Sabi Sand - Elephant Plains Game Lodge - Arnoud Quanjer Wildlifephotography

Sabi Sand - Elephant Plains Game Lodge

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 21:40 |

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Elephant Plains road sign Elephant Plains is situated in the 65, 000 hectare Sabi Sand Wildtuin, which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park, a huge 2.2 million hectare area where animals roam freely with no fences. The Sabi Sand Wildtuin was set up in the 1950's by a group of private landowners who dropped the fences between their properties in order to create a larger area for the animals to traverse. The reserve is named after its two main rivers, the Sabi and Sand rivers which both flow to the south of Elephant Plains. The property of Elephant Plains has been in the family since 1962, but has only been run as a commercial lodge since 1998. It is owned by Dr. Etienne and Margie Swart (Witpoort Familie Trust), and managed by their son, Etienne.

The lodge is situated on the bank of the Manyeleti, a perennial river that only flows in years of particularly high rainfall. We traverse an area of over 4500 ha that encompasses clay-based plains, broad-leafed, hilly woodland interspersed with dolerite ridges and mature riverine habitats, creating a fantastic biodiversity of flora and fauna. Here you can see Africa's Big Five, as well as other more rare predators such as the cheetah and wild dog. We have a wide variety of birds, reptiles and mammals.

Brief history

The Steyn family used to own the Seville property, a large farm just outside of Utah on the way to the Orpen Road. In the early sixties this land was reclaimed by the government, along with many other neighbouring properties and became trust land. This reclamation of properties led to the creation of the government owned - Manyeleti Game Reserve - just to the north of the Sabi Sand Wildtuin. Koot Steyn, his son, Dries Steyn and a third partner Jannie Wilkens then bought the farm of Arethusa from a Mr Tresford in 1962. At that time the only buildings on the property were the old main building and two rondawels, rooms 2 & 3.
The original camp was then built and used as a holiday place for friends and family.

The infamous Harry Kirkman became warden of the Sabi Sand Wildtuin in 1958 and was then a frequent visitor at Elephant Plains. After captivating friends with his incredible bushveld stories around the fire, he would always sleep on the stoep of room number two, despite a ready-made bed indoors.Animal distributions and habitats change over the years, in the 60's and 70's buffaloes were a rarity and leopards hardly ever seen. Scarcer antelope species such as tsessebe could be found and large herds of zebra; even pangolins were a common sight. In the drought of 1983 large herds of impala (numbering some 200-400 animals) and wildebeest were seen, although many later perished. During the extreme floods of 2000, the Manyeleti River burst its banks and the plains in front of camp were flooded, no one could get in or out of camp for the month of February.

Koot Steyn passed on and the northern section of the property was sold to the then German Ambassador for South Africa, Mr Jackel, it has since been re-sold. Jannie Wilkens' southern section of the property was sold to Mr Abrahams; the farm is now owned by his daughters, this is the private camp one can see from the original pool deck. Dries Steyn divided his property in half and in 1994 Elephant Plains was inherited by the Witpoort Familie Trust.

The first luxury chalets began construction in Oct 2002 and opened just before Christmas 2002. The new main lodge and another three chalets started construction in Jan 2003 and on the 17th July 2003 we moved into the new lodge.

Dr Etienne and Margie Swart are the current owners of Elephant Plains; they live in Bothaville in the Free State but often make the long journey to the lodge. Their active interest and constant support has built the lodge you are staying in today. Their son Etienne spent much of his youth on the farm and has worked with the lodge since its conception, initially as a ranger but as a successful manager from 1998.

See http://www.elephantplains.co.za/ for more information on Elephant Plains game lodge

Lodge photo gallery

Last Updated (Wednesday, 10 March 2010 21:56)

Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography