5DMarkIIguy

We were in the River House. It was cold/freezing in the morning game drives and after the sun went down, it was very cold driving back to the lodge. They prepared hot water pouch & blanket for each person to keep warm.
We were all in our lounge wear during the day and did use the pool one afternoon. The pool is lightly heated.

You will love it.

From Cape Town to Joburg, everything is way too salty for me. You can ask the chef to adjust to your taste.

5DMarkIIguy

How about 7 lion cubs left behind while the 4 moms went out to hunt? We went to see the cubs all bundled together. They were staring us down. Just our car and these cubs as they are in the Morukuru reserve area so no other lodges are allowed in. 2 moms came back to fetch them after a kill, and we tracked them for hours. We found the entire family having a feast on an unfortunate wilderbeest about 7-8km from where they left the cubs. The tracker and ranger really went above and beyond because they said the moms would not take the cubs that far without a kill, and they went offroad for hours looking for them. You wouldn´t believe how many flat tires they had to change to get us to the site. At the site, we were the only one there with the pride. It was so surreal. To see our tracker and ranger in action, we were so in awe. Like they really do track with all of their experiences.

patchan8984

We are in farm house in May. As somel of our group is a bit picky about food, what was the issue was food and how did you take control of the menu. Are they pretty flexible?

5DMarkIIguy

We told them ahead of time that we have no allergies and can eat anything.
The first dinner was very salty. The sauce was not exactly to our liking. The vegetable side dish was too creamy, if that is a thing. The meat they used was gamey for some people in the group.
The first breakfast was also very salty.

Right after that, we talked with the chef and basically asked him what is available, and then we planned the menu for the rest of the time. What to cook, how to cook, how much spices to add. Like steam the fish, have some stirred fried veggies on the side for lunch. Tempura some prawns, make the sauce like this or that. The chef said he preferred it like that since he doesn't have to think and worry about the menu. They only have foods delivery once a week so in term of planning, it is a bit restricted.

To be fair, after spending 4 nights in Cape Town and 2 nights in Johannesburg, all of the restaurants were not good to average. We just can't change the restaurant food to our liking. We can at Morukuru.

MacMyDay

I guess I won't find out for quite a few years, as I'm all safari'd out.

Sounds boring compared to going searching for rhinos, only to find them right near a pride of 20+ lions, including one white lion, that have been part of a National Geographic documentary.

Kagehitokiri

private reserves/concessions allow off-road & night drives

a thread focusing on those might be interesting

curious re exclusive-use villa on private reserve/concession

MacMyDay

We just finished our stay in the Kruger Park Singita properties and had an absolutely amazing time. However, this was all down to our guide, not only how brilliant and enthusiastic he was, but also down to how well we got on with him, to the point we ended up having most of our meals with him and leave with an actual friend.

In terms of Singita itself, I really had to do a double take on it after the opening night and wonder if I had joined a cult instead. The staff were so unbelievably laid back that it felt like a reenactment of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, where everything was totally radical and chill. The entrance was completely overwhelming, with so many people lined up to greet us, yet with no idea who they were; this was followed by more people coming up, introducing themselves and then allowing silence to creep in as we wondered what the next steps of our initiation were.

The intro was followed by sitting down and being told an encyclopaedia of information about everything, without bothering to show any of it. Then they paired us up with another family for dinner on our first night, which we politely declined. The staff are free to drink with guests in the evening, and I actually approve of this and feel the laid back approach works as it helps create a bond. But only to an extent, as some of the staff were clearly over the limit.

The over-attention at Lebombo was completely counterintuitive and removed any sense of a personal touch at all, as we just had 5 people asking the same question all the time, with no care at all about the answer. It felt like they were going around ticking boxes to say they had spoken to the guest, rather than wanting to engage in conversation. Robots could have done the same job. It was the first time I've ever experienced this, and just shows how well companies like Aman manage it with a single member of management going around and engaging in meaningful conversation, vs the Singita approach of everyone disrupting your meal every 60 seconds to ask you questions about nothing.

It was completely different at Sweni, where there are 9 less rooms, and therefore a lot less staff, who are completely different age group of employees that have learnt the act of customer engagement.

What also made the experience was having a private vehicle and I would only ever go on safari again if we could have one. We went cage diving with great white sharks a few days prior to arrival and took out a private boat, which meant instead of 33 other people on board, it was just us and some guys from the Discovery Channel. It was absolutely worth it for the one-on-one attention and ability to do as we wished. At Singita, it gave us the same opportunity, meaning we got to see every thing we wanted to, and also got to engage in some great conversations with our guide and tracker.

Having said all this, nothing was ever too much hassle, the room setup was amazing, the rooms have everything I could have asked for, the views are incredible, the food offering is immense and we had a brilliant time.


Singita Lebombo room pics and wildlife:

Flickr Slideshows (Photostreams)