NextHunt Review – VAR Safaris
The NextHunt team visited VAR Safaris outside of Pongola for a Macnab hunting weekend on 23-25 August 2019. We were received warmly by Grant, the farm manager, Alice the house manager and cook, and Mto, the head guide.
The lodge is an old yet comfortable farmhouse which has been tastefully renovated. The rooms and bathrooms are spacious and neat. The beds and linen are of good quality. Two of the rooms in the house have their own porches, where you can read a book or relax in the sun.
The lapa, pool and sundeck is just a few paces from the house and provides a beautiful panoramic view of the farm.
The entire lodge is powered by solar and gas.
Alice and her team always prepared the most delicious meals for us (catering is included in the price) and even made us some unbelievable burgers (with pink sauce!) to take with on our day outing to Lake Jozini, about 100km away, where we went tiger fishing.
Being a cattle farm until 2018, the farm hasn’t experienced hunting in decades, which explains the tameness of all the animals – even the rabbits were relaxed. There is no shortage of animals with plenty of impala, kudu, blesbuck and blue wildebeest grazing placidly all over the farm. All evidence of a cattle farm has successfully been removed.
The farm is 500km from Gauteng and takes 6 hours to reach via the N17.
VAR Safaris has been a nice farm to discover. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, which is why we enjoyed our stay so much. No expectations, no pretense. VAR Safaris is now a NextHunt recommended farm.
August 2019
Jaco Pretorius
27 September 2019 at 9:06 PMWe arrived at the reserve gate just before dark. We had an awesome drive through the reserve & saw some of the wildlife the neighbouring big 5 farm had to show.
Being our first time with VAR Safaris we did not know what to expect, the drive to the farm from the main gate is about a 15km gravel road (I would recommend going in a Bakkie).
Our reception by Grant and the support staff was great!! We Arrived just after dark and was received with warm welcomes all round.
Our accommodation was the old farm house, this was great – the rooms & Ablution facilities were spotless & Clean with enough fresh linen & blankets in the rooms for those cold nights.
We had a couple of cold ones around the boma – talked about the history of the farm – then sat down for supper.
The food was great!! We ate like Kings the whole weekend.
Our hunt was awesome, the staff was knowledgeable & did not stop until we got our two nice big Impala Ram’s.
This was a memorable experience for us and definitely worth the trip.
Thanks to Grant, Susan & All the staff for making it a great experience.
Jaco Pretorius, September 2019
VAR Safaris