Tag: rhino

Duba Plains – Turn the Wild Up a Notch

Posted on by James

Some parts of the Okavango Delta feel calm, almost meditative. Channels drift quietly, birds skim the surface, and elephants move through water with an ease that feels timeless. And then there is Duba Plains Camp, where the same water seems to sharpen everything instead.

Set deep within a private concession in the northern Delta, Duba Plains sits in a landscape defined by seasonal flood. When the waters arrive, they spread wide across the plains, transforming dry ground into a shifting mosaic of channels, islands and open space. It is beautiful, unquestionably — but it is also functional. Because where the flood goes, the buffalo follow.

And where there are buffalo, lions are never far behind.

Duba has become quietly known for this relationship. Not in a way that feels staged or predictable, but in the sense that the ecosystem itself leans toward drama. Large herds move across open ground, bunching, spreading, testing the edges of safety. Lions watch, wait, and then commit with a level of intensity that feels very different to more casual encounters elsewhere in Africa.

Game drives here carry a particular kind of focus. You are not simply looking for sightings; you are stepping into a story that is already unfolding. Tracks matter. Direction matters. Behaviour matters. Everything feels connected, as if each movement is part of a wider narrative that began long before you arrived.

And yet, for all its intensity, Duba Plains is still very much a water-based safari.

 

Between moments of action, the landscape settles back into something softer. Elephants cross channels with slow, deliberate confidence. Lechwe move through flooded grasslands, their hooves adapted perfectly to terrain that would challenge almost anything else. Reflections stretch across the water, turning movement into something almost abstract.

The camp itself mirrors this balance. Elevated, elegant, and quietly luxurious, it offers comfort without separation. Wide decks open onto the floodplain, allowing you to watch the landscape shift throughout the day. Interiors are refined but never overbearing, keeping the focus where it belongs — outside.

There is a rhythm here that feels heightened. Stillness builds into movement. Calm gives way to intensity, then settles again. It is a place where contrast defines the experience as much as continuity.

Duba Plains is not a passive safari. It asks you to pay attention, to read the bush, to stay present in moments that can change quickly and without warning.

And when everything aligns — water, movement, predator and prey — you are reminded that the Delta is not just beautiful.

It is alive in a way that feels immediate, unpredictable, and entirely real.

More Than One Million Raised by Iconic Africa for Tracker Academy

Posted on by James

We love the word “Synergy” at Iconic Africa; the combination of things being greater than the sum of their parts.

This is essentially what took place at the event we recently hosted at Kruger Untamed Tshokwane River Camp, where over R1 000 000 was raised for the Tracker Academy.

Over 60 friends and business associates from multiple walks of life across South Africa (and even some from as far away as London!) descended upon South Africa’s most iconic National Park for a weekend of tracking, bush immersions, wine tasting and all round fun, and left with far more than they had signed up for; a renewed sense of appreciation for our natural heritage, awe at the depth of indigenous knowledge skills on display and a determination to contribute in whatever way they could to the preservation efforts of our remaining Rhinos.

Out of all our milestones, achievements and relationships at Iconic Africa, there are few things that give us more pride than our continued association with the Tracker Academy.

This inspiring NGO was founded in 2010 by lifelong friends Alex van den Heever and Renias Mhlongo, and trains young men and women in the art of wildlife tracking. In their own words, it empowers its graduates to become ambassadors for the African wildlife conservation industry by bringing authenticity and accuracy to environmental education, wildlife protection, eco-tourism, monitoring and research.

What started as an initiative that simply aimed to keep the dying art of tracking alive has grown exponentially into a critically important feeder for both tourism safaris and broader conservation. Tracking is playing an increasingly valuable role in rhino protection in particular, as essential bush craft has been found to be severely lacking in anti-poaching operatives across the African continent. With that in mind, Tracker Academy founded the Rhino Guardians program in 2022, with the aim of bolstering rhino protection efforts by deploying highly specialised tracking units.
Amos Mzimba, Rhino Guardians’ Head Trainer, spent 27 years as an anti-poaching operative in the Kruger National Park, boasting more than 300 arrests over the course of his career – the highest of any member of his department.
Now he trains young students in the skills they need to effectively to pursue and arrest suspected poachers in the wilderness.

