Kariega Ukhozi Lodge

The Story

In 1989, Colin Rushmere, an Eastern Cape lawyer, bought 660 hectares of degraded farmland with the conviction that the land could be returned to what it was before the fences went up. When his neighbour Tony Fuller joined the project in 1998, they combined their holdings and the farm between them, and the task became one of reassembling an entire landscape. Over three decades, two families across three generations have stitched 24 former properties into a roughly 12,000-hectare private reserve that now carries all Big Five species. Colin died in January 2017. A rhino calf born on the reserve was given his name, and the families continue to run what he started.

Ukhozi Lodge, opened in 2002, is the intimate adults’ option on the reserve: ten suites on a hilltop, each with a private plunge pool, overlooking a valley that thirty years ago produced cattle, not wildlife. Every hectare of this reserve was earned, not inherited.

Location

Some twelve thousand hectares of private reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, assembled from 24 former farms since 1989. The conversion from degraded agricultural land to Big Five territory is a three-decade project, and that context matters when positioning Kariega alongside its neighbours. At roughly half the size of Kwandwe and Shamwari, this is not the biggest reserve in the region. What it has, and what neither neighbour can match in quite the same way, is a river system running through its centre.

The Kariega and Bushmans rivers create a valley corridor supporting five distinct ecosystems: valley bushveld, savannah, fynbos, riverine forest, and acacia thicket, compressed into a space small enough to traverse on a single game drive. Permanent water keeps populations resident year-round. All Big Five species hold verified populations, with sighting reliability varying by species and season.

A public road bisects the property, splitting the western Big Five section from the predator-free eastern plains where the Blue Duiker Trail operates. Game drives cross between sections, a practical reality that purists accustomed to contiguous wilderness will notice, though the reserve manages the crossing efficiently.

Ukhozi Lodge occupies a hilltop in the western section, elevated above the river valley with sightlines across the bush canopy. Wildlife moves through the lodge grounds freely, and the valley below draws animals to water through the day. Five lodges operate across the reserve, from the family-oriented Main Lodge to the five-star Settlers Drift; Ukhozi shares an entrance gate with Main Lodge, though the properties separate quickly once inside.

Malaria-free Big Five within striking distance of the Garden Route, modest in scale, deliberate in ambition, built on ground that had forgotten it was ever wild.

Rooms

Ten suites, one category, no upgrade ladder. Every room at Ukhozi is the same: king or twin configuration, private plunge pool, fireplace, freestanding bath, indoor and outdoor showers, and a complimentary mini-bar. The simplicity is deliberate. With only twenty people at capacity, the lodge has no need for a tiered pricing structure and no reason to create one.

The suites are thatched and timber-framed, positioned along the ridge for valley views from both the deck and the bath. The style is closer to bush luxury than the polished finish of Settlers Drift, the reserve’s five-star flagship. Exposed stone, natural materials, and open-air showers that look out onto indigenous bush rather than tiled enclosures. The plunge pools are compact, designed for cooling after a game drive rather than for swimming.

The fireplace earns its place from May through August.

Privacy is the point. Ten suites on a hilltop, each screened by vegetation, with no children under ten permitted. The result is a quiet that larger lodges, regardless of their intentions, cannot quite achieve.

Communal Areas

The rim-flow pool is the centrepiece, cantilevered over the hillside with uninterrupted views down the valley. Recovery between drives during the day; the gathering point after dark.

Meals follow the safari standard: breakfast before the morning drive, a set lunch at midday, and a multi-course dinner either in the dining room or at the outdoor boma. All meals and selected beverages are included. The boma evenings are the stronger format, served around the fire under open sky, though the lunch menu offers limited choice. A complimentary mini-bar in each suite removes the usual nickel-and-diming that larger operations rely on.

The communal spaces feel proportionate to the lodge. There is no gymnasium, no conference room, no reason for either. The lodge lounge and viewing deck do what they need to.

Activities

Game drives in open 4×4 vehicles run twice daily, pre-dawn and late afternoon, each lasting three to four hours with FGASA-qualified rangers who know the reserve’s five ecosystems by the way the vegetation shifts underfoot. Valley bushveld gives way to savannah on the western plains, then fynbos on the higher ground, with riverine forest and acacia thicket marking the corridors where animals move between habitats. The compression matters: a single drive covers terrain that would take half a day on a larger reserve, and the variety of habitat keeps the species list longer than the acreage might suggest.

Morning drives tend to produce predator activity along the open plains. Afternoon runs favour herbivore movement along the river corridors as animals come to water. Night drives after dinner bring the nocturnal cast: brown hyena, aardvark, porcupine, and the smaller cats that sensibly avoid daylight. Elephant herds, resident year-round on permanent water, appear on most drives with Very High reliability. Lion, buffalo, and white rhino are High likelihood, regular on most days. Leopard occupies the dense valley bushveld and appears on its own terms; black rhino is Opportunistic, though a small breeding population is present. Winter — particularly July through September — thins the bush and concentrates animals at water sources; summer thickens the vegetation but delivers newborns and migratory birdlife.

With only twenty people across ten suites, Ukhozi keeps vehicle numbers low by default rather than by policy. The guiding team includes Chris Reynecke, the reserve ecologist and recipient of the 2023 FGASA Addo Medal for Excellence in Nature Guiding, a credential that tells you something about the standard of guiding here.

The river changes the experience. The Kariega Queen, a flat-bottomed cruiser included as standard, runs the Kariega River through valley sections that game vehicles cannot reach. The cruise delivers a different pace: slow water, fish eagles overhead, kingfishers working the banks, and the possibility of hippos in the deeper pools. It is the single strongest reason to choose Kariega over its larger neighbours, and the one most people do not expect.

On 2 March 2012, three rhinos were attacked by poachers on the reserve; only one survived. Thandi, as she was named, underwent reconstructive treatment that drew international attention and became a landmark wildlife recovery case. She went on to produce calves, the first named Thembi (Hope in isiXhosa). Since 2012, no rhino has been poached on the reserve, a record maintained by a dedicated anti-poaching unit with tracking dogs and thermal surveillance. The Kariega Foundation, a non-profit trust directed by Colin Rushmere’s daughter Lindy Sutherland, channels the R250 per adult per night conservation levy into anti-poaching operations, community feeding programmes reaching over a thousand people monthly, and environmental education for six hundred students each month.

Bush walks with armed rangers cover the valley terrain on foot, restricted to those aged sixteen and older. The Blue Duiker Trail offers a gentler option in the predator-free eastern section, open to all ages. River fishing is available.