The Homestead at &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve has been listed as one of the Robb Report’s 20 Super Suites — a prestigious list that names the Top Villas at the World’s Premier Resorts.

The Homestead is celebrated for its “private ranger and safari vehicle [that] are available around the clock, allowing [guests] to eschew the pack-it-all-in mentality of some safaris and instead pursue a more personal — and productive — game-viewing experience.”

For over 30 years, Robb Report has served as the definitive authority on connoisseurship for ultra-affluent consumers and showcases the products and services available from the most prestigious luxury brands around the globe.

The invitations to celebrate Phinda’s 20th birthday, were sent to our founders … a handful of people who are no longer involved in the daily operation of Phinda Private Game Reserve. None of the invitees have much contact with Phinda these days, and in fact, they live lives far removed from this incredible game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. Some of them live in Johannesburg, some in Durban or Pietermaritzburg and some as far flung as the United Kingdom.
However, despite their feint-association (in today’s times) with Phinda, the invitees were asked to gather together for a very special 20th birthday event which celebrates the historical and ground-breaking beginnings of &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve, which was established in early 1990.

Trevor Coppen, Kevin Leo Smith, John Raw, Karl Rosenberg, Jane (Conyngham) Edge, Howard Geach, Alan Bernstein as well as Dave and Shan Varty were amongst the invited guests.
These individuals were the pioneers and visionaries who dreamed of a game reserve situated in Northern Zululand, where conservation, tourism and community involvement would drive the success of their dream.
They poured over maps, raised funds, negotiated the sale of old farmlands with local farmers, involved local community leaders in their plans, envisioned luxury lodges which would attract foreign tourists, tore down old fencing and previous farming infrastructure, built game drive roads, reintroduced wildlife species and diversity to the area, established two beautiful lodges and provided employment to previously disadvantaged communities in the area.

Despite the odds which were stacked against them – and there were plenty – this formidable team of pioneers allowed little to stand in their way. Their determination to pursue the dream of conservation, drove them to create an amazing reserve which is currently recognized as a global leader in sustainable responsible tourism and community empowerment.

The gathering at &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve was a celebration of Phinda’s progress, but also an opportunity to honour the founders who envisioned and initiated the birth of this reserve.
The team of pioneers created a sound conservation model which is still used as a yard-stick at each of the &Beyond lodges. “Care of the land, Care of the wildlife, Care of the people” ensures that we do not lose sight of our purpose and commitment to making a difference.
We salute you for your passion, determination and vision which has created the Phinda that we love.

What an incredible act to observe in nature!
During the month of November, many visitors to &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve were rewarded with exceptional views of lions mating.
Distributed across Tshabalala Road – Main Road – Old Sodwana Bay Road and Bumbeni Flats area , the brown-eyed male and blue-eyed male have been mating with the young Fagolweni female.
Her period of oestrus lasts between 4 – 16 days, during which she will copulate numerous times with a variety of available males.

Our &Beyond Phinda rangers observed interesting behaviour between two males who took turns to mate with a young female lioness in oestrus.
The “brown-eyed male” was first on the scene and mated repeatedly with the “Fagolweni Female”. A few days later, the “blue-eyed male” arrived on the scene, challenged the “brown eyed male” – who put up little resistance - and moved aside to allow the new-comer to mate with the female.
Once the new-comer had mated himself to a point exhaustion and was forced to retreat in search of food, the “brown-eyed male” resumed his mating behaviour.
The two male lions are closely related in that they share the same father, with different mothers. Both males have reached the reproductive age of between 3 - 4 years of age.

Feline copulation usually takes less than a minute and most matings are over in under twenty seconds. However, regardless of duration, mating occurs with astonishing frequency over a period of 7-10 days.
(George Schaller observed a male lion mate with two lionesses 157 times in 55 hours)
During the mating period, the male and female will leave the pride and mate repeatedly.

Although both the male and the female are capable of initiating copulation, the process usually begins with the female who teases and flirts (known as lordosis) in front of the male by swaying her flanks and flicking her tail to encourage him in the mating process.
The lioness will then lie down in front of the male, inviting him to mount her. The females are known to gives a gentle purr-like growl to encourage the male to perform.
However her purr is soon replaced with a snarl, flash of sharpened incisors and aggressive growl as the male withdraws.
Towards the end of the copulation period, the male may gently neck-bite the female which is both symbolic and ritual, but not aggressive.

This year’s World Aids Day celebration at &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve was aimed at “giving more” to the children who struggle on a daily basis to make it in this world!

