Karoo Lodge at Samara

The three Karoo Suites are standalone cottages consisting of a luxurious en-suite bedroom with a living area and includes both a fireplace and air-conditioning to help maintain a comfortable climate. The bathroom features twin basins, a large bathtub and a walk-in shower, with an additional shower outside. Lie back on your plush four-poster bed and enjoy incredible landscape views through the surrounding windows which provide plenty of light and a pleasant airflow.

Outside, guests can enjoy spending time on their private covered patios, scanning the horizon for passing wildlife. This pleasant shady area is the perfect spot for enjoying a hot drink while admiring a gorgeous African sunrise.

The Karoo Suites are set a short distance from the main Karoo Lodge, providing easy access to communal facilities, and two extra beds for children can be accommodated in these suites, making them ideal for families with younger children.

Each of the spacious Lodge Suites is situated within the main Karoo Lodge and opens onto the building’s wide wraparound verandah where guests can sit and relax while swapping exciting safari stories and admiring the stunning landscape. The rooms all feature king-size four-poster beds fitted with soft linen and plush pillows.

One extra bed for a child can be accommodated in the Lodge Suites suites. The elegant furnishings create a stylish yet relaxing space where guests can unwind between thrilling safari activities. The en-suite bathrooms feature a large freestanding bathtub and a walk-in shower.

The Sibella Suites after Samara’s famous cheetah who became a world-famous ambassadress for cheetah conservation. Both of the suites are just a short walk from the main homestead, overlooking a waterhole where birds and wildlife gather to quench their thirst.

The Sibella suites are ideal for families, with interleading rooms that mean parents and children can enjoy their own space without being separated. Both of the suites feature en-suite bathrooms with their own showers. The master bedroom has a king-size four-poster bed, and the second bedroom has two twins.

Both rooms lead out to a shared deck where families or groups can enjoy watching glorious sunsets together while the silhouette of towering giraffes stretch along the plains.

Meals are prepared in the Karoo Kitchen by their professionally trained chefs, who utilise their own style of traditional South African cuisine, creating lovingly-prepared food of a high standard from the freshest produce available. Guests can expect to enjoy three mouthwatering meals each day, and can choose between dining indoors, out on the lawn, or in the warm boma under a sky filled with stars.

Meals times are flexible with a breakfast buffet and hot food cooked to order from around 9.30 am following the early morning game drive. Lunch is served around 1 pm, and dinner from 7 pm onwards.

Family-owned and family-run, Samara runs a number of fun and inclusive activities for younger explorers, which are designed to educate children about the importance of conservation and the fascinating wildlife of South Africa. The Samara Kids Programme is perfect for children and young teenagers.

Karoo Lodge’s qualified staff will take children on a range of activities that allow them to learn more about the amazing natural world with supervision while parents enjoy thrilling game drives and other activities away from the lodge. Children can look forward to bush walks, rock painting in the style of the San people, African crafts, orienteering and navigating, storytelling, and camping.

Private vehicles to accommodate younger children can be arranged on request, and shorter ‘bumble’ game drives can be arranged during the middle of the day when other guests are not on drives.

Enjoy a magical night under the stars on a four-poster bed in a remote location with just your significant other. Samara’s raised tented platform on the Milk River allows guests to gaze up at the dazzling Milky Way, using star books to help you spot each different constellation of the southern hemisphere. In the morning, guests can rise to the gentle sounds of birdsong, surrounded by stunning wilderness views against the beautiful backdrops of the mountains.

The Milky Way Star Bed experience must be pre-booked in advance and is dependent on weather conditions.

Enjoy the unique experience of tracking wild cheetahs on foot. Several of the cheetahs at Samara Private Game Reserve have radio collars, meaning that they can be tracked. This means that guests can travel directly to the habituated cheetahs and view them up close. The cheetahs enjoy the diverse landscape at Samara, where they can hunt in the dense thicket and lounge on the rocky mountain slopes – an ideal spot for giving birth to cubs.

With a trained guide, guests can follow scratch marks and tracks that will lead to an unforgettable experience.

Enjoy amazing game drives and explore the diverse setting of the Samara Private Game Reserve, where guests can look out for incredible animals including the Big 5, giraffes, zebras, elands, meerkats and cheetahs. Samara is also home to an abundance of birdlife, and bird watchers can enjoy searching for the black eagle, kori bustard and endangered blue cranes while listening to the gentle melodies of the 220 different bird varieties.

