Bush Lodge offers a wonderful “Out of Africa” experience, with tent-and-thatch suites housing beds adorned with mosquito nets and huge stone baths; on your private deck, you’ll also find a plunge pool for cooling off in the summer. The furniture is simple and classic, with colonial touches, and the views from the suites and the thatched main building are superb, down a valley crossed with game (elephants are a common sighting, often approaching within metres of the lodge). After a sumptuous evening meal, settle in around the fire pit to swap stories of the days’ game viewing before heading back for a comfortable nights sleep.
Amakhala Private Game Reserve is around 7,500 hectares and until the turn of the millennium was farmland owned by a number of families, some of whom were 5th generation settler farmers. They joined their land together and made a game reserve, which now offers excellent game viewing (with four of the Big Five being routinely sighted: elephant, rhino, lion, and buffalo. Leopards live up to their elusive reputation!) as well as wonderful scenery with the Bushman’s River cutting a swathe through the reserve.
