The 1400-hectare Welverdiend Game Reserve, which forms part of the 5500-hectare Rietspruit Big 5 Game Reserve was purchased by Trevor Jordan in 2004.

The Manor House, as we know it today was a weary shadow of its current glory! It had been used as a hunting lodge and many forlorn, glass-eyed trophies stared from the crumbling walls!

Impenetrable, drought-hardy creepers contained an overgrown garden, whilst a patchy lawn failed to compete with dense mats of paper-thorns. When they weren’t fleeing from the hunters that had previously occupied the dwelling, small herds of plains-game tread delicately, weaving their way through fragmented cattle fences and other farmyard scraps that left tell-tale signs of an agricultural history.

Living full-time in Johannesburg, Trevor did not spend much time in the Lowveld but on one of his trips to check on his local developments, he awoke to a torrent of rainwater assembling in the lodge passages and rooms.  Drops of muddied water trickled from the thatch, adding further to the woes of the crumbling walls.

Making an immediate and necessary decision to patch the leaking roof, little did Trevor know that he was embarking on a massive game of construction-dominoes! After calling a team of roofing experts, they set about the essential task of re-thatching the entire house.

The first warning sign that things were not going quite as planned came after the removal of the holding beams and the first patch of thatch. Trevor watched in horror as the perimeter walls of the house, no longer contained by the roofing beams, came tumbling down one after the other!

He had little option then but to rebuild the house and the construction of the Khaya Ndlovu Safari Manor, as we know it today, was finally completed in 2006.

With the introduction of iconic game species onto the reserve, the time was right to transform the newly built Safari Manor into a commercial lodge.

In 2010, Trevor moved out of the honeymoon suite, and the Bali-doors adorning the entrance hall were opened to commercial guests.