A Letter from Ruan Roos, Jabulani’s Lodge Manager

What do we mean when we say Jabulani is a soulful safari experience? Let’s take a look… featuring footage captured at our Africam livestream camera in the bush. Ruan says…

Soulful, an adjective expressing deep feeling. Profound, heartfelt, sincere, passionate, meaningful, significant, moving, inspiring, stirring, uplifting. This is Jabulani. This is who we are. And this is what we hope to show you.

Can you remember the last soulful experience in your life? When last did your whole body feel a moment? What has inspired you lately and moved you, the way witnessing new-born lion cubs curl up in their mother’s chest does? The way seeing a herd of elephant orphans walk past a waterhole at sunset, casting giant silhouettes onto the water, makes you feel. When last did every inch of you know something for sure? Sometimes it’s a matter of hearts coming together, two like minds connecting. A reminder of the child inside of you who is still able to laugh wildly and forget about appearances. Sometimes it’s between you and nature, a rare sighting, an epiphany, the sun on your cheeks or the forest floor under your feet. A single leopard curling its tail around a tree leading to the suspension bridge. A wild lone elephant walking on the dry river bed. Beating heart to beating heart, you lock eyes, you smell each other, and the moment stands still. A rhino walking towards you, confident in her territory, safe and curious. And a calf at her feet. Mother and child in the wild. A reminder of family and connection.

Sometimes it’s sitting with new faces, as an outsider welcomed into a special new world, welcomed like the Jabulani herd welcomes new orphans. At Jabulani, you are never alone. You will find a place where you belong, where you are cared about and for. The way a zebra mother follows her foal to protect it while it slowly discovers the world. The way an elephant matriarch watches over her family while forging new paths through the wilderness. The way the Jabulani herd is never alone, with their human family protecting them, with each elephant saying, I am here for you.

At Jabulani, you are part of the herd. You are brought into the circle, around warm meals and tall drinks, lantern flames dancing in a night sky, stories shared and reshared. In an elephant huddle, we embrace you and invite you to find something in our wilderness that moves you and awakens you to life again.