While planning a trip to the Kruger National Park, Jared had caught a glimpse of The Outpost Lodge in a glossy brochure and was instantly spellbound, knowing he had to visit the unique place. Three months later, he arrived; and, despite the pictures having brought him here, he found that they had hardly did the lodge and its surrounds justice.
In the equation of travel, distance often equals reward, and this journey was no exception. Jared had travelled to the ends of the country to find the beginnings of peace.
South Africa’s Kruger National Park is a well-known favourite for both local and international travellers. Most visitors, however, visit the Southern and Central regions of the park and don’t get to travel to the far North. Pafuri is both the northern-most section of the park but also the country, where you’ll find a confluence of countries (here South Africa shares borders with Zimbabwe and Mocambique).
In this section of the Kruger National Park the scenery changes, and to make sense of this one has to remember that the park span an impressive length of over 360 kilometres, covering a size greater than that of Wales.
Travelling north the flatter plains of the South and central sections begin to give way to hills, and later dramatic ravines. Lanner Gorge is one such ravine where elephants and other animals can be safely watched from above. Looking more like swollen ants wandering the river bed tens of meters below.
The landscape also becomes punctuated with Africa’s most legendary trees – the thousands of years old Baobabs. These ancient sentries have witnessed millennia of life unfold before them, with their twisted and gnarled trunks visibly adding to the intrigue. Nearby forests of elegant Fever trees invite you to meander among their yellow-trunked passages.
It is in this beautifully broken up landscape where the twelve strikingly-modern architectural masterpieces that adorn a clifftop, each offering generous vistas afforded by their height and design.
Imagine a space where, almost magically, at the touch of a button, all barriers between you and the wilderness are removed…
In this instance, it’s effortlessly achieved by the touch of a button: the canvased sides lift offering startling views of the ravine below. The result of locale and technology is astounding: an environment where valleys are explored by wild animals and bush guarded by ancient Baobabs take center stage.
In this space, the African sun slowly begins to sink into the distant mountains, weary after a hard day’s toil, but guaranteed to rise again tomorrow to greet a thousand landscapes and a hundredfold more people who call the continent home.
