Tribeca 63

L I KE A ROL L I NG S TONE

EARTH LODGE

A L I ON SL I NKS PAST THE FEET OF JACK THE TRACKER . I ’M S I TT I NG I N THE BACK OF THE SAFAR I VEH I CLE WI TH MY HEART I N MY MOUTH . JACK ’ S AT THE VERY FRONT. HE ’ S RA I SED ABOVE THE VEH I CLE I N A CHA I R ATTACHED TO THE HOOD AND I S ABSOLUTELY ST I L L . NOT EVEN H I S GAZE SH I FTS . UNT I L , SLOWLY, THE L I ON MOVES AWAY. I LET OUT A BREATH I N REL I EF. JACK REMA I NS COMPOSED . S A B I S A B I : A J O U R N E Y S O U T H A F R I C A

I ’m in Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve on the edge of Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa, on my second safari of the day—two open vehicle safaris (morning and evening) and one midday walking safari are included in rates. With no fence between the reserve and Kruger, animals roam freely, often under my group’s very noses, compelling Kevan, our ranger at the wheel, to brake often. At each stop, the shutters of our cameras whir and chatter, slicing through the stillness of the bush. But Jack, always, sits quietly. I have come to envy him a little: this is his world, he doesn’t need to grasp each animal sighting as if it might be his last. Jack grew up in the area and is out in the bush every day. He’s worked at Sabi Sabi for 12 years and the animals have become part of his body. In his head, yes, as proved by his abundance of knowledge, but also in the subtle movements of his chin, or his fingers — two in the air to tell Kevan to stop, one to point. He stuffs his hands in his pockets when he gets down off his perch and strolls along the dirt road, eyes turned

to follow the tracks of an as-yet-unnamed (at least to the rest of us) animal. A rifle rides along with us in the jeep under the watchful eye of Kevan, but even on these solitary strolls—on which Jack occasionally, heart stoppingly, slips out of view—I’ve never seen Kevan touch it. Trackers like Jack are, the often unsung, lifeblood of a Sabi Sabi safari experience. Their extraordinary intuition and knowledge of the bush comes from growing up in the Shangaan villages that surround the reserve. Around eighty percent of Sabi Sabi’s employees come from the reserve’s surrounding villages and find roles at the reserve not only out in the bush, but in everything from bartending to managing the lodges—there are eight members of a single family working here. That’s just one illustration of how Sabi Sabi places community at the heart of its operation. Another is its focus on community development. Sabi Sabi is closely involved with a local organization named Swa Vana (which means “For the Children” in the local Tsonga language), which provides support to the many vulnerable children and orphans in the

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