A few years ago, one prominent British family did something most people only dream about. They built a home in the South African bushveld and raised their three children there, with impalas wandering over the lawn and monkeys stealing their snacks, instead of neighbours peering over the fence or gossiping about them at the local pub. Years later when they returned to the UK, rather than locking the front door behind them, they opened it to other families.
Visit that home today, and you immediately get the feeling that you’re walking into a house that has actually been lived in, not curated by a designer. An energetic little Jack Russel forms one half of the welcoming committee, his companion a more relaxed black Labrador that seems to blend in with the monochromatic stripes of the zebra rug on the foyer’s floor. Eclectic, signed prints adorn virtually every wall, from the hallway to the bathroom, juxtaposing, but also somehow sitting in complete harmony with, the traditional African curios that are dotted around. You can almost hear the laughter from past family dinners ringing out, or see the muddy boots that once must have littered the now spotless steps.
Because long before Jembisa welcomed paying guests, this was exactly what it was: a bush home.
A house in the bush
But let’s be honest, most of us aren’t about to move away from the city to a house in middle-of-nowhere South Africa on a rural dirt road, an hour from the nearest school, no matter how much we wish away the worries of our daily lives, commutes and commitments. But ironically, what staying in a real home can give you on a holiday is something most hotels simply cannot manufacture: quality time together and less stress.
In today’s day and age where every luxury hotel seems to be trying to out-compete the next in terms of their offering, there is something wonderfully refreshing about staying somewhere that is this deeply personal. Books line the shelves, some weather-beaten and dog-eared at the corners. Treasured collections remain, and through the puzzles and toys left in the kids’ playroom you start to feel like you know the children who once lived here. And the bush becomes the backdrop to ordinary family life.
To spend a few precious days discovering another family’s version of what life could like emphasised to me what is really important. Here was a family who had it all but measured wealth differently. Here success meant time spent outdoors, conversations around long tables, and real connection with the natural world.
The house itself reflects that philosophy, feeling like a home first and a safari lodge second. Two upstairs wings with bedrooms lead from an open-plan living room with a double-sided fireplace in its centre. On either side you’ll find a cosy library, the popular kids’ playroom and a sun-filled breakfast nook that leads out to a wide veranda overlooking the lawns. The separate wings offer enough privacy for two families to comfortably share the house while still having privacy, but you could just as easily choose to fill the home with a group of extended family or friends.
But what about the safari experience?
Most people who go on safari, myself included, go with some sort of mental tick list tucked into the back pocket of their mind. Lions and elephants typically top that list. But as this little sliver of South Africa’s Waterberg doesn’t have those, a safari here is less about game counts and more about actually experiencing the wild.
Jembisa Bush House is set in one of South Africa’s oldest mountain landscapes, the Waterberg. The name directly translates from Afrikaans to “Water Mountain” and refers to the way that the area acts as a natural water tower, despite lying within South Africa’s relatively dry interior. Over millions of years, the ancient sandstone mountains became highly porous, causing rain to soak into the rock and be stored underground. This water continuously seeps into countless springs, streams and rivers, providing permanent water sources and a life source to a surprising abundance of wildlife.
Today, the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve is an area where conservation and sustainable tourism enterprises, like Jembisa, exist alongside working farms and local communities. Within this, Jembisa is set on thousands of hectares of private wilderness, with 7km of Palala River winding through the property, bringing with it a remarkable array of wildlife, from giraffe to wildebeest, zebra, eland, kudu and impala, as well as more than 300 bird species. But without dangerous game like lions, buffalo or elephant, you may stop to compare the different seeds of the countless willow species or learn how termites engineer entire landscapes.
What this also means is that you can explore off the back of a vehicle. There are game drives, of course, but you can also walk through the reserve, either by yourself or with a guide, learning about animal tracks, medicinal plants and the tiny ecosystems of the bushveld. You can visit ancient San rock art hidden within the reserve’s cliffs or cycle along bush tracks like we did, while two relaxed giraffes watched on from the end of the plains. Nights also reveal incredibly dark skies, with some of the world’s best astronomers coming here to study the stars. If they are a particular fascination for you too, then you may even choose to leave that home behind to sleep out under them for a night.
There’s incredible flexibility to be found at this type of setting too. For instance, one morning we enjoyed breakfast beneath sprawling trees. Another, beside the river. Lunch was served high up on a hill overlooking the bushveld or, on another day, alongside a termite mound which was hollowed out for making pizzas. Here, the term all-inclusive didn’t just cover the meals, but the mental load too.
As a parent, this was bliss. So much of my day is spent organising everyone else’s lives and activities, but to be welcomed into someone else’s home, to have all the thinking taken out of my day, and discover a safe space where my kids could truly run wild, was like an unexpected reset for my soul.
For more articles like this click here.
If you enjoyed this website then check out our other sites: Wedding and Function, Kids Connection, Thirsty Traveler, Boat Trips for Africa, Bargain Buys, Business Link.
Need help with your online marketing then visit Agency One.
