Beauty and sense of solitude and space which only the plains and mountains of the Karoo can offer

Tracker Kevin Simon, on the “jump seat” at the front of the game drive vehicle, is waving the antenna back and forth trying to get a bearing on an elusive female cheetah who wears a collar tracking device.

But it is an ancient bush indicator which grabs the attention of guide Roelof Wiesner as he scans the bush on the edge of the southern plain of the Samara Game Reserve.

He’s looking at a giraffe – with long neck and amazing eyesight, it’s a much better antenna – it can pick up something out of the ordinary where we humans notice nothing.

The giraffe, one of the most curious creatures on the Eastern Cape reserve, is not looking at us; it is focused on a patch of small bushes and grass close to an open area. But it’s not our target cheetah, as Roelof soon points out – it’s a young lioness, almost completely hidden in the foliage.

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A close encounter with the cheetah family

“In the bush, you need to look at the reactions of other animals, because they might tell you where to find what you’re looking for,” says Roelof.

But the star of today’s drive – a three-year-old female cheetah introduced to the reserve from elsewhere – is soon found, along with her litter of five cubs, all born at Samara.

They’re having brunch, which appears to be a luckless Springbok. Bellies full, it’s soon time to act the fool, as youngsters everywhere do.

Momma, though, keeps a wary watch. She knows there’s a lion around and even though she and her brood could all easily outrun the supposed king of the jungle, it’s not something any mother would be keen on.

Unusually, we get to watch this close up, from a distance of less than 20 metres, having walked in from the vehicle about 300 metres away. “It’s amazing how habituated they are to us.

They don’t see us as a threat and nor does our presence change their behaviour. Obviously, we have to be careful about getting into their person space,” says Roelof.

Walking with the cheetahs is just one of the special experiences on offer at Samara, a 27 000 hectare reserve situated in and around the mountains outside Graaff Reinet.

Restoring the wild

You’d not normally think of the Eastern Cape as home to the Big Five – and this part wasn’t until 1997 when Sarah and Mark Tompkins fell in love with it on a visit from the UK.

Sarah (who is a South African) and Mark then decided to change history and effectively turn back time by rehabilitating the area – which had been devastated environmentally by the effect of commercial farming.

Animals like goats, sheep and cattle turned large parts of the province into semi-desert. They bought up farms and set about turning back the clock.

Just driving around Samara, you can see two things plainly: The amazing capacity of African flora to recover from the depredations of humankind and the immense effort put in by the Tompkins and their teams over the years.

On erosion-ravaged plains, Wiesner points out where thousands of small depressions have been dug in the soil – these collect runoff water when it rains and provide a nursery for plants whose seeds get washed in there.

Each is covered with a spiky branch of soetdoring (Acacia Karoo), the dominant tree in this wild place.

In other places, a similar project – which utilised people from the neighbouring town of Pearston, which is wracked by unemployment – saw thousands of spekboom plants being established.

These hardy green succulents are, kilogram for kilogram, the world’s best “carbon sink” because they absorb so much carbon dioxide.

In addition, they help bind the soil and provide nutrition for the animals.

The battle for conservation

When Sarah and Mark embarked on their journey, there was very little in the way of wildlife on the properties they bought – a tragedy, because this area once teemed with herds of zebra and wildebeest tens of thousands strong, as well as predators like lion and leopard.

Roelof says there was some scepticism when elephant were introduced to Samara, because “some said they never existed here naturally”.

But there are historical records proving that the giants did wander all of Africa before humans interfered.

Samara has nine elephant and they roam all over the reserve, from the level plains below to the steep rocky crags of the mountains above.

It’s difficult to see a massive animal like that clambering up the slopes, but Roelof confirms it is commonplace and yet another fascinating side to Samara. Another facet of the reserves in this area is the diversity in landscapes they offer.

As the re-wilding projects continue, the bush is getting thicker. Researchers keep a careful eye on the impact of elephant because, the theory goes, they can be very destructive to bush habitats.

Roelof, though, leaps to their defence: “A lot of people misunderstand the impact they have.

“They do push over trees and in that sense, they are destructive, but in an area like this, that destruction opens up places for other plants to come in and thrive,” he says.

Another resident of the mountains and the plains of the Camdeboo which gets a tough rap is the acacia karoo tree, he says.

They do colonise and dominate areas, says Roelof, but they are also nutrient rich plants which deposit these nutrients back into the soil, providing food for other plants and animals.

That sort of detail is what you get from the guides in Samara, because everyone involved in the reserve realises that their guests are not the sort of “get me the Big Five in 24 hours!” type.

They are people who want to immerse themselves in a good news conservation story – and many guests not only return, but they donate to the projects on the reserve and in the surrounding communities.

Of course, you get the stunning beauty and sense of solitude and space which only the plains and mountains of the Karoo can give you.

As the wind whips up one afternoon, we head up a mountaingoat type 4×4 track to the plateau at the top of the mountain – and feel as though we have entered an entirely different country.

Here it is much cooler than the camp below, there is long waving plains grass and an abundance of plains animals, from black wildebeest to the still endangered by fight back Cape Mountain Zebra.

This is smaller than the “normal” Burchell’s zebra, has a white belly and its stripes are much close together. My wife knows that – I apparently wasn’t paying enough attention on other trips to this area over the years.

Roelof becomes animated and passionate about a grand plan to link up the wild reserves of the Eastern Cape by dropping fences between them and providing “wildlife corridors” so game can migrate freely like it used to.

Samara and the entire Karoo community are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the area from being turned over to oil fracking. It will destroy one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse regions on earth.

Everyone who visits Samara goes away an anti-fracking evangelist. As you’d expect from a five-star lodge, the accommodation – in the “Karoo Suites” (individual twoperson or family units) or The Manor (a luxurious four-bedroom house aimed at groups or multigenerational family visitors) – is superb.

The tone is just right – classy and not shouty and avoiding the decorative “arms race” taking place in some game lodges.

Food is excellent and the staff are friendly and efficient. As we sit enjoying sundowners on the plateau, the chilly wind does not at all mar the sight of the majestic Sneeuberge in the distance, I realise this view must have been unchanged for thousands of years. May it be undisturbed for many more years to come.

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