Muzi is a man of few words. He spends the better part of his day in the bush in Phinda Private Game Reserve, perched on the tracker’s seat of an open-top Toyota Land Cruiser—a place he has kept warm for the past 12 years as a master tracker for the safari outfitter andBeyond. While out on game drives, nothing seems to faze him—not a leopard, nor cheetah, not even a lioness that brushes by the vehicle so closely the sound of her breath comes off at concert-level decibels. Muzi grew up in this remote corner of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, and from the age of 10 was a cowherd, out from morning until night with the family’s cattle. He is so skilled in deciphering tracks that, as a child, he could recognize the hoofprints of his individual cows.

Muzi and Heather Woollon, a guide for andBeyond, work in tandem. The pair use few words to communicate but rather speak a language of hand signs—so discreet are the movements that you only become aware when they let you in on their connection. Woollon is focused on keeping her safari-goers entertained, as a good guide is the defining difference in the enjoyment, the exhilaration, and certainly the memorability of an African safari.

Soon after apartheid ended, Phinda became one of South Africa’s first private reserves for Big Five—lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo—tourism. The private reserve was created out of land, leased from the Zulu community, that had previously been used for hunting and cattle. Tourism remains the primary funding source for Phinda’s conservation work. Woodland, grassland, wetland, and mountains make up this unique environment, recognized as Africa’s only remaining sand forest and where the andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge is nestled.

This pioneering eco-lodge, built in the early 1990s, has been given an entirely new look by long-time andBeyond collaborator Fox Browne Creative (which has worked on refurbishments of other andBeyond lodges). Phinda Forest Lodge was designed to have minimum impact on the forest. Tucked within a sea of towering Lebombo wattle and torchwood trees, the standalone floor-to-ceiling glass suites are low-lying dark-wood framed houses that bring the forest in. Furnishings and design details include woven rugs, beaded lighting, grasscloth wallpaper, and a wicker-wrapped bathtub in the giant bathroom. Elements of the forest and Zulu culture are woven into the use of materials and the local beadwork. There is even a shaded private deck with a daybed, ideal for an afternoon snooze between the twice-daily game drives: early morning and late afternoon/early evening.

“We work on sunrises and sunsets, not days of the week,” Woollon says as she leads our crew out on our first game drive. (With only 16 suites, including a family suite, the lodge capacity is maximum 34 guests.) Not 30 minutes in, we crash the dinner party of a pair of brother cheetahs feasting on an impala. Game drives at Phinda are close-up encounters with lions, zebras, giraffes, leopards, elephants, buffalo, countless antelope—nyala are endemic to the habitat—and black and white rhinos.

Phinda Forest Lodge was designed to have minimum impact on the forest. Tucked within a sea of towering Lebombo wattle and torchwood trees, the standalone floor-to-ceiling glass suites are low-lying dark-wood framed houses that bring the forest in.

The rhino population in Phinda are dehorned, an initiative that Dale Wepener, andBeyond Phinda conservation manager and warden of the Munywana Conservancy, and his team implemented in 2016. The reason for rhino dehorning is to deter poachers. Many of these poachers are hired locally by international cartels that kill the rhinos and sell their horns to black markets, mostly in Asia, for their completely fabricated medicinal qualities. (Rhino horns are keratin, the same substance as a fingernail, and grow back after being trimmed.)

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Phinda is home to one of the last remaining sand forests. There are tree formations that date back millennia, with branches wrapping and so intertwined the place seems a fantastical Tim Walker world. The uniqueness of the forest and its formation means one can expect to find unique fauna and flora. Phinda is a forest so old, it’s like going back in time.

 

Wepener does note that dehorning “is a solution but not the full solution. Nobody knows what the better idea is,” he confesses. “It’s a necessary evil—otherwise in our generation rhinos will be extinct.” Imagine if one of the iconic Big Five animals were all dead. The statistics Wepener cites are a case in point. In 2023, a state reserve a 40-minute drive from Phinda lost 311 rhinos. The last rhino Phinda lost was in 2019. “The threat is right around us,” he points out. “It’s like being in a cage of great white sharks circling that just haven’t broken through the metal yet. But if they find the gap, they will take it for sure.”

Phinda is home to one of the last remaining sand forests. There are tree formations that date back millennia, with branches wrapping and so intertwined the place seems a fantastical Tim Walker world. The uniqueness of the forest and its formation means one can expect to find unique fauna and flora. Phinda is a forest so old, it’s like going back in time. Woollon reminds us, as we pass through the brush and the shade of the towering giants, “Look out for the small guys too,” sighting Tonga red squirrels and dung beetles. Pops of magnificent colour are thanks to the 400-plus bird species that call the sand forest home.

Back at the lodge, walkways lead through the forest to each suite, the dining area, the spa, panoramic fitness centre, pool with poolside bar, and a colossal bird’s-nest-inspired fire pit to share the day’s events with fellow folk while also keeping tally in a game of “name that constellation.” From bush breakfasts to scenic sunset spots and even a sleep-out in the bush if one so chooses, an adventure at andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge is big-screen fantasy in the everyday. With Muzi leading the game of track and find.

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