Lion Sands

Day 4 – We got on the road early in the morning after grabbing breakfast at Zuleika Country House. Our destination for today is Lion Sands private game reserve which is located inside the Sabi-Sabi game reserve. We were supposed to make a lunch stop at a town called Hazyview, but the Garmin navigator screwed us up and took us on a route that bypasses the town. It wasn't bad because we found out later that Hazyview doesn't really have anything we would have enjoyed.

Sabi-Sabi private game reserve is adjacent to the southwest side of Kruger National Park with Sabi river separating the lands. Basically, it is an extension of the greater Kruger park, but it's privately managed by the hotels and lodges in the reserve. The animals from Kruger travel back and forth and many make the reserve their homes.

Lion Sands is one of the lodges inside Sabi-Sabi reserve. They own about 40 square kilometers of game land with a lot of very cool plants and animals (more on that later). There are only 18 rooms total, but they have over 200 staff working there, attending to every detail. We received a little orientation when we checked in. This orientation is very important because, as they put it, we were inside the animals' home, so there are many things we must / must not do for safety reasons. First, we're not supposed to touch any animals (duh!) There are a lot of impala's and nyala's that come very close to our room to eat grass. There are also a lot of monkeys (too bad my brother has a severe monkey phobia because he was bitten by one as a child). They are very cute, so it's very tempting to pet them. After sundown, you're not allowed to walk by yourself even if it's only to make a short trip to the next room. This is because at night, the more dangerous animals do come very close to us. We had male buffaloes and hippopotamus that came both nights we were there. If you wanted to go anywhere, you'd have to call reception for an escort. All of the staff are very knowledgeable about the wildlife, and they know how to handle animal encounters.

The hotel itself is very nice and the staff are very attentive. Lion Sands is actually rated one of the top 3 hotels by Tatler, an international luxury lifestyle magazine. Look at the pictures, and you'll see why.

Common areas:

Guest room:

The food at Lion Sands was quite good. Every meal, the hotel offers an option of traditional meat, exotic meat, or vegetarian. These are some of the dishes we had.

I will make a separate post about the wildlife that we saw. Until then...