IN 1994, when luxury safari operator &Beyond first opened a lodge in KwaZulu-Natal's Phinda Private Game Reserve, it was ahead of its time. In an era of safari-pastiche and taxidermy-as-decor, &Beyond Phinda Forest Lodge offered a minimalist vision of what lodge design could be. Gone were the rough-hewn walls and thatched roofs, replaced by glass and wood and an immersion in the endangered sand forest. Here was a lodge that luxuriated in forest became a buzzword.
