Sojourn with Jock's ghost

Published Sep 12, 2010

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Between the goldfields and the nearest port, Delegoa Bay, lay the Bushveld, and game enough for all to live on. Thus, all were hunters of some sort, but the great hunters - the hunters of the big 5 game - were apart; we were the smaller fry. There to admire and to imitate. - an extract from Jock of the Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick.

More than 120 years later, my partner and I went back to the road where Fitzpatrick walked, to the bush where the great hunters still roamed. Time had changed the weapons: cameras and not rifles were being used to shoot the game.

As the distance between us and Joburg grew, radio DJs, news of health workers barricading hospitals and women in labour being forced to give birth on the street were drowned out by static, and the hills started to roll. Five hours later we arrived at Jock Safari Lodge, about 35km north of the Kruger National Park's Malane gate.

Jock Safari Lodge is the kind of place for those who don't like regular Kruger Park accommodation with its communal showers, the smoke of someone's braai wafting into your tent, or coming back from a game drive to find the monkeys have raided the fridge on the stoep of your bungalow.

At Jock the fridges are on the inside, in a cupboard, above the electronic mini-safe, several paces from the bed in its cocoon of mosquito netting, near the spacious bathroom. Outside there's a shower and a bed under a thatched roof from which you can gaze out on the Biyamiti River. Thankfully the rooms don't have television. You're sealed off from the other guests here. You can hear the cascade of frogs and crickets that accompany the sunset - we peer into the dark, trying to make out how many elephants are munching their way through the reeds on the other side of the electrified fence.

I slept deeply for the first time in weeks, but was awoken by a 5am telephone call. The morning game drive was waiting, and some long-tusked elephants and rare black rhino wanted to be spotted. Alas the lions, which the Italian couple on their honeymoon wanted to see so badly, decided to be elusive for one more day.

The main Jock camp only has 12 suites, while Little Jock, 1km away, has only three lodges - mainly for families with children. Guests are divided into groups, each one gets assigned an experienced senior game ranger, who eats meals with you and ensures all your questions are answered.

The 6 000-hectare Jock is one of seven private concessions in the Kruger Park, created by SanParks about 12 years ago as a way of raising money. A percentage of the fees these lodges charge goes to SanParks.

General manager Louis Strauss points out all the ways the lodge is trying to become eco-friendlier. The geysers are solar-heated, waste|water is recycled, the garnishing on the food comes from a herb garden.

Despite the exclusive air about the place, it wasn't unaffected by the recession and is trying new ways to attract customers, including lower rates for South Africans and frog safaris, which are expected to start around November. To prove how abundant the amphibians are in the place, Strauss lifts a picture from the wall in the dining area and turns it to reveal a Tree Frog behind it, waiting for the mosquitoes to emerge at sunset.

Beginning as soon as the first rains make their appearance, froggers will be given head lights, nets and gum boots and driven to a nearby pond to identify a few amphibians. It's an innovative idea and sure to attract those wanting to see more than just the big five.

Jock currently offers daily walking tours where you learn about the best place to shoot a buffalo when it charges, that their hip bones make very comfortable toilet seats and why chameleon skulls are found under Amarula trees. And the reason the game rangers are at the front of a guided walk through the bush is because it's cheaper to replace one of the tourists who get picked off by lions at the rear, than a trained guide, ranger Jannie De Necker joked as he and colleague Lazarus Mkhonto took our group on a walk. After the hour-and-a-half walk, a massage and body scrub does not feel unwelcome. With a maximum of 30 guests at the lodge at one time, it's easy to get an appointment with one of the two masseuses.

On the next game drive I watched wild dog pups, whose pack had made a corner of the concession their home, at play. Later the king of beasts made his appearance. He was sick and wounded and most of his mane had fallen out, but still a lion, and the Italian couple beamed.

- Call Central Reservations on 041 407 1000. E-mail [email protected]

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