Esiweni Lodge - Nambiti Private Game Reserve

Last month we had the pleasure of visiting Esiweni Lodge, the day we arrived was a scorcher which according to the car thermometer the temperature was 40C! We parked our car in the shaded car park and awaited our ride to the lodge in the open Game Vehicle.

On arrival at the lodge we were welcomed with a small drink and a cold towel which was most certainly appreciated, then shown through to our chalet for our 2 night stay. The chalet are very comfortable with a double bed (which can be converted into Twins) sitting area, tea & coffee station, the bath is in the corner of the room and can be seen from the Bed but for those who are not couples there are screens available to separate the bath, indoor shower as well as an outdoor shower and a separate toilet with a door. A lovely deck completes the chalet and the views out over the cliff and looking down to the river below are beautiful to say the least. 

Bedroom

Bath

Deck

 The food at Esiweni Lodge is satisfactory with the standard fare being offered for Breakfast – cold buffet with the most tasty muffins and a hot breakfast, lunches were a little unusual for my taste but still had generally a good flavour, lunch on the first day was a Thai style prawn noodle salad which the flavours were good but just a little unusual, lunch the second day was more to my liking a chicken stew with wild rice and vegetables. Dinners were good and the lemon tart desert was absolutely fantastic I could have eaten more than just a slice it was sweet but tart with a crumbly short pastry base, delicious! I have been told that the chefs are undergoing training so that their flavour combinations will be more harmonious.

Now onto the main reason we visit the lodges, the Game. Nambiti Game Reserve is and always will be a very special place to me, the game here is fantastic with so many different antelope from Kudu to Eland you rarely travel very far before finding an animal, obviously the animals do sometimes hide and make it difficult to find but over our 4 game drives we managed to find Impala, kudu, eland, mountain reed buck, warthog, water buck, buffalo from a distance, ostrich, cape vulture, white backed vulture, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe from a distance, Red heartebeest, buffalo, hippo, two elephants bulls in the very early morning and the list goes on! Unfortunately for me the weather over our two night stay was not extremely conducive for photos but I did manage to get a few of the lion as the sun broke away from the clouds and a nice shadow elephant as he pushed over a tree.