Rounding out the ensemble of tracking royalty that facilitated the event was Innocent Ngwenya – a former student of Tracker Academy on its inaugural course and now its Head Trainer.
Innocent’s story that he regaled the attendees with was one of hope; how he turned a life of hunger and apparent hopelessness into one of meaning, leadership and inspiration for others to draw from.
Using tracking as a powerful metaphor for how well a life can be lived, Innocent was a poignant reminder for all what a powerful ripple effect one person’s journey can have on those he or she comes into contact with.

Evenings were kick-started by a fantastic variety of wines provided by Derek Kilpin of Great Domaines. A few glasses invariably led to fireside mirth and story-telling late into the night. The distant roars of lions would as a not-so-subtle hint as to which direction the tracking efforts should be directed come the (very) early morning, and strong coffee would kickstart the day as bird song started to crescendo in the pre-dawn gloom.

Tracking groups headed in different directions under the lead of Renias, Alex, Amos and Innocent, and never has there been a better representation of the journey and not the arrival mattering than in this pursuit.
The animal at the end of what can be a long hot morning following signs is simply the cherry on top.
It is rather in the tracking process itself that the joy – and ultimately the learning – is to be found; the oft painstaking attention to detail, the awareness of every little bit of information the bush was providing, be it in visual, audio or olfactory form, or sometimes nothing more than a sixth sense that both kept the trackers on the trail and the group safe in a potentially hostile environment of Big 5 animals.

Whether the trailing opportunities were successful or not was actually irrelevant. All who spent time on foot with the four trackers were well aware that they were in the presence of true masters of their craft. That, combined with the utmost humility of all four men, made a deep and lasting impression.

 

The wild safari soiree on the last night rounded off a stellar long weekend, but the transfer vehicles arrived all too quickly to shuttle everyone back to Skukuza airport and the respective flights home.

We are thrilled to report that thanks to multiple generous donations, over a million rand was raised for Tracker Academy, money which will be used to train the next generation of Rhino Guardians who, as rhino poaching continues to escalate across the continent, are going to play an evermore critical role in protecting the continent’s wildlife resources.

In 2022 we launched our philanthropic arm, the Iconic Africa Foundation, through which we take a portion of every safari that Iconic Africa sells and channel it back into African NGOs, conservation efforts and community development programs. It’s essential to us that we are doing our part to conserve, uplift and protect across this magnificent continent.

Anyone wanting to donate to Tracker Academy and/or Rhino Guardians, please get hold of us through info@iconicafrica.com.

For those interested in a true wilderness immersion, with tracking at the forefront, look no further than Kruger Untamed, who, as well as Tshokwane River Camp where the Iconic Africa event took place, have a second camp further north, adjacent to the Satara grasslands where the highest lion density in the Kruger National Park is to be found.

Please direct enquiries to info@iconicafrica.com.

 

 

 

Rhino Dehorning: the Latest in the War on Poaching

Posted on by James

Over the last decade, over ten thousand rhinos have been lost to poaching across Africa.

With both white and black rhinoceroses already endangered, these catastrophic losses have pushed both species even closer to extinction.

In South Africa alone, 451 rhinos were lost during 2021. Although the general trend over the last few years has been a decrease in numbers lost each year, which looks positive (although 2021 was the first time in 6 years that the number went up again), the harsh reality is that these numbers may just as equally reflect the much lower numbers of rhinos left to poach as they do the increase in anti-poaching efforts across the continent.

With increasing pressure on declining rhino populations that are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas, the focus of poaching has seen a dramatic spike in private reserves over the last year. Although well-trained, well-armed anti-poaching teams are operational on most private reserves in the region that boast rhino numbers, the staggering and ever-increasing value of rhino horn on the international market has meant that no deterrents seem too great, and rhinos continue to be lost.

More and more lodges and reserves are falling back on the last-resort solution of dehorning their rhinos. By removing the very thing the poachers are after, the hope is that rhinos lives will be spared.
This tactic has proved successful in many areas, although some conservationists hesitate before implementing it as a practical solution because of its potential impact on the rhinos themselves. Although the removal of the horn doesn’t cause the individual rhino any harm (it will grow back after a few years), it is still a functional part of their anatomy, and it is still unsure what long-term repercussions might be felt in dehorned populations with males left without their main weapon that they use to defend territories.

The problem with dehorning in the private reserve sector (or solution, depending on which way you look at it) is that it’s becoming more and more of an all-or-nothing affair, in that every reserve needs to buy in, or none. Since effective conservation is largely a function of space, many operators have dropped fences between them and their neighbours to create larger contiguous ecosystems for wildlife, but the free-roaming nature of rhino populations in reserves like these means that de-horning operations need to be reserve-wide.

