23 Sodwana Bay Lodge - no load shedding

Sleeps 8. Private luxury lodge in the Sodwana Bay Lodge complex. Self-catering plus hotel and local restaurants. World renowned for 5 star PADI scuba-diving, deep sea fishing and Big Five game driving. Located within private security-gated resort in World Heritage site Isimangaliso reserve. Sub-tropical temperatures for all year round comfort. The ideal getaway. Resort generators ensure 24/7 electrical supply The space This is one of two lodges we have in the resort. Sleeps 8. It is furnished and maintained to very high standards, as if it were our permanent home. The resort is gated and has its own 24/7 security patrol. It has its own water supply and generators so is unaffected by national supply grid problems. Sleeps 8. Master double with shower en suite. Second master double with shower en suite. Guest wing with two twin bedrooms and bath/shower room. All bedrooms are air conditioned. Ceiling fans in every room. Open plan living room, dining room and fully equipped kitchen with cooker and oven, microwave, washer and tumble drier, large fridge freezer and chest deep freeze. Smart TV with DSTV Stream. Daily maid service for cleaning and laundry. Outdoor shower, sinks and hangers for scuba equipment and fishermen. Boat locker available for hire on request. Dive Shop and deep sea fishing charter on premises. Guest access The Sodwana Bay Lodge resort itself was originally created for the scuba diving and deep sea fishing community. It is a gated complex and sits between the only road into town and the shores of Lake Shazibe, which is flanked on the far side by the most ancient vegetated sand dunes in the world, hiding the shoreline. The wooden Lodge complex contains a hotel with two person chalets and family sized time-share lodges. Within the lodge grounds is a restaurant and bar complex, a swimming pool, a helipad, a 5 star PADI dive school, boat lockers and a hair and beauty salon. Nyala antelope roam through the grounds and sightings of mongooses, bush-babies and monkeys are a daily occurrence. Fish eagles soar over the lake and hornbills call in the trees. Outside the resort are a number of colourful local shops for essentials, local bars and restaurants. The beach is a 2.5 mile drive through the bush from the lodge and is gated as the area is in the protected Isimangaliso reserve. If part of a dive school or deep sea fishing charter, you will be taken straight onto the beach. For those who drive, it's a three minute walk from the parking lot to the beach. A small area of the Bay can be accessed by vehicles and boats for the diving and fishing concessions. The rest is off limits to vehicles and is only for the visitor to roam, as far as the eye can see. There are secure rock pools for youngsters to play in safely. Further round the headland, heading south, is one of the most glorious and beautiful beaches in the world, with maybe a couple of shore fishermen, the odd crab and sandpipers being your sole companions. Sodwana Bay is classified as one of the top dive sites in the world with a magnificent thirty mile coral reef complex with over 1200 species of tropical fish. It is also here in the deep off Sodwana Bay that the fabled living fossil, the coelacanth, is found. Whale sharks, a variety of sharks, bottlenose and spinner dolphins, giant manta rays and rare leatherback turtles are all regular visitors. Humpback whales migrate through here during the winter and spring season and orcas are also occasionally sighted. A little wooden beach café sited on stilts above the sand offers a delicious selection of toasted sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes and refreshments to sate the appetite after a great dive or a long beach walk. Sodwana Bay is one of the few places where you can swim with whale sharks in the morning and see the Big Five the same afternoon - the Big Five being lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino. Within a maximum of a 75 minute drive, you can be in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Reserve which is the only state run park in KZN and the oldest game reserve in the world. It covers 600 square miles and owing to it’s conservation programme, is home not only to the Big Five, but the world’s largest white rhino population. A very popular destination for day drives. For total luxury and overnight stays there are the local game resorts of Phinda and Thanda, the latter being the furthest at around a 90 minute drive. An evening game drive is made all the more unique, when, as the heat is going off the day and the sun is lowering in the sky, the safari vehicle stops in the bush and the back panel is flipped open and out comes ice-cold champagne and canapés and the traditional local delicacy, biltong or dried meat. Tembe Elephant Park is just a forty five minute drive north of Sodwana. Its two hundred square mile reserve’s northern edge is capped by the Mozambique border. It also is home to the Big Five along with over 350 species of bird life. Crocodile and snake parks are also in the region as are big and small cat conservation parks. Kite-surfing, micro-lighting and quad-biking are some of the other activities in the area. Alternatively, just sitting on the deck overlooking the bush and Lake Shazibe is a quieter alternative for the less adventurous.