TR A V E L
AF R I C A N SA F A R I
An African Safari easily ranks among the top ten holidays that must be taken in ones lifetime. Hugh
Smethurst explores one of South Africa’s largest game reserves while staying at the Tau Game Lodge.
n the Tswana language spoken where Botswana
I
and South Africa meet, Tau means lion. The
Tau Game Lodge sits within the Madikwe Game
Reserve which at present is home to 72 lions. In this
immense continent, every place carries diff erent
meaning to each who passes through, and this meaning
extends beyond a literal translation. To me, Tau is a
place of rest and simplicity; discreet 5-star luxury but
without the brittle fl ash of, say, a Gulf state hotel. It
is also a place of enormous interest if you fi nd Africa’s
bewildering variety of birds, animals and plants of even
passing interest. And now that I’m back among the
computers and distractions of work and family life, the
memory of Tau has some qualities of a dream.
Madikwe is South Africa’s fi fth largest Game
Reserve – 290 square miles, or just a little smaller than
New York City. Within its fences are around 300
species of bird and 66 of large mammal, and the only way
to see these riches is to stay at a game lodge. Of those at
Madikwe, Tau is the largest with rooms for around 60
guests. All visitors stay in chalets, thatched and simple,
with clean white linens, cool air conditioning, and a
bathroom featuring a shower enclosed by walls, but
open to the stars. Each also has a balcony overlooking
the Tau’s natural watering hole where the elephants
come to wallow with palpable enjoyment of the mud,
and giraff e and waterbuck daintily drink almost within
reach. The main lodge building is at the centre of two
arms of bungalows, and is where guests gather to eat,
drink, wallow in their own small pool and set off for
game drives and bush walks.
This was once poor farmland, shallow soil north of
the Dwarsberg mountains, through which one emerges,
if driving from Johannesburg, to a sudden view of the
plains running on to Botswana. The location was chosen
for a game reserve in 1991 in part for its diversity: it is split
by a smaller range of hills (the Rant van Tweedepoort)
running East-West, and has numerous dramatic jumbles
of gabbro, an igneous rock similar to basalt and of
38 EX P A T R I A T E
Safari.indd 38 08/06/2009 15:11:36
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60