The safari experience is ubiquitous for a certain LSM in South Africa. And yet, it never gets tired. Even though cynics think of game reserves as glorified zoos, most tourists, even those that have been again and again, keep falling for the joys of early morning game drives - waking up at 5am and wrapping up in blankets, with the prospect of hot coffee and Amarula at the first coffee break and gin and tonic at the last.And though other destinations can be enjoyed via the screen or on the glossy pages of Conde Nast Traveller, you just can't do armchair safari, particularly because one of its great characteristics is the safari suit-clad game ranger complete with his eccentric, sometimes naïve, but always philosophical views of the world.Samara Private Game Reserve covers 27000ha of dense thicket, deep valleys and lush grassland in the bowl made by a natural amphitheatre of mountains in the Great Karoo near Graaff-Reinet.The abundant game and thick bush belie the fact that until recently the area was a patchwork of denuded sheep farms.In 2000, Mark and Sarah Tompkins bought Monkey Valley, a ''clapped out" farm in the area, with the dream of turning it into an Eden of African game. Within a year they had bought the 11 adjacent farms and launched a cheetah sanctuary. Now the reserve is teeming with buck, giraffe, Cape mountain zebra, Cape leopard, buffalo, black rhino, bat-eared foxes, meerkats and one of the game spotter's favourites - the elusive aardvark.CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: Tracking rhino at the Samara Private Game Reserve''They're considering introducing elephant next," our ranger, Jan Dunn, tells us on our morning drive.''And then maybe lion. But first we have to think about the destruction they'd wreak on our carefully rehabilitated land."We'd spent the night in the Samara Reserve Manor House, on the site of a 19th-century farmhouse with magnificent views of the Sneeuberg mountains out front. The Manor House sleeps eight people in four luxurious en suite rooms with a central lounge and dining room.We have a private butler and chef, and Mr Dunn, who functions as both our ranger and unwitting comedian.GETTING ON TRACK: Game ranger Jan Dunn uses a specialised aerial to track rhinoOn a night drive to have dinner at Karoo Lodge (one of the other lodges on the reserve that has a wraparound veranda and corrugated-iron roof instead of the usual mud and thatch of safari resorts), he proves harder to track than any of the game we'll follow the next day as he speeds ahead of us on the dirt roads in the dark.Dunn takes orders the next morning: ''What game do you want to see today?" Aardvark, cheetah, rhino, comes the chorus from the gallery in the back of the Land Rover.The game is an added extra - the rolling landscape dotted with old farmhouses, one that used to be an old police barracks and is now residential space for visiting study groups, is impressive enough. In all directions, majestic blue mountains jut into the skyline.We find some aardvark mounds - ''they always make two," said Dunn. ''One for feeding and one for loving."Then we drive past some ''dagga boys", large old buffalo bulls that have been kicked out of the herd and spend all day wallowing in mud. One of them still has a yellow tag on his ear, giving away the fact of his recent purchase. ''Sarah wouldn't be happy to know her guests have seen that," said Dunn, explaining that they can pay over R1-million for four disease-free buffalo.This is one of the reasons they're reluctant to introduce lion.''At R250,000 a pop, we'd like to keep them," he adds.Dunn is a great guide, but he's also a fantastic storyteller.''I once took seven tough Harley bikers on a walking safari tracking rhino - they were so tough they insisted on wearing their full leathers and helmets."On a walking trail we come across the large beasts ambling along on the brush and suddenly the thought of a helmet and protective leathers doesn't seem like such a joke.We're really close. Dunn edges us around a bush that we all know won't offer much protection if there's a stampede.But we make it unscathed to the afternoon drive into the mountains, where the reserve reveals another face.From the grassy plains at the top we can see the bowl of the valley and the snow-topped ranges that encircle it.And from here there's the epiphany of the smallness of our daily concerns that reminds us why we love, once again, to be in the bush.Nagel was a guest of Samara Private Game Reserve. For more info see samara.co.za..