Anyone who's fantasized about, read or heard about African safaris knows the ultimate coup is seeing the Big Five so when my husband and I set out on our adventure in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa, we aspired to nothing less than Big Five glory.

It started with the 30 minute drive from the Sabi Sand entrance gate to our accommodations in the Djuma Private Game Reserve: the neck-craning, the eye-shading, the fumbling for the first sighting, the glasses then the binoculars, and the second-guessing. Was that a kudu or a tree stump? The hindside of a rhino or a suspiciously rhino-shaped bush? We were on the hunt and with no dividing fences between Djuma's own 700 hectares, Sabi Sand and the trans-frontier national park, we had more land to traverse than time to do it and a guarantee we'd see lots and lots of animals. But the Big Five? No promises. 

There are three resorts located in Djuma Private Game Reserve. Vuyatela, is a high-end, eclectic lodge that caters to the luxury traveler seeking a more pampered experience in artfully decorated accommodations with all the modern conveniences. Galago Camp is a self-catering lodge that offers the freedom to tailor-make your African bush experience. We were staying at Bush Lodge, accommodations that fall somewhere between five-star and self-cater. However from my perspective, I can't imagine anything more they could do at Bush Lodge to elevate the experience; it surpassed all expectations.

At all the resorts in Djuma, the animals are free to come and go and with watering holes nearby, there's a high likelihood that you'll spot elephant, hippo or buffalo coming for refreshment. But the real excitement are the game drives, two per day for us at Bush Lodge, where we set out with a guide and a game tracker for a three-hour ramble through the bush in an effort to spot as much wildlife as possible.

The trying is fun —off-road jaunts through bushwillow trees, lala palms bush and cone-shaped termite hives, scenic vistas of sunrises and sunsets, innumerable animal tracks impressed into dirt roads and cryptic messages coming in over the game vehicle's C.B. to heighten anticipation. And then it can be just around a bend in the road, or on the other side of a copse of trees: a cheetah or a leopard or a head of elephant. Graceful kudo and impala. Elusive jackals, black rhino, and hippo. While Bush Lodge and Djuma at large will bowl you over with its beauty, friendly hospitality and fine dining, the animals are the real stars of the show.

But Djuma isn't just about sighting animals or experiencing life in the bush, rather Djuma is mostly concerned with being a responsible steward of its land and its people. From employing local villagers to build and then staff its resorts, to using locally resourced materials and implementing what are at times elaborate systems for resource conservation, Djuma is committed to being a sustainable business and environmentally and socially conscientious enterprise.

In 2001, Djuma established the Buffelshoek Turst to fund various community-based initiatives in the communities located just outside the Sabi Sand boundary and from where many of its staff come. To date, the Trust has constructed six primary and two secondary schools as well as a pre-school visited and officially opened by Mr. Nelson Mandela. Its built three creches, furnished three libraries, developed agricultural programs in conjunction with the schools, created a number of computer centers and provided water for two villages.

Currently the Trust is working on building a semi-private school focused on Math, Science and technical subjects. It has also committed to building healthcare and sports facilities to further its cause to the improved welfare of local residents. 

As a guest in Djuma Private Reserve you are encouraged to learn more about what Djuma's doing for conservation and cultural preservation and how you as a guest can help support these efforts. There are organized excursions to visit the schools and the handicraft markets in the nearby villages of Dixie and Utah. We took advantage of these opportunities in between the morning and evening game drives and these experiences deepened our understanding of the important role Djuma plays in the local communities.  

If that wasn't enough, to compliment its community-based efforts, all of the accommodations at Djuma have numerous environmental design elements, 98 percent of their staff members are local to area, and the company is certified by Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa.

By our fourth game drive, we'd seen four of the Big Five. The one we were missing: the lion. By then, lion sighting had become a contest and for several drives more, the lions eluded us. Fresh tracks through camp overnight, fresh tracks on the road a mile out during the morning. They were just around the corner and any minute it seemed, we would set eyes on them.

All Djuma guides work together to provide their guests with the highest quality experience and the greatest opportunity for viewing wildlife. Still with so much land to cover, we never ran into more than a few other game vehicles at a game sighting at any given time. With the lions evading everyone, the guides worked ever more closely together to ensure that we'd find the pride or at least a few members.

So it was during our penultimate evening drive as we traveled down one of the remote and wooded tracks with Patrick, our game tracker, probing the surrounding black bush with his high-powered spotlight, that we heard a particularly enigmatic message come over the C.B. The air was electric; our guide's voice tight with constrained excitement. This was it, not only had the lions been spotted, but we were nearly on them.

Sure enough, just minutes later Patrick's light beam swept across the road before us and there they were: two females and a cub. Wow! We weren't prepared for the thrill of exuberance that washed through us when we set eyes on the lions. I got choked up. I got scared. I mean these were massive man-killing beasts and at the moment they were mere feet from our open-aired vehicle. As the females passed beside us, cub in tow, the second lioness gave a low guttural warning to steer clear of her little one. Ever respectful, the guides kept us a safe distance behind the trio as we tracked them through the darkened brush until they disappeared about 20 minutes later down a vehicle-less track.

That was it! Number five of the Big Five. A sense of satisfaction settled over me. As we rambled through the dark bush later that evening on our way back to the lodge, I reflected on our experience at Djuma. No doubt that the game drives were the highlight of our trip. Indeed they were the reason we'd come.

But patroning an establishment that's so committed to the health and prosperity of its land and the local peoples enriched our experience and made our trip more fulfilling and rewarding. 

Equally impactful was the fact that through our guide's and the Djuma staff's interpretations of the land, its history, flora and fauna, we developed a much deeper appreciation for the healthy ecosystem we explored from the Big Five to the lesser known Little Five.   

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