ABOUT THECOLLECTION
Two private reserves on the Lehana River, run with the community that shares the land.
Inside the northern Lowveld and open to the national park on its eastern edge, the Selowe and Kavari reserves share twenty-four kilometres of permanent river frontage. Few private reserves hold this much water.
The river runs all year. In the dry months it is the only water for kilometres, so animals come to it from every direction. The reserves have been managed as one landscape since 2019, with fences removed between them and a shared research and anti-poaching team.
Guests stay in one of six properties and drive the whole area. Vehicles are limited to two per sighting, and guides are trained on the reserve, most of them from the villages on its western border.
Our work reaches past the fence. It is about people, and the living heritage of the Mavhu.
The Collection is held in a community trust with the Mavhu Land Association, which owns 51 percent. Profits fund a school transport programme, two clinics and a craft cooperative.
Over 80 percent of staff come from within forty kilometres of the reserves.
OURHISTORY
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1903
The land along the Lehana is surveyed as cattle farms. Most of it is left unfenced because of tsetse fly.
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1931
Edward Hartley buys three farms on the west bank and builds a camp of six rondavels for hunting parties.
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1948
The first airstrip is cleared. Guests fly in from the coast on a four-seat Piper.
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1962
Hunting stops on the Kavari land. Hartley’s son runs the first photographic safaris in the region.
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1979
Kavari Camp is rebuilt in stone and thatch. The river lawn is planted.
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1994
The Selowe farms are bought and joined to Kavari. Cattle fences come down.
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2008
A land claim by the Mavhu community is settled. The community becomes co-owner.
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2019
The two reserves are managed as one. Fences to the national park are removed.
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2024
Selowe River Lodge opens. Ashby's Lodge is restored.
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2026
Nandi River Lodge breaks ground on the river island.
The people behind the collection
Ruth Ndlovu
Managing Director
Thabo Mkhize
Head of Conservation