I can’t imagine it’s easy to name a lodge. Your first 10 ideas will inevitably be taken. Probably your next 10 too. So when you’re throwing out monikers and perfection lands before your eyes, how could you possibly say no? This is ranger Bradley Rinsma’s origin story for the Tintswalo group’s newest property in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. As this former private home was being converted to an exclusive-use luxury villa, the partners were brainstorming names on the building site one day, when one spotted a scops owl on a branch overhead.
This was serendipitous because African scops owls, though not rare – they are listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN – are hard to spot. At around 16cm tall and weighing just 65g, they are the smallest owl in Southern Africa, and spend their days sitting still against tree trunks, impeccably camouflaged by their mottled brown feathers. And so Tintswalo Scops Rest was born.
With their enigmatic eyes and delicate plumage, they are a perfect namesake for the villa, which has its own hypnotic, luxurious air. Opened in September, its four en-suite bedrooms sleep groups of up to eight, who also get a chef, a tracker and ranger for twice-daily game drives (or walks) and full-board hospitality.
There are indoor and outdoor spaces for lounging and dining; a small gym; and a spa-treatment room (therapists pre-booked, at extra cost). The swimming pool looks over the bush, with 180-degree views and a clear line to the horizon. A telescope on the paving can settle a friendly argument – yes, that faraway rock is an elephant.
The villa is also quite the expert at blending in. In the southern part of the Klaserie, Scops is one of only two properties in the area. It has 10,000ha of traversing rights, including 18km along the Klaserie River and 3,000ha of exclusive river frontage. The 60,000ha reserve also shares unfenced boundaries with both the Kruger National Park and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Added up, that puts you and your circle in a world of animals wandering at will, with hardly any other humans. That the villa sits above one of the Klaserie’s largest dams ups the odds that you won’t have to go far for the game.
They certainly show up on our drives with Rinsma and tracker Like Gumede. Just two minutes out of the gate on the first afternoon, there is a lone elephant contemplating a puddle. Minutes later at the dam, we find a nyala nose-deep in a bush. His posterior hovers just centimetres from the water’s edge and – just a little further on – there is a suspicious bump on the water: a crocodile lurking with an anticipatory grin.
Rinsma narrates with infectious awe.
“If he decides he’s thirsty now, he’s a goner,” he says. But the buck, in a stroke of luck, obeys an impulse to cross the road instead.
We needn’t pity the croc, Rinsma continues. He is a patient predator, who can go up to two hours holding his breath underwater and up to eight months without food.
Later, as we watch eight lions loitering in the dust, he says their legendary “laziness” is actually strategy: hunting burns huge amounts of energy, so they rest for up to 20 hours a day and can go nearly two weeks without food.
A pair of giraffes offer another teaching moment, this time on identifying the sexes: look at their horns (proper name “ossicones”). Males have a bald patch; females have a lick of hair, like the tip of a paintbrush.
Rinsma has many more Attenborough moments on that first drive, but his final touch as we head home in the dark is a moment of quiet wonder. He stops the car on a bridge over a small body of water, cuts the engine and the lights. Sounds, smells and sensations take the floor. Then a surprise light — just a pinprick — flicks on in the grass. Then there is another. Then twenty. Then fifty. Fireflies. Sitting quietly watching their delicate dance is a game-drive first for me, and undeniably magic.
DETAIL THERAPY
It’s this kind of gentle, thoughtful surprise that really sets Scops Rest apart. If you cut the engine and listen, you’ll see that what it really rests on is details. It’s in the easy attentiveness of the staff, who call everyone by name and remember everyone’s preferred cocktail. It’s in the design – the seamless sweeps from indoors to out – and the décor, which design house ChicShack calls a “study in contrasts” where “every finish and flourish has been picked with intention”.
The same ethos runs through the food, from the imported cheeses and still-warm breads at breakfast to the multi-course, elegant dinners with our pick of wines from the ample cellar. But the detail that floors me comes at bedtime, when I find a “telegram” on my pillow, a sepia postcard printed with a photo of us – taken that day on our game-drive break for champagne and oysters in a treehouse (see box) – paired with a few lines about the very things we’d seen. It’s a wonderful, personalised keepsake.
The peak surprise, though, could never have been scripted. It comes at the end of the very last game drive as we head home. In the dark again, Gumede is doing his trick of finding things few of us could do in broad daylight. It’s the very last bend in the road. The welcome-back drinks must surely be poured, the warm towels steaming in their basket. But we halt again. “A scops owl,” Gumede beams and swings his torch up into a tree.
“No way!” is our collective whisper.
It’s not the best angle. The owl is high up and facing away from the road, so only its rear is visible. At least, so says Rinsma. He adds that the scops call is distinctive, a one-note ‘prrrup’ repeated roughly every eight seconds. We squint. We listen. And there it is. For every prrrp, a bit of bark waggles to prove it’s actually a bum. We are thrilled. It might be more of a “hearing” than a sighting of our newly acquired favourite owl, but it’s just right for this place that specialises in small, perfect things.
PLAN YOUR TRIP:
GETTING THERE: Tintswalo Scops Rest is in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, Limpopo. It’s a 20-minute drive from Hoedspruit’s Eastgate Airport. By road, it’s roughly six hours from Johannesburg.
ACCOMMODATION: The villa sleeps eight in four en-suite double bedrooms. There is also an interleading children’s room (two single beds) off the main suite, available on request. For an even more immersive bush experience, guests can spend a night in one of two treehouses away from the main house. One overlooks a dam, the other is in a forest. Available as an add-on for one couple at a time.
OPENING SPECIAL: R100,000 per night includes accommodation for up to eight, all meals and house drinks, two safari activities per day and laundry. Valid for travel from now until December 31 (minimum two-night booking). Excludes daily reserve entry fee and conservation levy. Ts and Cs apply.
CONTACT: For more, visit their website.
• Sleith was a guest of Tintswalo Scops Rest.
