife and wilderness were my ‘passion’, long before any woman, and before the word was laid prone and abused by lazy writers and ad agency copy-hacks.   It was a world back then, I thought, largely unsullied by egos and dodgy politicians. And along came this new company, hoping to change the way tourism and conservation worked together. It was a company called Conservation Corporation Africa (CCA), and it wanted to showcase a brand new lodge – Phinda Resource Reserve – as something between a work-in-progress and a flagship.   A free trip for young journos at the time was a great break from the office / studio, with a night of luxury, good food and a chocolate on the pillow thrown in. For the company concerned – whether CCA, today known as &Beyond, or Wilderness Safaris, the next big player on the local safari circuit – it was essentially free PR.   CCA was set up by a bunch of 40-something bush-enthusiasts, bringing a mix of skills to the table. They were neither hunters nor owners of the land, but a mix of successful businessmen, entrepreneurs and what we will loosely call conservationists. If I remember correctly, CCA’s aim at the time was to demonstrate how the ubiquitous poor, rural communities that inevitably lived close to wildlife – and thus saw it as a threat – could benefit from those animals, while the company made the obvious profit.   Londolozi (which was part of that new CCA) and Mala Mala were already offering the bush & wildlife experience. But their families had already owned the land for decades, and for them it was pretty much business as usual. This focus here at Phinda was different – ‘bring the communities on board, and it’s a win-win scenario’ was the thinking.   The key for the community was to be ‘attached’ to a lodge that would attract the relatively affluent tourist from Zurich, London and Vancouver to come and spend their foreign currency in exchange for a package of luxury accommodation and excellent game-viewing. This was just prior to the IT boom and all the money it attracted. The timing could’ve been worse.   Today CCA has morphed through various name changes into the branding result that is &Beyond, which I presume means an out-of the-ordinary wildlife vacation. Today either managing or owning properties throughout Southern and East Africa, there will be instances where that is true. While I am intensely curious about their India operation – with tigers and India’s very own spectacular wildlife – I know Phinda very well.   One of the most compelling wildlife / landscape destinations in Southern Africa, it has achieved what those young men set out to do in 1992. It ‘boasts’ seven ecozones, from montane woodland to coastal sand-forest, in which the wildlife viewing is as varied and good as it gets. Cheetah, rhino, lion, chameleons and birding specials like narina trogon and Pels fishing owl.   Down the road, in the nearby community of Nqobokazi, as a direct result of funds raised by the lodge from amongst its monied and interested guests, a clinic and a school have been built and the dirt road connecting Nqobokazi to the regional and national road network has been tarred. A simple tar road has an immense impact on a community.   Far from the tar, in grass painted lush green by weeks of rain, on game drives with and without my four year-old son, I see black and white rhino, an imperious, big-maned lion, deep-grunting hippos and a pair of cheetah. Superbly striped zebra and squabbling vultures on a long-dead giraffe are framed by the delicious sub-tropical soundtrack of a thousand wet and happy birds.   Two decades after those early days, I have grey-white flecks in my hair, and even a few on my chest. As for Phinda, it has matured beautifully, with the natural movement of animals on the land having returned it to its glorious self.

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