A trip to Mateya Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve is likely to spoil you for any other game lodge experiences and set the bar on an experience that has exclusivity, luxury
combined with relaxed informality, first-class cuisine, outstanding game- watching opportunities and an authentic encounter with an Africa you didn’t think still existed. This is the heart of
the wild continent. Behind the ancient carved Zanzibar doors welcoming you to the lodge, there’s something exceptional waiting for even the most jaded of travelers in the spectacular 75000 hectare Madikwe Reserve, just a plane hop from Johannesburg. Mateya is much more than an up market game lodge or resort, offering a breath-taking and memorable encounter with the heart and soul of an almost forgotten Africa. Although the lodge itself is almost invisible
and secluded against the ring of low mountains fronting natural rolling veld, built to ‘fit’ unobtrusively with its landscape and leave a light footprint in eco-sustainable terms, the architecture and interiors are bold and immediately compelling. The uniquely eclectic, dramatic and passionately artistic vision of Mateya is due to the owner, who fell in love with Africa 40 years ago and who has collected objects from the Cameroon’s and Zimbabwe along with ingenious bead and wire fantasies from Tswana crafters, basketwork, clay pots, and world-class
landscapes from Paul Angustinus, wildlife. There are certainly some good ideas spread throughout these pages! And we bronzes from Robert Glen, Donald Greig and Dylan Lewis. The artwork and sculpture are displayed to maximum effect in a raw and equally compelling location: the lodge looks out from an outcrop of the Gabbro hills across a natural amphitheater of grasslands with Leadwood and tambouti trees towards distant blue hills.
Game and bird life including the big five, Cheetah and Wild Dogs are abundant despite the harsh untamed wilderness all around the lodge. Experienced rangers and trackers are on hand to guide you through the malaria-free landscape, and excursions will be tailored around what you want to see.
Because no more than four visitors travel in each vehicle, drives are customized and
leisurely. Personal attention is assured. And for visitors who love the solitude of wide
empty spaces, maximum privacy is guaranteed here: just five air conditioned suites have
been created, filled with handcrafted mahogany and antiques. Ample four-poster beds, open
fireplaces and freestanding marble bathtub open out onto private viewing decks with infinity pools. As if this wasn’t enough, your views from the window sala extend from the waterhole right over the veld to the horizon. Sip a chilled drink as the game meanders towards the watering hole and take bets on what you’ll see next.
For those who are book lovers as well as art connoisseurs, Mateya is leather-bound bliss, with
early editions of explorers such as Latrobe, le Vaillant, missionaries like Livingstone and Moffat
who once lived near here. This part of Makdikwe is of course the Groot Marico of Herman Charles Bosman and not far away there is Mafiking, home to the great Tswana writer Sol Plaatje. Mateya has a style of hospitality all its own – relaxed yet impeccable – but it is not for the timid-hearted. This is where you learn to embrace African spirituality, the fierce beauty,
cruel but enchanting, found in its dawns, its art, its silences and mysteriousness. The renowned Robert Glen sculpture of the eager lioness just failing to capture the leaping Impala speaks more eloquently than any words could.
