Luxury game lodge Kichaka has lost a vital court battle to continue its access to land owned by the family that founded the American Heinz dynasty. A Daily Dispatch report notes from Tuesday next week, guests staying at the Kichaka Lodge face the inconvenience of having to circumnavigate a massive portion of land bought by the Heinz-Youness family if it wants to view game on the rest of the conservancy.

Kichaka is part of the massive Bayeti Game Conservancy near Grahamstown and in future guests will have to drive along the busy N2, because the farm, Lilyvalley – bought last year by Afrika Plains, owned by affluent couple Amre Youness and Caroline Heinz-Youness – lies between the outlying Kichaka lodge and the rest of the conservancy.

Kichaka’s Tim Fenner resorted to the High Court for an urgent interdict after being told some six months ago by Afrika Plains that it would no longer be allowed to cross Lilyvalley as of 1 August. The report says Judge Judith Roberson ruled that Fenner had failed on almost every level in his application for an urgent interdict that would stop Afrika Plains from preventing his access to the land.

She said the urgency had been self-created as Fenner had known since a court case in 2009 that Lilyvalley was not part of the conservancy. Roberson awarded punitive legal costs against Fenner for failing to bring the 2009 court case to the court’s attention.

Full Daily Dispatch report (subscription needed)