I first discovered &Beyond Phinda Forest Lodge in and amongst the alluring pages of Condé Nast Traveler more than 20 years ago. In wishful wanderlust, I tore the page out, never thinking I’d ever see it. But over the next few years, a series of fortunate events, or happenstance, and that worn magazine page became the unexpected catalysts for my now-19-year career with &Beyond. Fittingly, Forest Lodge was one of the first &Beyond lodges I visited all those years ago, so returning to see its highly anticipated rebuild was both meaningful and sentimental.
A look back
&Beyond’s first and now flagship reserve, Phinda Private Game Reserve is situated near the coastline, just over three hours from Durban in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The creation of this wilderness reserve, back in 1991, was as groundbreaking as it was visionary and unprecedented, and it marked the official birth of &Beyond.
Phinda is a beautiful story of renewal and revival; it is a story of hope. Back in the early 90s, this dilapidated farmland, which was devoid of its original and once thriving wildlife, was carefully transformed into a vast protected wildlife area. In fact, Phinda’s transformation, which was deemed revolutionary at the time, remains widely regarded as one of the world’s most ambitious and successful blueprints for international ecotourism. Phinda is a true conservation victory that now encompasses 29,800 hectares (73,800 acres) of rich and flourishing biodiversity.
Phinda means “the return” in Zulu, a name that has become more prophetic than originally anticipated. Not only was the destroyed habitat returned to its original state, the wildlife returned to its intended home, and the land ownership returned to its rightful ancestral owners, but the land has also been returned to conservation. And through the continued return of our guests, this land will be protected and conserved in perpetuity. Phinda is living proof that together, we can leave our world a better place.
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