South Africa 7days/6nights “Under African Skies”
With ecoAfrica, Rhino Walking Safaris and Lion Sands River Lodge
About the Trip
Begin this great package at Lion Sands River Lodge and on the border of the Sabie River between the Kruger National Park and Sabi Sabi Private Nature Reserve. Here you’ll enjoy game drives twice a day in arguably 2 of Africa’s best game viewing areas. Then experience a luxury walking safari with Rhino Walking Safaris in 12,000 hectares of pristine bushveld. You’ll spend 2 nights in the luxury tented Plains Camp and 2 nights in Rhino Post Safari Lodge. For 2 nights you’ll have the option to sleep under the stars and amongst nature on a raised wooden platform! Eco Africa will handle the coordination of your trip. Sleep outs are subject to weather.
Includes: accommodation, most meals, and game activities
Starting bid: $1200
Lion Sands River Lodge
Lion Sands River Lodge overlooks the Sabie River – the border between the Kruger National Park and Sabi Sabi Private Nature Reserve – arguably Africa’s 2 best game viewing areas. The lodge dates back to the 1930s and is still owned and managed by the family who passionately started it all, ensuring that you enjoy and experience traditional African hospitality at its finest.
A stay at Lion Sands River Lodge is all about spirit, warmth, nature & relaxation with a host of activities to help you do just that. Highlights of your stay are likely to include game drives, bush walks, star-gazing, hippo tours, wildlife lectures, treehouse sleep-outs, bush spa and bush dinners.
Rhino Walking Safari:
Experience a luxury walking safari in 12,000 hectares of pristine bushveld in the only wilderness concession in the Kruger National Park. Follow elephant paths and rhino trails on foot through this internationally renowned Big Five area - observing a diversity of fauna and flora on your way. Accommodation and service is of the highest quality and each safari is tailor-made to include a combination of camps and a possible night under the stars.
About Lion Sands
Lion Sands is situated in the southern portion of the Sabi Sand Reserve, well known for better game viewing and a far smaller concentration of lodges than the northern and western areas. The reserve features a great diversity of general fauna and flora.
Lion Sands has exclusive access to the Sabie River. From its source high up in the Drakensburg mountain range where it passes through the famous Mac Mac falls, the river through Lion Sands teems with wildlife. It is the definitive safari experience. The relatively cool riverbanks offer a brief respite from the relentless African sun. Splendid parades of animals pass through to quench their thirst at the water’s edge. And eager predators wait patiently.
Lion Sands has adopted a sustainable and meaningful approach to community development. The Company sponsors the Henna Pre-school, situated in the Huntington Community. The school has 130 children and Lion Sands facilitates both financial and other support to the school in the form of a “Guest Sponsorship Programme” whereby the school receives donations for building, books, training, food and water from Guests introduced to the school. Guests may also sponsor a child for a year at the school. Lion Sands also supports the school directly on a budget per annum basis. New projects for 2005 include running water, new classrooms and a new kitchen. Weekly medical assistance and aids clinics are also offered.
All trees remained in place during the construction of the lodge and all roots were “bridged” for foundations. The gardens contain indigenous plants and trees only and all alien plants are removed immediately. Where possible, natural building material was utilised during the construction process. Lion Sands has a resident ecologist doing research on the property and monitoring the lodge’s impact on the environment – ensuring that it is minimal!
About Rhino Walking Safaris and Rhino Post Safari Lodge
Approximately 20 km North East of the main Kruger rest camp at Skukuza, the concession shares a 15km boundary with Mala Mala in the Sabi Sands private reserve with the big game moving freely between the two reserves. This environmentally sensitive, big five game area is ideal for walking safaris offering a great diversity of fauna and flora.
Each safari, with no more than 8 guests accompanied by two expert and armed guides offers a new and exhilarating, yet timeless experience in an ever-changing environment. Qualified to the most stringent standards the guides will share their wealth of bush culture and knowledge.
In the tender process for the concession inside Kruger 20% of the evalutation criteria involved BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) initiatives. RWS was one of the highest scoring of all the concessionaires. The BEE commitment involved shareholding, employment & training, and SMME. We have met all our commitments and work closely with the Social Ecology department of the KNP (Kruger National Park). One of our SMME initiatives has been to acquire a mini bus, and set up an employee (who selected through a interview program with Social Ecology dept) with his own taxi business – the main contract being to transfer our staff in and out the park.
Rhino Post Safari Lodge was built using natural materials of stone, wood, thatch & canvas, this organic camp has 8 suites. The utmost care was taken to minimise the environmental impact of the lodge, and to that end, no concrete was used in the building’s foundations, careful consideration was taken in the layout of the camp, battery power is used for lighting, special indigenous Reedbed System processes the bathroom waste, and other waste is sorted and recycled wherever possible.
All the camps on the concession were constructed with organic material, so that in 20 years when our lease expires, the whole camp could be removed and no sign that we had been there. For eg. at Rhino Post the walls in the lounge are Gabion stone walls so that there are no foundations.
We do not permit any off road driving and have limited the roads on the concession to access roads. We prefer our guests to explore the area on foot, without crossing a mish mash of roads.
All our developments were subject to EIA evaluation and we have also appointed an independent company as our environmental officer. We have in place operational manuals, which dictate all policies in respect of environmental, waste management, water usage (this is measured every month) etc.
Learn more about ecoAfrica, Rhino Walking Safaris and Lion Sands River Lodge
CC Africa’s exciting 3-night, 4-day Walking Safaris deliver an exceptional interpretive, up-close and personal African experience on both Ngala and Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa. Accompanied throughout by armed specialist rangers and trackers, guests have the opportunity to identify tracks and insects, birdwatch and learn about habitats and ecology as they walk through the bushweld.
Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) is Africa’s leading ecotourism organisation, committed to providing world-class holiday experiences for discerning travellers, and to ongoing investment in sustainable conservation development and community empowerment.
CC Africa’s ecotourism model recognises that economic development of the areas in which we operate is crucial to the maintenance of bio-diversity. We also recognise that much of Africa’s wildlife heritage and land is influenced or owned by local communities. Our model – successfully implemented throughout our operations in Africa — links international high net worth, low volume/low impact visitors to these wilderness areas and their resident communities. The resultant revenue tangibly demonstrates the benefits of ecotourism and conservation to the neighbouring residents.
