Discover The Big Five: The Real Icons of South Africa

South Africa is a country most visitors approach with a single ambition: finding the historically named "Big Five"; lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. With Pelorus, the Big Five becomes a different proposition altogether: the historians who have spent their lives walking the battlefields, the conservationists who built a wildlife reserve from empty farmland, the epicureans reimagining African food culture, the curators who have made Cape Town one of the most compelling creative cities on the continent, and the winemakers who will open bottles most visitors never know exist. Five fields of expertise, five groups of remarkable specialists, each one offering a true understanding of South Africa’s culture, traditions and history and whose knowledge, access and passion transform every encounter into something that stays with you long after the journey ends.

THE CONSERVATIONISTS

Begin your morning with a private game drive into the ancient sand forest, where you swap the vehicle for an e-bike and take to the trails. Ride between towering trees, before navigating back to the lodge on foot, where your ranger will guide you through birding, plant identification and tracking exercises, showing you how to read the ground for signs of wildlife. This evening, you will receive a private briefing by Les Carlisle, one of South Africa's most significant conservation figures. Having played an instrumental role in converting this bare farmland into a thriving nature reserve, Les’ expertise in game translocation is world-renowned. His briefing is less a talk and more a masterclass in what it takes to build a living ecosystem from nothing, and what it means to keep it alive.

Ready for your conservation day, take part in a bird ringing exercise, netting birds, recording key measurements and releasing them tagged for future monitoring. Alternatively, upon special request, you could assist during the ear-notching or dehorning of a black or white rhino. A wildlife vet will locate and dart the animal from a helicopter while you and the ground crew follow in open safari vehicles. Once the rhino is sedated, the veterinary team will notch its ear for security monitoring and insert a microchip into the horn, and you will have the opportunity to participate in the procedure and touch the animal directly. This is one of the most affecting conservation experiences available anywhere in Africa, allowing you to have a direct impact on the survival of this species.

THE CURATORS

Cape Town's art and design scene is best understood not through gallery walls alone but through the people who populate it. Accompanied by art specialist Kate Briggs, visit leading galleries, including the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) and the old masters' collection at Ellerman House, or discover hidden collections in private museums and homes across the city. Meet the artists at their studios, each practising across a range of mediums that includes painting, collage, illustration, street art, ceramics and animation. For those seeking something beyond the conventional gallery circuit, a visit with animator, sculptor and painter Ree Treweek opens the door to a singular creative world, with an exclusive animation screening that provides rare and intimate insight into a creation process that most audiences never see.

For those fascinated by craft, visit the dye house and design studio where founder Bridget Henderson hand-dyes South African merino wool and mohair, working with this exquisite natural fibre of which South Africa produces sixty percent of the world's supply. Be guided through the world of mohair and try your hand at spinning and dyeing your own scarves or skeins of wool. Or, meet with blacksmith artist Conrad Hicks, discussing the history and evolution of toolmaking, before you move to the forge to create your own object: a knife, a small sculpture or a copper bowl, made, polished, ground and treated under close guidance. Otherwise, join celebrated botanical artist Kim Black to paint the indigenous fynbos of one of the world's great botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch, with Table Mountain as your backdrop.