When taking in world-famous wild spaces and matchless coastlines, staying in a space of striking inimitability starts things off on a high
Landing at Skukuza’s compact, attractive airport means you get an instant game drive on the way to wherever you’re staying. If you’re heading to Shiviko Kruger, a short drive outside the Kruger National Park in the luxury Elephant Point development, that means driving to the Paul Kruger Gate – initially along the Sabie River and then across grassland populated by buffalo, elephants and a selection of raptors, including a majestic martial eagle. Guide Piet won’t be sidelined, though: “These are unofficial sightings; for now, we focus on getting to the lodge and settled in.”
Elephant Point is a small reserve with no fences on the Kruger Park side and is one of a number of private lodges – almost all of them designed using the traditional thatched roof, wooden trim template – built in secure fenced areas. At the end of a row of such lodges, Shiviko Kruger immediately stands out for its shape – flat roofs on rooms built down and along contours – and its modern style, in which glass and concrete are combined to make the buildings feel like they fit the landscape just as much as the more common designs.
Beyond the slick façade are a number of unexpected features, including a huge statue that is the symbol of the lodge, a whole wall of bright Ndebele geometric art, a sauna (in the Lowveld!) and huge waterpark slides ending in a long, rectangular pool. The first impression? Fun is a focus here. This notion is backed up when being shown the fully equipped cinema in the lodge’s common area (called the ‘Clubhouse’), the PS5 inside it and the popcorn and slush machines installed along its outside wall!
The accommodation here is in the form of a number of large villas and these, along with the central area and all its attractions, suggest that there may be plenty of support for a petition to stay put at the lodge, regardless of one of the world’s premier wilderness areas being literally down the road and the gorgeous, multi-faceted Panorama Route close by in the other direction.
Luxury living
The villas are extraordinary, packed with technology that gels convenience and comfort, making for a level of opulence that most visitors will likely only have experienced while watching Downton Abbey. Each villa comes with a dedicated butler and chef. Fridges (plural) are packed with drinks you can help yourself to and coffee (from a shiny, high-spec Nespresso machine) and tea are in plentiful supply. Downstairs, there’s as much relaxing and dining space inside as there is outside.
Each villa is also themed, with the collective options celebrating different aspects of South African culture. The Ekasi Villa features at its entrance a giant hanging artwork of the Soweto Towers, while in the dining area, portraits of Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela take pride of place. Upstairs, in the Music Room, there are framed vinyl sleeves of albums by the likes of Stimela and Jonas Gwangwa.
Somewhat rarely for a safari lodge, where it is common practice to charge high rates while limiting access to technology, here, there is strong WiFi, TV screens up- and downstairs and surround sound you can connect your own music streaming app to. Guests don’t have the decision to be off-grid made for them.
Spectacular sightings
An afternoon game drive – the first official one – involves re-entering the Kruger Park and meandering in the direction of the Phabeni Gate. Isolated game holds interest until, down a sandy secondary road, there is first one leopard, obscured by leaves, guarding its kill in a tree, and then a second one, lying in the grass near a tree in which its own part-eaten meal lies draped over a branch. Its siesta is disturbed, though, by a group of hyenas that begin to mob the cat, forcing it to shimmy up the tree in a panic. Piet reckons their strategy is to encourage the leopard to resume eating the impala on the branch, hoping that pieces of the antelope will fall to the ground, making for easy pickings for them. The incident is brief but thrilling, the very essence of what ‘wild’ means.
For Shiviko guests, getting a good meal is substantially easier. Back at the villa, Chef Zakhe has almost completed creating curry poetry, with a glass of excellent red wine around a bonfire below the patio being the perfect aperitif. Day one ends having offered almost more experiences than time to process them.
Home comforts
Making the most of the lodge facilities is a blast, with comfortable, cushioned sunbeds next to the refreshingly cool pool. The huge slides are irresistible – the twisty one is slower if you’re nervous, while the other is steep and swift, dumping you into the water in a flurry of giggles. Warm up afterwards in the sauna (luxury/health crossover!), then shower and enjoy sundowners – or midday cocktails; you’re on holiday – at the upstairs bar, which offers a wide variety of excellent wines, beers and spirits.
Stackable glass doors mean you can have an entire wall open towards a river in the middle distance. There might be an arrangement between lodge management and local wildlife as, literally on cue as the first drink is set down on the counter, a family of elephants appears, adding their own low grumbles to a soundtrack of barking geckos, grunting hippos and evocative fish eagle calls.
Valleys and views
It takes around an hour to get to some of the major attractions on the Panorama Route, but it’s easy driving in a luxury vehicle and there are many astonishingly beautiful views – all without leaving the road. At Lisbon Falls, there is a small, no-hassling curio market to navigate on the way to a viewing area, fenced to prevent the possibility of slipping and falling into the gorge. Even at an average flow level, the main waterfall is still spectacular, a shimmering veil against black rock. The landscape below is no hardship to look at either – rolling green hills with high cliffs on the horizon.
At the Three Rondavels viewpoint, the scale of the Blyde River Canyon slowly becomes clear as you approach the edge, with the famous trio of rock formations revealed bit by bit. Well-maintained pathways lead to a variety of lookout spots – one directly over the aquamarine, lake-like stretch of the river where boats can be seen ferrying visitors about; one over a rock that has appeared in a million influencer Instagram posts; all of them offering 180° magnificence.
Bourke’s Luck Potholes is more popular, while occupying a smaller area. Tourists mill around a big yellow frame designed to encourage selfies. Travellers skip it and head straight down to the elegant arcing bridges over the deep gorge and the distinctive hollows that give the site part of its name. Looking down inspires a thrilling touch of vertigo as you consider the courage and drive of the prospectors of the past – it’s a compellingly unique spot.
At God’s Window, a change in the weather suggests that the climb to the famous viewing spot might be rained out but, while it’s chilly and breezy, the steep walk is glorious. The moss-lined rainforest section up top recalls The Lord Of The Rings, but the vista at the top is even more spectacular – even in low cloud, it’s a breathtaking spectacle.
Graskop Gorge has been transformed from years past and is now an outdoor wonderland of adventure sports and nature walks. The infrastructure is excellent and easy to enjoy, while the forest walk at the bottom of the glass-sided elevator is magnificent and educational, with caves and multi-textured vegetation in a thousand shades of green.
We return in time for the biggest football match of the weekend in the cinema, enjoyed with slush and popcorn, then a plate of snacks (the chef cannot bear you not eating) and then whisky when it becomes clear that my team is going to lose. In these surroundings, it really doesn’t seem so bad…
Text and photography | Bruce Dennill
For more information or to book a stay, go to shiviko.com.
