This Garden Route game reserve has adopted a different approach to pleasing visitors.
Nestling in a verdant valley behind the sleepy village of Wittedrift near Plettenberg Bay is a pretty little private game reserve with a difference. It’s called Buffalo Hills, but it’s a paradoxical name if ever there was one because Buffalo Hills doesn’t have any buffalo. However there’s a very good reason for this.
“We decided to switch the emphasis from a Big Five game reserve to one which would allow guests to explore the place safely on foot, horseback and mountain bike,” explains Maria Kinahan, one of the owners. “That meant we had to choose between keeping our rhino and buffalo or getting rid of them to avoid the risk of visitors getting squashed or trampled. As both species can take a dislike to folk on foot or mountain bikes, we decided, reluctantly, to relocate them.
“There are no lions or elephants at Buffalo Hills either, but there are still plenty of other game gambolling around on its grassy pastures, such as giraffe, eland, impala, zebra, wildebeest and even the rare and pretty bontebok. None of these are potentially hazardous though, so guests are now free to explore the place on foot, horseback or bike.
Maria has lived at Buffalo Hills for nine years now and seen the place go from concept to game park to outdoor activity centre and, oddly enough, a licensed mampoer producer too. “It all started with a conversation between my husband Tony and a close family friend, Jack Mudd,” Maria told me as we sat sipping one of the mampoer distillery’s strawberry liquors on the stoep of her lovely little farm house. “Jack already owned a game farm up in the Hoedspruit area but he longed to live closer to the coast on the Garden Route. He pointed out that there were no private game reserves in the area and we agreed with him that there was a need for one. Tony had a farming background and always liked the idea of one day owning a game reserve, so we began searching for available land.”
Tony and Maria eventually discovered two neighbouring properties near Wittedrift which they bought together with Jack. Then they set about turning them into a simulacrum of the African wilds. The first animals we brought in were buffalo,” Maria told me as we watched a giraffe strolling past the front lawn,”and then we got two rhino.”
Originally from Cape Town, Maria wasn’t really used to looking after rhinoceroses and she found them more than a tad ominous. But by and by she became accustomed to the oversized ungulates ambling through her garden. And besides, Jack and her husband had trained her well in the subtle art of false bravado. “Don’t show them any fear, they told me,” said Maria, ” and always walk slowly with a straight back. Whatever you do, never turn and run.”
Obviously this was good advice because Maria is still with us today, despite having had to run (sorry, walk) a gauntlet of horns and hooves every time she needed to get into her car to go shopping in Plettenberg Bay. “We didn’t have an electric fence around the buildings then,” she continued, “and the buffalo would sometimes try to get into the house, but nothing bad ever came of it.”
She then told me about their big buffalo bull, which found its way into one of the luxury safari tents one winter’s night. “We found it in the morning on the bed, which of course was broken. Luckily there weren’t any guests in there.”
“When we opened the trailer doors to let out our newly arrived kudu, they bolted into the hills, jumped the fences and were never seen again. Our hartebeest did the same. That was a very expensive lesson, I can tell you.” Eventually, though, they got to where they wanted to be.
“We are now trying to move people away from the universal obsession with the Big Five and get them to enjoy nature on a more holistic level. To really take time to relax and enjoy the smaller things on offer Buffalo Hills is a lovely place to go walking, running, riding or cycling.”
That night I stayed in Maria and Tony’s lovely stone guest cottage and enjoyed a scrumptious meal in the boma, before getting up bright and early for a walk with their excellent guide, Jacque ‘of the bushveld’. Jacque showed me all sorts of fascinating and fantastic things that I might otherwise have overlooked, such as tame scorpions, unusual freshwater crabs, pretty nephila spiders, dragonfly larvae and lions… ant lions, that is, the tiny insects that lie in wait for unfortunate ants which blunder into their cunningly crafted pitfall traps.
“Did you know that, contrary to common belief, the giraffe does have more bones in its neck than a human?” said Jacque. “They also have 18-inch tongues,” he added as the giraffe we were watching stuck out its tongue for all to see. Jacque then taught me all about the fascinating lives of fig wasps (they are born, get married, raise kids and die – all without leaving the inside of a fig), and we watched in awe as a boomslang chased a terrified lizard around and around a tree. All in all it was thoroughly enjoyable experience and proof that you don’t need lions, elephants, buffalo or rhino to have an exciting time in a game reserve.
At the end of my tour I was taken to the reserve’s Nyati JJJ Mampoer distillery, a shed-like building where Buffalo Hills produces a whole range of novelty liquors distilled from freshly squeezed orange juice. There are chilli and apricot flavours, blueberry and citrus blends, a range of shooters and a special hardcore ‘rocket fuel’ variety which is 80% proof. I tried it and my tongue went instantly numb and flopped out of my mouth, just as the giraffe’s had done. I guess it had been drinking the mampoer too.
“Our manager worked out how to make this stuff by consulting The American Guide to Becoming a Hillbilly, an excellent book if ever there was one,” said Maria.
I sipped at another ‘blend’ which had a picture of a buffalo with bulging eyes on the front and its effect on my throat and taste buds was memorable indeed. “That one has chilli in it, ” said Maria as steam shot out of my ears, “and is not for the fainthearted.” She added that they sold the products of the distillery to their guests as well as tourism outlets throughout South Africa “and people are just lapping them up”.
Buffalo Hills really is quite a unique place – a game reserve and a hiking, biking and riding destination with great food, a variety of accommodation options and some seriously strong drink on offer.
What’s even better; though, is that it’s on the Garden Route, which allows Maria to put together packages for her guests that include anything from high octane bungee jumping to tranquil boat cruises on Knysna Lagoon.
The only thing missing at Buffalo Hills are the buffalo, but then again, with so much else to do, who needs them anyway?
An update to this article in June 2014. Buffalo Hills is now under new management and the phone number is 044 535 0000
Text and Pictures by Dale Morris. This article was taken from the May 2010 edition of Country Life magazine.
| More info on the town of Plettenberg Bay | More info on the Garden Route area |
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