Amakhosi Safari Lodge

With great excitement we set off from Durban for our stay at Amakhosi Safari Lodge located near Pongola, the drive took us an easy 4 1/2 hours with a few stops along the way.  We arrived at Amakhosi to a friendly welcome, bags were unloaded and we were shown around the main area of the lodge, the reception desk, lounge and curio shop - for those who wish to purchase a memento of their stay - are off to one side of the entrance, with a bar, another lounge/dining room to the other, a lovely rock pool and table and chairs  are set out on the deck which overlooks the river flowing in front of Amakhosi Safari Lodge.

We were then taken through to our Suite with is comfy bedroom, separate lounge with tea & coffee station and mini bar, big bathroom with all the amenities you could want or need and a private deck complete with hammock overlooking the river.

Bedroom

Huge Bathroom, there is also a separate shower and a separate toilet.

View From our Deck.

Deck Looking back at our Chalet.

Once we had settled into our chalet it was time for high tea which is more of a late lunch as the spread included venison wraps,  salads and mini desserts all washed down with homemade ice tea.  After we had had our full it was time for the afternoon game drive where we saw nyala, impala, kudu, zebra, Buffalo, giraffe, a very shy bush buck, warthog, Vultures and the list just goes on! Dinner that evening was a scrumptious 3 courses, all the food is simply divine at Amakhosi, with our stomachs full we headed off to slumber as we had an early start the next morning.

Our day started with tea & rusks then it was onto the vehicle to see what we could find and we weren't disappointed! the morning brought with it all the normal antelope as well as Rhino and a male Cheetah who was walking along the fence line getting accustomed to his new surroundings - he had only just been introduced to the area - but unfortunately for me the light was not great for pictures and that together with him constantly on the move didn't result in any great shots, I have included one picture below although a little bury..

After our exciting morning of finding the cheetah it was back to the lodge for breakfast/brunch, a siesta and another yummy high tea. That afternoons game drive just got better, although the weather did not improve at all, at least it wasn't raining! we did managed to track the Elephant herd and although they seemed to be moving relatively quickly through the bush Nick (our fantastic ranger) decided to take a chance and wait for them at the Water hole, well we weren't disappointed as the whole herd come down for a nice long drink, there really is nothing like the African elephant so huge and graceful at the same time and the little one are just so precious, trying to Mimic their mothers, one little one was even chewing on its trunk! so cute!  Besides the elephants the one sighting that stood out the most was a little grey duiker, which are normally very shy buck, was just running along in the road ahead of us! it would stop every few meters and look at us as if to say are you still following?! unfortunately I didn't get a picture as with it being overcast and the light fading I think I would have just ended up with a completely grey picture!  Also it is sometimes just nice to sit back and take it all in without a camera in front of your face.

The baby Elephants are always so cute.

The next morning brought us a little bit of sunshine and Lions! we had heard them calling the night before but couldn't find them, so this morning we set out to look for them, as luck would have it they were being very vocal and we found them with a little bit of work, we first spotted the one male just lying in the middle of the road, he was very cooperative and together with the sun shining I managed to get a few good pictures, when he got up and moved a little more down the road we were free to go off road to find his brothers, what we actually ended up stumbling into was in fact his two brothers and one was mating with a female! so that's what all the commotion was about, we sat with them for quite some time and she presented herself to the male quite often, I found it funny that once they were done the male would roar and his brothers would join in with him in a corus as if to say yes your doing a great job! well let's hope they were successful as Amakhosi could be seeing some new arrivals in a few months time.

All in all we loved our stay at Amakhosi Safari Lodge, the Staff are fantastic and super friendly, the game viewing is great, the food is superb and the suites are spacious, what more could you ask for?

Well to top it all off you do also get the Amazing African Sunsets.