Luxury Big5 Lodge In Malaria Free Eastern Cape
Pumba Game reserve is only an hour from Port Elizabeth and is a luxury, five star game lodge. The reserve covers approximately 6,500 hectares and is teaming with animals, including the Big Five of lion, elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard, and also wild dogs. One of the highlights at Pumba is a pride of extremely rare white lions who live and roam happily and freely within the reserve.
Each of the large chalets – of which there are only 12 – have private plunge pools and outside showers. You can sit on your private terrace and overlook Lake Kariega, which is such a romantic spot.
If you are travelling along the garden route and want to stop off for a couple of nights of safari, Pumba is an ideal choice. Malaria free, exclusive and teaming with animals – what more could you ask for!
I am the UK Sales Representative for Pumba, a little piece of wilderness in the Eastern Cape. The reserve has 2 stunning lodges, Water Lodge and Msenge Bush Lodge. Water Lodge overlooks the lake, home to 8 Hippo currently, often seen and heard grunting. Also often seen are the resident Fish Eagles, the big five and our male White Lion who recently bred cubs with a tawny female.
Msenge Bush Lodge offers fabulous accommodation in enormous glass walled suites, tucked away in the bush with huge bathrooms, all suites at both lodges have plunge pools and also lap pools. Msenge has the added bonus of the luxurious spa (perfect to visit between exciting game drives) and a gym to work off the delicious food and drinks all included in the price of your stay.
The website is really informative and will keep you updated with all the exciting news from both lodges – http://www.pumbagamereserve.co.za
My wife and I spent four wonderful days at Pumba in early December. We stayed in the Msenge Bush Lodge where we were lucky enough to be the only guests for the time we were there. This ensured fantastic service from the staff, who all made a huge effort to make out stay as memorable as possible. We had a safari guide, John, all to ourselves and he was brilliant – very knowledgeable without boring you on the subject! The animals were very impressive and we managed to see all the highlights, including the white lion and his family. The safari truck gets really close to the action, so we came away with some fab pictures.
The individual lodge accomodation is very private and of a very high standard. We called into the Water Lodge for breakfast one day and both agreed that we preferred the ‘bush’ feel of Msenge, over the larger Water Lodge – just a personal preference. The pound goes a long way against the Rand at the moment, which made eating and drinking unbelievably cheap compared to London prices. The food was of a very high standard too and the wine in particular was fantastic.
Pumba exceeded our high expectations and I would recommend it to anyone without hesitation.