The same family. The same land. Nearly a century, uninterrupted.
The custodianship argument is not one that most luxury safari operators can make. It requires continuous, multi-generational relationship with a specific piece of land — not the acquisition of a concession and the development of a lodge, but decades of intimate observation, accumulated ecological knowledge, and community relationships that predate the frameworks we use to describe them. The MORE Collection (formerly the MORE Family Collection) has been in relationship with South African land since 1933. That is nearly a century of continuous custodianship by the same family, now in its fourth generation under Robert More. It is the reason SafariSeven® works with them.
The MORE Collection has stewarded South African land since 1933 — nearly a century of continuous custodianship by the same family, now in its fourth generation under Robert More. It is among the longest-standing family-owned safari collections on the continent, predating most of the conservation frameworks that transformed the South African luxury safari industry.
Guy Aubrey Chalkley, Robert More's great-grandfather, bought Kingston farm on the banks of the Sabie River in 1933 — for protection rather than profit — and became a founding member of the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve fifteen years later. The family's engagement with South African land has not been interrupted in the nine decades since; Louise More welcomed the first guests to River Lodge in 1978, and her sons Nick and Robert grew that single lodge into what the collection is today. When Robert More manages the collection's lodges today, he does so with knowledge his family has been accumulating for four generations — not the knowledge a new operator acquires in years of research and scouting, but the knowledge that comes from a family that has watched a specific landscape change across nearly a century of seasons.
This produces something distinct from what most luxury safari operators offer. Four generations of continuous land relationship produces what no acquisition-based operator can replicate: guide knowledge that is genuinely local, community relationships that predate corporate responsibility frameworks, and an understanding of the land's ecology that only sustained, close observation over decades can build.
The guest experience at a MORE Collection property reflects something that is increasingly rare in luxury safari: genuine locality. The guides know the land because their family and community have known it for generations. The relationships with local communities exist because they were built before corporate social responsibility was a concept. The physical character of the properties — the way they sit within their landscapes — reflects decades of careful, continuous attention rather than a development brief.
"There is a difference between a property that has been designed to feel local and a property that is local. The MORE Collection represents the latter."
The Waterberg is a vast sandstone massif in Limpopo Province — a landscape of dense bushveld, ancient rock, and remarkable biodiversity that remains less visited than the Sabi Sand or the Kruger ecosystem to its east. Its thornveld character is specific: dense, sculptural vegetation, excellent Big Five sightings in a more physically complex landscape than the open savannah of much of Southern Africa, and a sense of wildness that comes partly from its relative obscurity.
Four generations of family engagement with the Waterberg means that the MORE Collection's guides and staff carry ecological knowledge that has been accumulated across nearly a century of observation — not a research file but a living understanding of how specific places in this specific landscape behave across all conditions and seasons. When a guide interprets what a guest is seeing in the Waterberg, they are drawing on a depth of local knowledge that cannot be manufactured.
The MORE Collection spans six lodges across three safari reserves and a boutique hotel near two Natural Wonders of the World. A SafariSeven® Travel Designer will assemble these into a bush-and-city circuit suited to your timing and priorities.
The collection's founding ground, where Sabi Sand meets Kruger — River, Tinga, Narina, and Ivory Lodges, plus the Kingston Treehouse sleep-outs.
Explore South Africa →Malaria-free, framed by the Waterberg mountains — Safari Lodge, Mountain Lodge, and the exclusive-use Marataba Residence.
Explore South Africa →On the western edge of the greater Kruger ecosystem.
Explore South Africa →A restored National Monument in the Gardens quarter, beneath Table Mountain — the collection's city anchor.
Explore South Africa →The MORE Collection is owned and operated by the More family — now in its fourth generation under Robert More. The origin dates to 1933, when Guy Aubrey Chalkley, Robert More's great-grandfather, bought Kingston farm on the Sabie River and — fifteen years later — became a founding member of the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve. It has remained family-owned and family-operated continuously since then, and was never converted into an investor-managed or corporate portfolio. The continuity of family ownership across nearly a century is what makes the custodianship argument credible rather than aspirational: four generations of the same family, the same land, and the same commitment to managing it well.
The MORE Collection operates across three South African safari reserves and Cape Town. Lion Sands Game Reserve straddles the Sabi Sand and the Kruger National Park along the Sabie River, holding River, Tinga, Narina, and Ivory Lodges. In the malaria-free Marakele National Park, beneath the Waterberg mountains, the Marataba lodges (Safari Lodge, Mountain Lodge, and Marataba Residence) sit within a privately managed reserve with the full Big Five. Monwana Game Lodge lies in the Thornybush Nature Reserve on the western edge of the greater Kruger, and the Cape Cadogan Boutique Hotel provides the collection's Cape Town base beneath Table Mountain. Together they form a circuit from Sabi Sand to the Waterberg to the Cape.
The difference is custodianship depth. The MORE Collection has been in continuous relationship with South African land since 1933 — predating most of the legal and financial frameworks that govern luxury safari today. The guides who work for the collection carry knowledge accumulated over four generations of family observation. The community relationships predate corporate responsibility frameworks. The understanding of specific ecosystems reflects nearly a century of close, continuous attention. No operator who acquired their concession in the last decade can replicate this depth, regardless of the quality of their guides or the excellence of their lodges.
The Waterberg is a sandstone massif in Limpopo Province, South Africa — a landscape of dense thornveld, dramatic geology, and exceptional biodiversity that sits north of the Cradle of Humankind and west of Kruger. It is less visited than the Sabi Sand or the Kruger National Park ecosystem, which makes it one of the few genuinely uncrowded Big Five destinations left in South Africa. The vegetation is more physically complex than the open savannah of much of Southern Africa, making it particularly rewarding for guests who want an intimate, densely textured bush experience rather than open plains game viewing.
Speak with a SafariSeven® Travel Designer to shape a private safari around the MORE Collection, matched to your season, your pace, and the experience you are seeking.
