NORTH ZULULAND
Up near the border of Eswatini you’ll find a wild and wonderful corner of SA, with some great Big Five conservation areas – and surprisingly good deals for a bush break
If you haven’t yet explored this wild corner of SA, do it from these fabulous lodgings, says Pippa de Bruyn.
TripAdvisor lists accommodation rated by guests, but as much as we love peer reviews, they don’t offer a comparative voice – so how do we know No. 1 is really the best? Pippa de Bruyn, who has reviewed accommodation for 20 years for the likes of Frommer’s and The Telegraph, scours TripAdvisor and other online accommodation sites when researching a destination. For Zululand, she created a longlist of 15 to inspect. The following made the final cut.
What are you looking for?
• Your own self-catering bush villa (pg 64)
• The best views and access to Lake Jozini (pg 64)
• A B&B stopover that’ll make you linger (pg 65)
• A game-reserve bargain for a group (pg 65)
• Fantastic hospitality beside a river (pg 66)
• Great-value Big Five safari stays (pg 66)
• A super-special luxury camp (pg 67)
What i found about accommodation here
• It’s fairly complicated to get a comparative idea of stock in Zululand, as there are several overlapping areas. Keywords you could use for online research include Mkuze, Hluhluwe, Pongola, Jozini, Manyoni and Zululand. (I focused on the hinterland as St Lucia has been covered in a previous issue.)
• In the wake of Phinda’s success, there has been a marvellous proliferation of land reclamation for conservation purposes, and plenty of reserves offer the chance of seeing the Big Five as well as cheetah and wild dog.
• Of these, 23 000-hectare Manyoni (formerly Zululand Rhino Reserve), created in 2004 when 17 private properties dropped fences, offers the most variety in terms of choices, from selfcatering villas to full-service luxury lodges. The south, through which the perennial Msunduze River runs, has the more varied terrain, but all lodges have traversing rights to the whole reserve.
• The lodges and camps in the Big Five reserves here are much more affordable than their Sabi Sand and Kruger counterparts, yet the landscapes are equally beautiful and in parts more varied. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to visit the area this year.
• Note that Google Maps is not always reliable, nor is cellphone service – if self-driving, do so with directions.