Hoedspruit, South Africa—To get to Kapama River Lodge in the heart of the South African bush, visitors need to take a 50-minute ride in a small plane from an air strip in Pretoria. The private game reserve in the town of Hoedspruit covers over 15,000 hectares and is home to a wide variety of wild fauna, including Africa’s Big Five—lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and African buffalo.
Kapama River Lodge was also the base for a one-of-a-kind adventure organized by Ford to show off its signature midsize SUV, the Everest. The immediate question is why have the drive here, when there are thousands of other places the car brand could have chosen to bring journalists and content creators from all over the world to get behind the wheel of the Everest.
The Ford Everest in Kapama River Lodge, Hoedspruit, South Africa
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Officials said the choice wasn’t random. The American car company just celebrated 100 years in South Africa in 2023, and the wild, rugged terrain of the continent’s southernmost country made for the ideal landscapes to highlight the features of the popular nameplate. Plus, it’s South Africa. For those of us who live elsewhere in the world, there are few other places that define the word “exotic.”
Zebras walk along the dirt path inside the Kapama Game Reserve
A car with your name on it
It wasn’t difficult to spot which unit I was driving when the plane touched down on the private air strip within the Kapama Private Game Reserve. Thin magnetic name tags were attached to each car parked along the side of the hangar. There was a selection of Everest Wildtrak, Platinum, and Sport editions and I found my name soon enough stuck on the driver’s side of a Platinum. Clearly I was going to be driving first.
Convoy inside the Kapama Game Reserve
South Africa drives on the left side of the road (a consequence of centuries of British colonial rule), and so I hopped onto the right side of the SUV. Although it initially felt unfamiliar, the Everest was a quick study, and soon my carmates and I were in a convoy that sliced through the bush towards the resort.
Although the convoy moved at a leisurely pace, I was concentrating on not losing the car in front of me and so it was a thrill when we spotted the first evidence of wildlife. There were impalas grazing by the side of the road followed by a couple of zebras hiding behind some trees. For someone who lives in a concrete jungle and whose only interaction with “wildlife” is the occasional brown bird chirping outside the house or house lizards scurrying away when I walk into a room, seeing these majestic animals out in the wild was like living a childhood dream.
King of the jungle watches the watchers