If one reserve opts to dehorn their rhinos but its neighbours don’t, the population with horns intact will naturally become the target for poachers; all reserves/lodges therefore need to be in agreement.

The three-reserve system of the Sabi Sand, Sabie Game Reserve and Mala Mala, near the Kruger Park, are the latest high profile group of reserves to dehorn their rhinos, with an extensive period of a 25 days being allotted to the operation.

The entire reserve’s population was dehorned as well as ear-notched, which not only dramatically reduces the poaching threat but through the notching will allow closer monitoring of individual rhinos. The decision to dehorn was not an easy one for the reserves to take, but with over 400% increase in poaching across the protected area in the last two years, reserve management and lodge owners alike felt that it was the best step to take.

Despite the dehorning hopefully buying a reprieve for the area’s beleaguered rhinos, all three reserves continue to increase their security efforts through added technology and inter-reserve communication.

Let us hope that the dehorning initiative will prove as effective in this, one of South Africa’s flagship conservation areas, as it has been in other parts of the country.

Marataba: Conservation and Tourism Intertwined

Posted on by James

The new narrative of ecotourism is about far more than simply viewing animals in their natural habitat.
It’s experiential, it’s immersive, and more than anything, it’s about the visitor to African shores feeling like their stay has made a difference. More and more safari operators are giving guests the chance to go behind the scenes as it were, in order to see – and more importantly to participate in – the work being done on the ground to save Africa’s wildlife and her wild spaces.

Marataba has long been one of our favourite reserves.
Only a few hours drive from Johannesburg, malaria-free, and blessed with fantastic game viewing, it has practically sold itself. Now however, Marataba are spearheading the way a bush visit should be conducted; their Conservation Camps are allowing guests the opportunity to actively participate in the reserve’s conservation efforts.

Rhino poaching has been an ever-growing problem across Africa for years, and South Africa has been particularly hard hit. For too long however, there has been a distinct disconnect between what is being done to protect the species and the guests who are able to view rhinos in the wild. Marataba have realised that by making their rhino conservation efforts accessible, viewable, and most importantly, experiential, people will be far more aware of what it takes to both monitor and protect the species.
Understanding a cause enables one to get behind it far more effectively.

Both white and black rhinos occur at Marataba; a mixture of clearings and thornveld provide adequate habitat for both species (white rhinos are grazers and prefer more open terrain; black rhinos are browsers and prefer thicker vegetation). A proper understanding of the behaviour and movement patterns of the individuals across the reserve can go a long way towards informing anti-poaching and conservation efforts, and so an individual recognition system using an ear notching pattern has been implemented at Marataba.

The way we see ecotourism going in the future is the kind of offering coming out of the Marataba Conservation Camps; the three-day Rhino Conservation Safari.

During a rhino registration and identification procedure, guests will help immobilise and notch the animal and insert a DNA microchip into the horns and body. Tissue is collected and the DNA is submitted to the RHoDIS database (Rhinoceros DNA indexing system), a national DNA database.
It’s one thing to watch a rhino from the comfort of a game drive vehicle. It’s a completely different experience to touch one’s bare skin, to feel its breath on your hand and to play a part in an operation that will directly contribute to the survival of its species.

More and more experiences like this are becoming available in the ecotourism sector. We are firm believers in the idea that the more connected a person can feel to a place, a species, or even an individual animal, the more likely that person is to become invested in whatever maintain’s that entity’s future.

It’s not only the Rhino Conservation Safari that is offered at the Marataba Conservation camps. Guests can assist in fence patrols, elephant or cheetah monitoring, and a host of other activities that will help give a far more enriching understanding about what conservation really involves.

At the end of the day, that’s exactly what it should be about.

Londolozi: A Return Home

Posted on by Terri

It has been 26 years since I first journeyed to Londolozi Game Reserve, yet every time I visit I still feel the same sense of giddy excitement I did on that initial visit so long ago, the same sense of nostalgia when I climb up into the Land Rover for the opening game drive of the trip, and the same overwhelming sense of sadness when I leave.

It’s not just the amazing sightings of leopards in trees, lions wading through the Sand River, or being surrounded by the 7th herd of elephants for the morning. It’s far more than that.
This for me was where my true love for the bush began, as I began to see exactly what type of experience it could – and should – be.

