curtains are woven by local Zulu women, walls
are made of railroad ties or of sand and clay from
the reserve. Combined with the fact that a dedi-
cated staff is always on hand, the Homestead is
the perfect situation for families on safari.
We rise at 5 the next morning, eager to get into
the bush early, when animals are most active. By
dawn, the air is moist with humidity and the sky
is solid gray—not a great sign, but not enough to
stop us. Our tracker, Benny, sees leopard tracks
alongside the dirt road. We follow them for a
couple of miles through a nagging drizzle, but
the inevitable downpour erases them. Huddled
beneath ponchos, we persist valiantly, but ani-
mals are nowhere in sight.
One thing about Africa: It makes no prom-
ises. The place is so vast and untamed, you have
to be prepared to roll with whatever comes.
I’ve been traveling to the continent since I read
Peter Matthiessen’s The Tree Where Man Was
Born 25 years ago, and my experiences have
yielded everything from elation to raw fear.
I’ve soared in a hot-air balloon as the sun rose
over the red dunes of the Namib Desert. I’ve
watched crocodiles take down wildebeest
crossing the Mara River and lions rip the hide
off buffalos in the wilds of Botswana. I’ve been
charged by a silverback somewhere between
the Congo and Uganda, seen cheetahs circle
my tent in Zimbabwe, and kicked a soccer ball
with giggling children in Malawi.
Each of these moments has underscored
the continent’s extremes—you witness life
and death, beauty and gloom, innocence and
corruption, often in the same day—and made
plain the impermanence of things. Change is
ceaseless everywhere, but here, where there
are fewer worldly distractions, it’s more pro-
nounced. Though it seems counterintuitive,
observing ephemerality—from the circle of life
to habitat loss to cultural degradation—in real
time makes you less fearful.
There are worse things than coming in from
the rain to the comforts of a huge home-cookedClockwise from top
left: Phinda Homestead’s
outdoor dining room
overlooks the pool and
bushveld; high design
meets African tradition;
the pool wall is made of
repurposed railroad ties;
close-up views of wildlife
are the highlight of an
andBeyond safari.