Safari Lodge on Amakhala

The Safari Lodge consists of 11 Luxury Suites with private plunge pools and spacious living rooms. Each of the bedrooms is centred around a large king-size bed, fitted with soft linen and draped with mosquito nets. The suites overlook Safari Lodge’s waterhole, where many monkeys, zebras and antelope visit throughout the day to quench their thirst, and guests can enjoy watching these amazing animals interact from the comfort of their private decks.

Each room has its own bathroom, complete with a double bath which can be filled with aromatherapy scented bubbles. Enjoy some quality time with your significant other in this romantic setting, ideal for honeymooners or those marking an anniversary.

Guests staying at Safari Lodge on Amakhala can look forward to three delicious meals each day. In the evenings, guests are served dinner under the stars in the outdoor boma, where a roaring fire keeps you warm. Meals are freshly prepared by the lodge’s expert chefs using high-quality local ingredients, and dietary requirements can be catered for if the lodge is warned in advance.

Enjoy twice-daily game drives and explore Amakhala Game Reserve from the comfort of a specialised safari vehicle. Guests can look out for incredible animals including giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, buffalo, leopards and lions. Game drives in the morning allow visitors to see predators returning from hunts while the other animals graze in the cooler climate before the heat of the day. The late afternoon and evening drives focus on the wildlife travelling to water sources to quench their thirst before nocturnal species such as aardvark, bat-eared foxes and porcupines begin to emerge.

Explore the wilderness on horseback as the classic explorers did on a 2-3 hour journey across the terrain that even the safari vehicles struggle with. Guests can get up close to herds of eland, antelope and zebras without the startling sound of an engine to scare wildlife away. Feel free as you race across the plains with the wind in your hair and a horse companion at your side. Intermediate to experienced riders are welcome, and helmets will be provided for your safety.

Journey across the verdant plains on foot and experience the thrill of tracking some of Amakhala’s incredible game such as rhinos, elephants and buffalos while enjoying a leisurely exploration of the beautiful landscape. Guests will be accompanied by a well-trained trail guide who will teach you how to recognise tracks and follow clues that lead to exciting game viewing.

Guests staying within the Amakhala Game reserve are asked to pay a levy which goes towards Amakhala’s conservation efforts. The levy is essential for supporting anti-poaching units which protect and monitor rhino populations with the reserve.

Part of the levy will also go to the Amakhala Foundation, helping to fund their award-winning Conservation Education Programs. ‘In 2017, over 2000 school children from local communities visited the Amakhala Conservation Centre to learn about wildlife conservation and sustainability for future generations.’

Amakhala Game Reserve is supporting local children and youth by providing ongoing education to schools and tertiary institutions on sustainable tourism.

‘Through active participation in workshops and presentations, Amakhala aims to empower people with the knowledge of how they can contribute and ultimately make a difference in species and landscape preservation.’

Amakhala also runs a volunteer program that enables people of all ages to get involved in animal monitoring, land rehabilitation, and land maintenance within the reserve.

The Amakhala Foundation offers unemployed people from the local community the chance to learn skills and earn an income through their Craft Centre. Local women create beaded items from home, including rhino medals for the annual Rhino Run, and sewing is done on-site by a woman who is able to run her own business through the centre.

Teenagers from the Isipho Project also make beaded bracelets which are sold at the Craft Centre and ‘one-quarter of the sale price of the bracelets goes to a bursary fund to assist one or more of these teenagers with some tertiary education after leaving school.’ For instance, the first recipient of this bursary, Duduzile Dumana, has recently graduated with a diploma in Journalism from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.

The Isipho Charity Trust is an independent charity based in Paterson. The trust supports ‘over 300 children through 2 preschool classes, an after-care programme, feeding scheme, materials support for schooling, and psycho-social support’, as well as providing crucial education to the local community on HIV and AIDS.

Amakhala has supported Isipho along the way by providing food parcels for those in need, raising ‘half the funding required for the Isipho Charity Trust to buy its own property, and giving time and expertise through the services of two Amakhala members that serve on the Isipho Board.’

The Amakhala Volunteer programme also assists with the general maintenance of Isipho Charity Trust’s property, as well as running classes for computing and bead art.

Amakhala staff members receive regular training to support them as they take on new positions and responsibilities. This gives all staff a chance to excel and reach their full potential. Staff members’ children are given a bursary for the local school so that they can ‘live at home and attend school until they are 10 years old.’

The Amakhala Foundation also supports a local preschool by providing vital funds for everyday expenses, and are planning to open a second preschool to keep up with the demand for student spaces.

‘The Amakhala Foundation’s main focus is literacy and environmental education, with the aim of weaving opportunities for a solid education and a love of the environment into our community’s lives. On the AGR literacy education begins with children aged 3-5 years old. Education of primary school children continues through a bursary programme and Library Hour and a range of literacy programmes.’

The Amakhala Foundation runs an Environmental Education programme for children in order to convey the importance of the natural world and help children better appreciate it. Children who go to education days at the Amakhala Conservation Centre (ACC) are able to learn about the various habitats and ecosystems of the Eastern Cape, and embark on exciting game drives where they can observe the local animals in their natural habitat.

The foundation has partnered with Coaching for Conservation so that 10-year-olds can learn about rhino conservation while playing soccer. ‘University students benefit educationally by visiting the Centre and conducting specialised research projects within the reserve. Each year, close to 2000 people, young and old, are able to connect with nature through these different programmes.’

Amakhala believe that they can only preserve that which they understand, therefore they run a number of research and monitoring programs to better inform their conservation management decisions.

‘Environmental factors in terms of soil types, vegetation, climate, and the availability of water all combine to determine the carrying capacity of the reserve. The population of large mammal species is particularly salient, as it is the alluring megafauna and predators that largely drive ecotourism demand, and, their presence is also indicative of the health of our ecosystem.’

By offering a range of alternative sources of income for members of the local community, Amakhala has been able to reduce the amount of poaching within the area, leading to an increase in animal populations. This had led to a number of sightings of ‘rare species such as Bat Eared Foxes and Blue Duiker, Aardwolf, along with all the major predator species here on Amakhala.’ In addition, protecting the wilderness has helped ecosystem integrity and biodiversity conservation.

As part of their anti-poaching initiative, Amakhala has a K9 unit, horseback patrols and an ‘Eye in the Sky’ to watch out for any potential poaching threats to Amakhala’s wildlife. The field rangers receive regular training to keep them up to date with the latest tools and technologies that are available to help them in their duty, and Amakhala works with local communities to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and provide alternative incomes so that local people do not resort to poaching out of financial desperation.

‘There is no substitute for a team of well-trained, well-equipped and strongly motivated anti-poaching scouts. However, through innovative deployment of modern technology, we can significantly increase their effectiveness. For example, we deploy detection equipment such as GSM-enabled camera traps and night vision equipment to feed information through digital communication networks to web-based monitoring. The added efficiency derived from these systems assists teams in increasing the rate of arrests of poachers and reducing wildlife losses whilst simultaneously deterring other would-be illegal hunters who recognise the increased risk of being apprehended.’