THE INTERVIEW
EMMA SMITH – DULINI RIVER
Bush parent talks about a life in the bush...
Emma, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us today. Firstly, Dulini is incredible, your team has been amazing, and the setting is stunning. For our readers, please introduce yourself and let us know what
your role is here at Dulini.
Emma – Hi, Kyle. My name is Emma and I am the camp manager at Dulini River. I have been working here for almost eight years now, and, that’s me!
Eight years, wow! If I recall, you have spent some time at multiple different properties under the Dulini umbrella. Can you tell us a little about your journey?
Emma – I can definitely say I’ve had a very fulfilling time here at Dulini, and I’ve definitely been able to experience all the different opportunities that Dulini has been able to offer me. I came in as what was called at that time a guest assistant; I was literally making the cool hand towels and writing postcards. I spent a lot of time on the floor and I was very active in the front of house. Not long after that, I transitioned into the assistant camp manager, and I was the assistant camp manager at Dulini Moya for a couple of years.
After my time at Moya, I ended up becoming the Lodge anchor, which was an incredible role. I got to manage each camp for two weeks at a time in my six- week rotations. I feel I learned so much during that time. I did that for two years, and after I fell pregnant, I decided I wanted to settle back down and move back to Dulini Moya.
“it’s an absolute privilege to be able to raise my children in the bush”
Eight years, wow! If I recall, you have spent some time at multiple different properties under the Dulini umbrella. Can you tell us a little about your journey?
Emma – I can definitely say I’ve had a very fulfilling time here at Dulini, and I’ve definitely been able to experience all the different opportunities that Dulini has been able to offer me. I came in as what was called at that time a guest assistant; I was literally making the cool hand towels and writing postcards. I spent a lot of time on the floor and I was very active in the front of house. Not long after that, I transitioned into the assistant camp manager, and I was the assistant camp manager at Dulini Moya for a couple of years.
After my time at Moya, I ended up becoming the Lodge anchor, which was an incredible role. I got to manage each camp for two weeks at a time in my six- week rotations. I feel I learned so much during that time. I did that for two years, and after I fell pregnant, I decided I wanted to settle back down and move back to Dulini Moya.
Being a parent in the bush must be challenging sometimes. What is it like raising children in this
environment?
Emma – First of all, it’s an absolute privilege to be able to raise my children in the bush. It’s it definitely makes things interesting, and I’ll share a story with you.
I think one of the best examples is, our normal is my three-year-old going to school and seeing elephants, a possible lion or leopard all before arriving at school. This is normal to her. Compared to when we leave the reserve and drive past a cow, she will shout, “Look, there’s a cow, there’s a cow! Stop, Mom, look at the cow”, and so it’s very different for us; but you know, I feel so blessed for them to be able to be in this environment and walk around or go on an afternoon game drive and see a rhino. I mean, who else gets to do that on a normal day?
Emma, that is incredibly special. Even though you have your family with you when you get that special time off, what do you get up to?
Emma – I think everyone actually always laughs at my husband and myself. He’s my husband, and he’s also a ranger. We are definitely very bush-orientated people, and typically, we head straight back into the bush! We will either be going to the Kalahari or into the Kruger or a different game reserve somewhere. But we do a lot of road-tripping and camping, always staying in the outdoors.
I can’t remember the last time I went to Johannesburg or a city. When we are there, we are a mess; we don’t know what’s happening to us. We definitely spend our time traveling and visiting different parts of Southern Africa, which is really cool. And then also, of course, visiting family and spending that time with family as well is important to us.
We love that; it’s always wonderful to meet individuals in these uniques places who truly love the bush. We all know the sounds of the wild are remarkable, in all of your travels to various reserves, or when you’re at Dulini, what is your favorite sound to hear?
Emma – Hands down my favorite sound in the bush is the fish eagles. You hear them all day long, and it is just awesome, it almost gives you goosebumps. It’s the sound that reminds me that I’m truly in the bush.
We couldn’t agree more! The call of a fish eagle is second to none. I’m sure this is going to be a tough question, but what is a standout sighting one can see from this spectacular deck?
Emma – Obviously, we get a lot of elephants that come by. There’s always that odd buffalo hanging around too. We get quite a bit of leopard activity around the lodge, as well as lion activity. A standout sighting for
me was in August, which means the bush was nice and low, and we knew there was a leopard in the river somewhere. There was also a herd of impala feeding amongst the reeds right in front of the breakfast deck.
Our guests had just finished breakfast, and we were all standing, watching around, and out of nowhere, this leopard jumped out and grabbed an impala literally in front of all of us! It was, it was spectacular! It just shows you that you always need to expect the unexpected when you’re here. Every day is different, and this was true evidence of that.
Author: Reeds Bespoke
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