I have just come back for the most amazing place - Quatermain’s Expedition Camp in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Firstly let me say this, when I go to a game lodge my expectations are pretty high. I grew up in Namibia and Etosha National Park was almost in my back yard. During my teens in South Africa I’d take a backpack, a sleeping bag and hike up mountains, cook my food over a fire, drink water from rivers and sleep under the stars.
I would love to get that experience back, but with a little more finesse. This is where Quatermain’s comes in. If you are looking for one of those five star, take-out-a-second-mortgage-on-your-house types of bush experiences, you know the ones where you sleep under a fancy duvet, in an air-conditioned room, with a Jacuzzi in your bathroom then this is not for you.
At Quatermain’s you experience the bush differently. You step back into a romantic time when Africa was wild and free and explorers where just starting to discover its wonderful secrets.
Let me explain. About 45 minutes from Port Elizabeth, there’s a sign that says Quatermain’s and Carnarvon Dale. There’s an unguarded gate. Yes you actually have to get out of your little rental car yourself and pull the chain over the wooden pole and push the gate open - just like on a farm. Then you follow a dirt road, a farm road before you arrive at a farm house. This is where you leave you little car and a big open four wheel drive picks you up. Once you and your bag is safely on the truck you know why you’re leaving your car behind. It is rough terrain, seriously rough, as in grab-onto-the-nearest-pole-or-you’ll-fall-out rough.
At the camp, and yes I can call it a camp. Unlike some places that call themselves camps but they have spas and what not, this is truly a camp. Anyway when you get there you are transformed back to the 1920s. The boma forms the heart of Quatermain’s. There’s a fire pit for cooking, a large table for eating and socialising and chairs scattered about.
Quatermain’s only has three tents which sleep two people each. So at the most there are six guests at a time. The only modern facilities visible are two semi-open showers and two toilets. There’s hot water and you can watch the birds in the trees while you wash your hair.
The tents are a little bit away from the boma and ablution facilities. This is to allow you privacy I suspect. You take a winding path through the bush, a sudden turn and then right before you, your tent and the feeling of old worldliness strengths.
The tents were specially built for Quatermain’s on spec according to the 1900s British military style and the attention to detail is amazing. A canvas water bag hangs at the front with a canvas basin below it - this water is not for drinking but washing your face and hands.
On the deck stands two chairs and a table, again, not just any chairs, these were made according to Queen Victoria’s specifications. When she visited her army during some or other British war, she noticed that her officers were sitting on crates. So she decided right there and then that no officer in the British Army would sit on crates so she had these folding chairs designed. No matter what the terrain they are always stable. Apparently it has something to do with the leather straps and the wooden legs. All I can say is that they were comfortable.
Now I didn’t go to Quatermain’s just for the accommodation, I wanted to see some wildlife. And wildlife I saw. Everything from elephant to cheetah, lions to hippos, buffalo to black rhino, vervet monkeys to a jackal buzzard breeding pair. And nothing was too much work for our ranger, who went out of his way to show us everything.
Another thing that sets Quatermain’s apart from the other lodges in the area is that its guests are allowed onto Shamwari. So you get to see game on Shamwari as well as Amakhala, giving you a double chance to see everything.
During the morning drives you have a coffee and rusk break. Coffee served from traditional tin mugs and Ouma rusks. During the evening drives there are sundowners with wine in metal cups and French cheese. Returning from your evening drive the Boma’s lit up with oil lamps, the fire burns happily in the pit, the real old-fashioned gramophone player plays its war era songs and a glass of sherry awaits you.
I must add that for a place that has no electricity, they certainly make excellent food. The dinners were all done on the open fire in the boma - potjie (a type of stew) or a braai (BBQ). Cooked breakfasts await you after the morning game drives. You put your order in before the drive and when you come back it’s ready for eating.
After dinner you sit around the fire and exchange stories and when it gets time to go to bed you take your oil lantern and walk through the bush to your tent. If you look up into the sky you’ll see the most amazing constellation of stars. The army style metal beds with their military blankets are surprisingly comfortable. When you blow out your lamp and the darkness and silence embrace you, the call of the jackals in the distance awakens your longing for another time, a time when adventure laid around every corner.
