The Garden Route was calling once more. The destination this time: Gondwana, an 11,000ha fynbos-blanketed big-five game reserve near Mossel Bay. We’d be spending a few days in the luxury of an exclusive-use villa, but most of all, we were looking forward to being back in the bush and far away from the city and any reminders of global pandemics.

Big-five reserve with a difference

When I say “bush”, you may conjure up classic images of lowveld mopane scapes and tawny shrubbery, but the bush I refer to in this instance is mostly made up of one of the Western Cape’s most celebrated exports, fynbos...