The professional guides will be able to take you to the best spots for watching game in the 27,000-hectare reserve. Learn fascinating facts about the African bush and its occupants while admiring the astonishing landscape which displays 4 distinct biomes.

Journey across the verdant plains on foot and enjoy a leisurely exploration of the incredible landscape at a slowed pace where every detail, track, plant and insect can be admired. Look out for the smaller species that often go unnoticed during drives, and listen to the gentle songs of birds without the distracting noise of an engine.

At Samara Private Game Reserve, the experienced guides can walk you through the four vegetation biomes, pointing out animal tracks and various clues that can lead to exciting game viewing. Nature walks force you to utilise your senses and natural instincts as our prehistoric ancestors did long ago.

Enjoy a delicious meal in the wilderness in the shade of the woodlands or under a starry sky and admire the incredible surrounding natural beauty Samara has to offer. Devour a mouthwatering gourmet picnic in a location of your choice while the sounds of the local wildlife echo from all around.

Tracker Academy is a training division of the SA College for Tourism which is hosted at Samara. The academy offers a one-year course designed to educate South African naturalists.

‘Samara makes its land available free of charge to the Tracker Academy for all its semi-­arid practical training sessions and as part of its charitable donation to the Academy, also provides lecturing facilities and accommodation for the trainees – 8 at any one time.’

The course educates students in conservation awareness, tracking skills, like skills, literacy and health. This course is also designed to empower young people, giving them more confidence and the tools needed to find employment within the conservation sector. ‘Since the course’s inception, 93% of tracker graduates have gone on to find full-time employment.’

The Vuyani Safe Haven is a safe shelter for orphaned, abused and neglected children who have been removed from their parents by social services. Situated in Samara’s nearest main town, Graaff-Reinet, Samara has been working with the shelter by sending volunteers through the Conservation Volunteer Programme. The volunteers help with a number of projects including construction, maintaining vegetable gardens, and playing with the children.

‘Several times a year, we organize environmental education day-trips to Samara. We also fundraise for school fees and special-needs care. The highlight of the year is undoubtedly the Vuyani Safe Haven Christmas Party, held at Samara in early December. We encourage guests, volunteers and friends to donate toys, books and games so that the Vuyani orphans might experience a Christmas of love, hope, and presents.’

Samara supports Elephants Rhinos People (ERP), a non-governmental organisation which aims to empower rural African communities in order to prevent human-wildlife conflict between humans and elephants and rhinos. By helping local people to find alternative sources of income and peaceful methods of protecting their crops from animals that could trample them, ERP is helping to mitigate threats posed to elephants and rhinos from retaliating farmers.

ERP and Samara worked together during Samara’s elephant reintroduction, ‘helping to return elephants to the Plains of Camdeboo, 150 years after they were last seen. ERP also sponsors the satellite collar fitted on the elephant matriarch. This allows the dedicated elephant researcher to monitor the herd’s use of the landscape, feeding habits and to keep them safe.’

Samara has been working to ‘develop its potential as a site of learning and discovery’ and partnered with a number of universities from a number of countries, receiving Masters, PhD, post-­doc students and their professors where they can conduct ‘original and often groundbreaking research’ on the environment, wildlife and history of the land.

These studies have focused on a range of topics including the drinking habits of aardvark, nutrient dispersal by African megafauna, social adaptations of Vervet monkeys, attitudes towards fracking in the Karoo, and cultural meanings of wilderness in the Great Karoo; and has allowed Samara to work with students and professors from a number of institutions including Nelson Mandela University, the University of Cambridge, The University of Oxford and Northern Arizona University.

Samara has been working with university departments and other conservation bodies to help protect cheetahs, which are highly endangered. In 2011, the Endangered Wildlife Trust launched The Cheetah Metapopulation Project in order to protect cheetahs living within small fenced reserves and help them to live long and healthy lives, as well as protecting future generations through ‘genetic and demographic integrity of the South African cheetah population by managing them within a sound ecological framework.’

In order to prevent inbreeding, the cheetahs are occasionally swapped with cheetahs from other reserves, widening the gene pool and preventing diseases that could affect multiple generations.

Spekbooms are small-leaved succulents which are endemic to dry areas. These plants are effective in their role of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gases and helping to slow the effects of climate change. ‘Spekboom sequesters approximately 10 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year, stored both above and below the ground.’

Samara’s spekboom restoration scheme is working to plant 105 hectares of spekboom, ‘with 6 hectares planted thus far at a density of 2,500 cuttings per hectare.’ This scheme intends to reduce the amount of carbon stored in the Earth as well as restore natural areas and provide jobs for members of the local community.