My first visit to Londolozi, 26 years ago (I am standing centre). Ranger Julius Ngwenya (sitting in front) has his son now working as a tracker at Londolozi.
And our latest trip, out on game drive waiting for lions to wake up in the evening.

This is what Londolozi does so well. There’s no formula. That went out the window long ago. Yes there is a framework within which the lodge operates – out before sunrise each morning to catch the dawn chorus, night drives following lions on the hunt, bush walks to make you touch, smell, and truly listen – but the reality is that each safari, each time you venture out of the camp gates in fact, is tapered to suit your specific needs.

One of the many herds that inhabit the reserve wade across the Sand River (Pioneer Camp is just out of picture to the left).
The winter months are an especially good time to see elephants in the South African bush.

Birding is your thing? No problem; the focus shifts to the myriad different habitats that the reserve features, with the guide and tracker fully aware of which species are to be found where. Photographically inclined, wanting to capture that magical silhouette shot of a leopard outlined against the vivid reds of an African sunset? The tracking team will find that leopard, and – conditions permitting – the ranger will know exactly where to position the vehicle and what camera settings to use to make sure you nail the shot. There is no such thing as homogeneity in the Londolozi experience. It’s always unique and always special.

You never know what will be around the next corner at Londolozi…

I try to get back there once a year, except these days it’s not just me and my husband but my kids as well, and my brother and his wife regularly accompany us.
We try to stay in Pioneer Camp each year, the most westerly of the Londolozi camps. One of Londolozi’s three Relais and Chateaux camps, Pioneer only has three rooms, perfect for a family of our size. The adults go into two of them while the kids squeeze into the third (which is connected to ours by a discreet walkway).
And for a magical ten days, the camp becomes home.

The camp manager this year was Shannon Dawson, the most wonderful person you could ever wish to meet, and she shares a similar history with us in that she has also been visiting Londolozi with her family since she was small. And now she calls it home too.
Nothing was ever too much for Shannon, and her delightful smile was always there to welcome us home after game drive, morning and evening.

This leopard was waiting for us just off the edge of the Pioneer Camp deck as we returned from game drive one evening!

Travelling out from Atlanta, GA, where I live these days (having moved from South Africa in the 90s), it makes far more sense for us to come for a longer trip, so ten days is usually the least amount of time we will stay. I cannot emphasise enough the value of a longer stay. It allows one to truly sink into a place, to adjust to the flow of the African bush, and get to know the ranger, tracker and camp staff far better than one would in what would traditionally have been a three night adventure.

Our coffee stop one morning in a treehouse overlooking the Sand River.

 

A young leopard cub peers down nervously from the boughs of a marula tree, still uncertain of the best way to descend.

Particularly for those coming from further afield, long stay safaris are slowly starting to replace the three night visits, which travel trends are definitely starting to reflect. The idea it seems, is to go deeper, not broader. Rather than hopping between lodges, discerning travellers are preferring to remain in one place, getting the absolute most out of a visit that they can.
This is certainly what we try to accomplish each time we visit Londolozi.

Tiny wild dog pups emerge from their den as their mother calls them out.

This was our first time back in a couple of years, Covid-19 and other circumstances having prevented us visiting since July 2018.

The best thing for me was just how easy travel was in these times: flights were not a problem, covid-compliant and everything almost seemed easier than normal, especially given that airports are far less crowded. A hop, skip and a jump, and back in Londolozi we were…

And what a return it was.
Lions taking down a buffalo on our first morning, male leopards roaring back and forth at each other, a female leopard with her cubs just learning how to climb, wild dog pups emerging from their den for the first time… The sightings were incredibly varied and seemingly endless.
And in between them was the Londolozi fun; Wimbledon-themed dinners, soccer games for the kids, tracking lessons from Joy Mathebula… Whenever we least expected it, there was something new and exciting on the cards.

Tracker Andrea Sithole – who our family have known for years – celebrates a goal with my daughter Brodi in a soccer game organised for the kids staying in camp.
One of the dominant male leopards that Londolozi is so famous for, drinking only a few feet from our vehicle.

Londolozi doesn’t just thrill with the wildlife. They take you into their world and open your eyes. You get to see what this one wild life we have all been given should really be about: fun, connection, intimacy with nature and ultimately finding the best version of yourself.

I know I find that person whenever I’m at Londolozi.
And you can too…