For anyone planning their South African holiday in advance, it is so refreshing to have just heard that the Amakhala Game Reserve have announced that they are HOLDING their current 2010 rates throughout 2011.

They are also going to continue to offer the excellent Special Offer deal of Stay for 4 Nights, Pay for 3 during January, February, March and April 2011, and during the low season months of May, June, July, August and September 2011 they are offering a Stay for 3 nights, Only Pay for 2 deal.

All in all – a winner all round for anyone wanting to experience exciting game drives in search of the Big 5 in a malaria-free environment !

Call us now to make your booking …. why wait any longer !!

For anyone looking to go on safari in March or April this year, this superb offer gives visitors to South Africa the opportunity to experience a fantastic 3 day safari in the Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape for the cost of only 2 nights.

The Amakhala Game Reserve began in 1999 as a joint conservation venture and today its independently owned lodges offer malaria-free safaris less than an hour drive from Port Elizabeth.

Go on game drives in an open Land Rover in search of wildlife including rhino, elephant, cheetah, buffalo, giraffe, black wildebeest, zebra, and over 16 antelope species, or take a night drive with cheese and wine sundowners before searching for elusive nocturnal animals; relax on a slow river cruise down the Bushman’s River; or take a guided walk with one of the qualified rangers.

Choose from 4 lodges – Bush Lodge, Leeuwenbosch, Safari Lodge or Woodbury Lodge.

For a lot of visitors to South Africa, a very popular safari destination is to spend a couple of nights in one of the lodges of the Eastern Cape, as this can easily be combined with a visit to Cape Town and a trip along the Garden Route – and the area is also malaria-free, which especially for families is an important consideration

But which lodge or reserve do you select? There are so many to choose from – Shamwari, Kwandwe, Pumba, Amakhala, Lalibela, Kariega … so what are the main differences ?

This may, I hope, shed some light for potential visitors to this area !

The reserves of the Eastern Cape range in size – anything from 5,000 hectares to 25,000 hectares. They are all privately owned, which means that the rangers have the freedom to drive off-road if there is a particular sighting that they want their guests to get close to – a pride of lions snoozing under a tree, for example !

The reserves all operate independently from each other, and each therefore have their own wildlife stock – the larger reserves such as Shamwari and Kwandwe can obviously sustain more wildlife in terms of actual physical numbers, and can also sustain species such as wild dog, who need an incredibly large home territory to hunt over – but the privilege of this is reflected in the rates.

The smaller reserves such as Amakhala, Lalibela, Pumba and Kariega, which tend to be around the 5,000 – 8,000 hectare size, do have to limit the number of predators – for example, a small reserve can only sustain a few lion, or else they would find their entire buffalo population is wiped out very quickly by hungry lions !

If Shamwari or Kwandwe fall within your budget, then in all honesty a 2 or 3 night safari in one of these lodges would give you a more rounded safari experience by dint purely of the size. 

Staying in either of these reserves means you will generally not see the road / reserve perimeter fence line at all during your stay, whereas in the smaller reserves you may well come across the fence line during a game drive – especially in Amakhala, as the lions are kept in a separate 1,000 hectares on one side of the road, so to get between this and the main part of the reserve you do cross under the main N2 road via an underpass – which can detract from the overall feeling of being totally immersed in your bush / safari experience.

However, to be forewarned is to be prepared – we had some wonderful sightings when we stayed at Amakhala, which included a cheetah mum and 3 cubs on an impala kill just a few meters from the N2 – which more than compensated for the highway encounter !

Kariega is also a ‘split’ reserve, with the lions and elephants being kept separate in one part of the reserve, but you don’t go near the N2 at all – however you do cross over a minor road between the 2 parts of the reserve.

Whichever lodge you choose, you will still come away with memories of a wildlife encounter that will last a lifetime.

The special offers at safari lodges continue to roll in, and with the Rand remaining  weak against the US$, Euro, and even sterling these deals really do offer great value in these tough economic times.

We are delighted to be able to confirm 2 new special offers at the Amakhala Game Reserve, which is about an hour drive from Port Elizabeth on South Africa’s malaria-free Eastern Cape Coast.

The first offer runs from January to 31 March and is 4 nights for the price of 3 when you stay at Amakhala Safari Lodge, Reed Valley Busch Lodge, Reed Valley Inn, Woodbury Lodge, Leeuwenbosch, and Shearer’ Lodge. 

The second offer is for 3 nights for the price of 2 at the Amakhala Game Reserve from 1 April to 31 August 2009, and is for the same lodges at the first offer.