The number of orphaned kids and child-headed households within our local communities is staggering. Most of whom have lost both of their parents to the effects of HIV and AIDS, and who now struggle along without the leadership and love of an adult to guide them.
Elder siblings are left to care of toddlers and babies, whilst they themselves struggle to keep a roof over the family’s heads, run the household, feed the hungry mouths and still try to complete their education at a nearby school.
The situation is desperate!

For this reason &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve elected to throw a fun day for as many orphaned children as possible. We wanted to hold a celebratory party for the children, feed them a healthy and hearty meal and have fun games which the kids could play, allowing them to be carefree and childish for one special day.

The DEV Centre in the Makhasa Community was selected as the ideal venue for the party, and a team of Dev Centre and Phinda staff transformed this community skills development centre into a children’s playground for the fun day. Balloons were blown up and hung from the trees, tents were erected to prepare a suitable meal for the kids, activities were planned and prizes were put aside for the various winners.

A jumping castle provided huge entertainment as the kids jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped…until they couldn’t jump any more.
Fun activities such as “eat the apple off the string” and “who is the strongest” were played with such glee, filling the grounds with shouts of joy, crowds cheering, much giggling and sound laughter from the kids involved.

The celebration was well received and many hearts were touched. Each of the children who attended deserved to shed their worries and responsibilities for just one day, and be kids from start to finish.

The Aids Day initiative was a huge success and every one of the roughly 100 kids left feeling that they had been acknowledged for the hardships which they endure to survive each and every day.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that &Beyond has been awarded the World’s Responsible Tourism Award at the prestigious 2010 World Travel Awards in London. We were also voted Africa’s Leading Responsible Tourism Company and received Africa’s Leading Responsible Tourism Award.

Described by the Wall Street Journal as the ‘Oscars’ of the travel industry, this is a great accolade for our company and a fantastic endorsement of our responsible tourism practices. We are most grateful to everyone who took the time to vote for us, and extremely proud of the great work being done at our lodges. We look forward to continuing to welcome and delight guests with our outstanding local hospitality, luxurious accommodation, interpretive wildlife experiences, unexpected surprises, and so much more.

&Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve has been voted the Best Safari in UK Brides magazine’s annual honeymoon guide of the Top 100 Honeymoon Destinations in the World.

“Swap beaches for the bush at luxe (yet community-conscious) safari outfit &Beyond’s Phinda Private Game Reserve. WOW FACTOR: Watching elephants and other wildlife drink from your private swimming pool.”

There was a time not long ago, when Kwa Zulu Natal ranked as the poor third cousin in the eyes of international travellers in particular. That’s changed in recent years, and if the outcome of the Visa/House & Leisure Best of SA competition is anything to judge our province by, it seems the world has finally awakened to the beauty and diversity of this spectacular region.

Within the walls of the province, there has long existed an intimate collection of hospitality properties known as the Land Of Legends, whose common glue is their celebration of culture, tradition and history, and their outstanding records of social upliftment and environmental preservation. These establishments include Hartford House, Phinda Private Game Reserve, Fordoun Hotel and Spa, the Beverley Hills and Rocktail Beach Camp, and the first three of these recently made the final five in each of their respective categories in the Visa/House & Leisure competition.

Given that the best names in South African hospitality were among the finalists in each category, its not only a wonderful tribute to the Land Of Legends in general and these properties specifically, but it’s a compliment to the depth and diversity of Kwa Zulu Natal’s offerings, that all three were voted national winners by the readers of South Africa’s most popular lifestyle magazine, for the second consecutive year.

Hartford House topped the podium as the nation’s best restaurant in that category, which included the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francaise and Le Colombe at Constantia Uitsig, both of which rank in the World Top Fifty. Some achievement for celebrity chef, Jackie Cameron, and her team, considering the remoteness of their locality, 10kms on the Giants Castle side of Mooi River.


Hardly surprising, for their well established reputation for excellence, was the Phinda’s Homestead Lodge’s top spot in the Best Of SA Lodge category, and here again, we should be mindful that the finalists included Ivory Lodge, Singita Sweni and Makanyane Safari Lodge.

In the Spa category, there were two Kwa Zulu Natal-based properties among the finalists, Fordoun Hotel and Spa and the Karkloof Spa, with the outstanding Nottingham Road-based Fordoun the voter’s favourite for a second time.

While the voting was not confined to South African readers alone, the outcomes were probably as much a statement about the excellence of these Kwa Zulu Natal establishments, as they were for the values South Africans treasure most: excellent quality, great dependability and outstanding value, and the fact that increasingly, modern travellers have originality, authenticity and genuine hospitality at the top of their shopping lists, in the choice of where they eat and where they choose to stay.