When Travel Writers See Beyond the Expected: Reflections on Recognition

When Mike and Anne Howard arrived at Few & Far Luvhondo after over thirteen years of continuous travel, I held my breath a little. These aren't casual tourists or even typical luxury travelers. They're professionals who have experienced the world's most exclusive properties, who understand hospitality at the highest level, who can spot authenticity from a mile away - or its absence.
Their recent feature about their stay reminded me exactly why Jacob and I chose to break every traditional safari rule when we created Few & Far Luvhondo. More importantly, it showed me that seasoned travelers are hungry for something we've been working toward since we first fell in love with these forgotten mountains.

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The Unscripted Moments That Matter Most

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What struck me most about their reflection on their stay wasn't any particular praise - though I'm grateful for their recognition - but how they noticed the details that reveal who we really are. They wrote about our dining canopy and the story behind it, how Jacob had to make that terrifying cut to fit the canvas around our ancient tree, with our teenage boys helping turn a potential disaster into a family moment.
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Most travel writing focuses on the polished final product. However, Mike and Anne understood that these unplanned, slightly chaotic, entirely human moments are exactly what makes Few & Far different. They saw past the luxury amenities to the family building something together, the conservation team genuinely excited about their work, the local guides sharing knowledge rather than performing roles. Their photographs and videos capture just a small portion of the beauty that is Few & Far Luvhondo but in the most magical way!
This is what happens when you stop trying to deliver a perfect safari experience and start creating space for real connection. When Dr. Dawn, our ecologist and land manager,  joins guests for lunch, she's not there for entertainment. She's there because of the work she's doing - removing invasive species, protecting newly designated conservation areas, tracking wildlife recovery - and it is genuinely exciting to share with people who care about impact.

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Beyond Safari Expectations

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The Honeytrek feature captured something I've been trying to articulate for years - that the most meaningful travel experiences often have nothing to do with checking items off a list. Yes, they saw incredible wildlife during their drives with our guides. But what stayed with them were the signs of ecological recovery, the understanding that we're actively working to heal fractured ecosystems, the realization that conservation here means restoration, not just preservation.
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This is thinking bigger in action. Not just protecting what exists, but actively healing what's been broken. When they described evidence of elephants that once moved freely through these corridors, they were witnessing the story we're working to rewrite - one where mining and development didn't fragment these ancient pathways forever.
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I remember that first helicopter flight Jacob  took over the Soutpansberg Mountains in 2021, The biodiversity below was staggering - nearly 600 native tree species, thousands of plant varieties, more bird species than anywhere else we'd seen. But it was also threatened, degraded, and forgotten by mainstream tourism. We could have built anywhere but this place captivated our minds and sparked our creativity and a new desire to create magical moments to share with others.

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When Fear Becomes Wonder

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Mike & Anne’s description and video of our Sleep Out Under the Stars experience revealed exactly what we hoped to achieve when we designed these moments. Watch the Youtube Video here. They admitted to genuine nervousness - the thought of spending a night on a mountaintop with only mosquito netting as protection. But then they discovered the careful preparation our team had done, the thoughtful touches that made wilderness feel welcoming rather than threatening.
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This is the magic I'm always talking about - that moment when fear transforms into wonder, when barriers between guests and landscape dissolve entirely. Our team spends hours hauling equipment up mountainsides, creating outdoor kitchens with no infrastructure, making the impossible look effortless. When they wrote that it became a highlight of months of African travel, they validated years of believing that authentic luxury means removing obstacles to connection, not creating distance from the natural world.

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Local Leadership, Not Performance

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I was particularly moved by how they highlighted our guide Lizzie's background - her childhood at a nature reserve, her persistence in volunteering until she earned opportunities for formal training, her deep knowledge of this landscape. When they connected her story to my work with Enygma Ventures, investing in African female entrepreneurs, they understood these aren't separate initiatives. They're part of the same vision of travel that amplifies local expertise rather than importing outside perspectives.
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Lizzie represents everything I believe about empowerment through opportunity. She didn't need charity - she needed someone to recognize her passion and create pathways for her knowledge to shine. When guests experience the Soutpansberg through her eyes, they're not getting a performance of "local culture." They're learning from someone who knows this landscape intimately, who sees connections and stories that escaped visitors would miss entirely.
This is what I mean when I talk about South African voices leading the narrative. Not as decoration or entertainment, but as the foundation of how we understand this place and our responsibility to it.

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The Regenerative Difference

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Their article distinguished between properties that claim sustainability and operations that actively heal ecosystems. This distinction matters deeply to me. Sustainability asks, "How do we do less harm?" Regeneration asks, "How do we actively create positive change?" It's the difference between maintaining the status quo and transforming it entirely.

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Ancient Wisdom, Modern Application

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Their spa experience with Nungo, our Venda wellness specialist, captured something crucial about Few & Far's philosophy. They described connecting with indigenous wisdom that has sustained relationships with this landscape for centuries - not as cultural performance, but as living knowledge that shapes everything we do here.
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Nungo isn't sharing culture for guests - she's offering wisdom that prioritizes connection over consumption, community over individual experience, healing over mere relaxation. The baobab oils, the hand-crafted elements, the ceremonies that ground visitors in place - these create invitations into a way of seeing the world that extends far beyond any single treatment or experience.

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Why Recognition Like This Matters

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When travel writers who have experienced everything find themselves genuinely surprised and moved by what they discover here, I know we're building something that matters. Something that will outlast any individual stay or even any individual career.
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But their article also reminded me that every guest brings their own expertise, their own capacity to see and share aspects of Few & Far that we might take for granted. The perspectives of seasoned travelers, conservation scientists, cultural practitioners, local community members - these different ways of seeing compound into something richer than any single viewpoint could create.

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Passion Breeds Passion

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As I always say, passion breeds passion. When travelers connect deeply with what we're building here, they become part of the story we're telling about what's possible when travel prioritizes purpose alongside luxury, when conservation becomes adventure, when local communities lead rather than follow.

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Their feature isn't just external validation - it's fuel for the longer journey ahead. Every recognition like this strengthens our ability to protect more land, employ more local talent, and pioneer more innovations in regenerative hospitality. It's evidence that when we lead with purpose instead of profit, both follow naturally.
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This is what I mean when I talk about thinking bigger. Not just creating exceptional experiences, but creating a model that demonstrates regenerative tourism can be economically viable, environmentally healing, and socially empowering all at once.
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When thoughtful travelers validate years of careful decisions, patient relationship-building, and faith that people are hungry for something more meaningful than standard luxury, it reminds me why we're doing this work. We're not just protecting thousands of hectares in the Soutpansberg. We're proving that business can be a force for healing the world.
If you want to change the world, you have to stop waiting for someone else to do it. Features like this article by Mike and Anne from Honeytrek, which you can read here, remind me that we're not waiting anymore. We're building the change we want to see, one carefully crafted surprise at a time.

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