Rock ‘n’ Soul

“Even though you might leave Africa, Africa never leaves you,” declares South African-born Julian Koski, who left South Africa for the U.S. as a young man in the 1980s. Now living with his wife, Aida, in New York City, working on Wall Street and raising a family of his own – twins Leo and Tess – his vivid childhood memories of safari vacations have stayed with him.

“I wanted to give them a piece of what I had as a child growing up,” Koski notes, especially the South African wilderness. He saw that the potential of a vacation home in a nature reserve could open another realm for them, a counterpoint to the privileges of New York City. “We wanted to give them a different perspective on the world – something environmental, ecological, human,” he adds.

He found a spectacular site overlooking a dam in Thornybush Private Game Reserve, a pristine savannah adjacent to the Kruger National Park, and began a process that would realize