Royal Malewane reopens: what we remember, and what the fact sheet confirms
The original Royal Portfolio property is back after months behind scaffolding. We haven't seen it yet. Here is what we know anyway.
5 min read
The people behind the planning
Vikki Jackson
Co-founder. She writes the dispatches: the people and the moments that make a safari worth crossing the world for.
Her beat Stories & Voices
A note from Vikki
I grew up in Manchester and came out to Africa at 21. There were years in corporate life along the way, doing work that looked good on paper, but the bush kept winning the argument. Marula Hill is what happened when I stopped arguing back.
I've celebrated most of my life's milestones out here, and I've introduced more friends to their first leopard than I can count. My favourite animal is the hyena, which tells you most of what you need to know about how I feel about underdogs.
In the journal I write the dispatches: the sightings that go wrong beautifully, and the small human moments no brochure will sell you. And when a trip needs rethinking on the fly, a lodge switch or a last-minute charter, I'm usually the one on the phone.
Vikki
Co-founder, Marula Hill
From the journal
Everything Vikki has written
We run on solar and we have not printed since 2019
Vikki and Sian on solar power, paper, and what a small safari company can honestly claim.
4 min read
How do you want to feel when you get home?
Why we plan safaris around how you want to feel when you get home, not around a pin on the map.
4 min read
Safari After Dark
Night drives reveal a different Africa. Quieter, older, more deliberate. Here's what we love about the bush after the sun goes down.
4 min read
How we tailor every Marula Hill safari
We don't start with destinations. We start with you: your pace, your family, your idea of a good day in the bush.
5 min read
When space teaches: what Saseka's refresh tells us about gathering in the bush
What a thoughtful safari lodge refresh tells us about gathering in the bush.
5 min read
Inside FedAir's new Baobab lounge at Hoedspruit
The new Baobab lounge at Hoedspruit airport changes how a safari begins. Vikki Jackson on the room that holds you before the bush does.
5 min read
How safari pricing actually works
From the people who build the quotes. What you are really paying for, where the money goes, and how to spend it well.
5 min read
Monwana, and what coming home actually means
By Vikki Jackson and Sian Loehrer. A week at the Thornybush lodge that has built its whole identity around the word home, and what we found when we tested it against the room, the drives, the afternoons and the bill.
8 min read
Lion Sands Ivory Lodge. What their redesign gets right
I visited Lion Sands Ivory Lodge in the Sabi Sand. The redesigned spaces are quiet, bold, and rare. Here is what they got right.
6 min read
Where the money actually goes on a luxury safari
A line-by-line look at what you're actually paying for on a luxury African safari — and what a quote that looks light is usually hiding.
7 min read
Bazaruto vs Quirimbas: which Mozambique archipelago is right for you?
How to choose between Mozambique's two great archipelagos for a bush-and-beach trip. Geography, lodge feel, when to go.
7 min read
The slow letter
A quarterly note from the bush
No noise, no marketing. Just the letter we'd write to a friend who asked what it's really like out here.