Samara Private Game Reserve consists of 70 000 acres of indigenous vegetation. This area teemed with game before the arrival of the 19th Century settlers. Elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah and buffalo once roamed the area in huge abundance. The Plains of Camdeboo once set the stage for one of the biggest migrations ever to occur on earth.
Millions of springbok and black wildebeest crossed these immense plains in search of better grazing and water. A migration which would cause the dust in this parched thirstland to settle only after a number of days. This magnificent sight stopped abruptly with the onslaught of the 19th Century settlers. Traditional game paths that the springbok followed for centuries made way for agricultural fences. Big game was massacred for sport with heavy calibre weapons. The migrations stopped and the game disappeared, along with the extinction of the horse-like Quagga. It is the dream of Sarah and Mark Tompkins to be witness to these great migrations and see the footprints of large game that disappeared from the Great Karoo so long ago.
Samara is rich, not only in its habitat and diverse surroundings, but unusually, it contains four of South Africa’s seven biomes.

VELD TYPES/BIOMES
1-Plateaux Grasslands
2-Nama Karoo
3-Savanna
4-Valley Bushveld/Thicket

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