Five Star Lodge in the Addo Elephant National Park: A Guests View.

Our last Blog was what one can expect at River Bend Lodge so, to follow that up, a view from a family group of Guests.

In December we were privileged to host this whole family Group sharing a reunion at River Bend Lodge and what a great time was had by all. We are grateful to the Hardy Family who chose River Bend Lodge as their destination and we are pleased that we could deliver on their expectations.

Mark Hardy very kindly took a few moments off his busy schedule and shared these photographs and words with us. Thank you Mark and best wishes to your whole family from all of us at River Bend Lodge.

“We all had a wonderful time at River Bend just before Christmas. What an amazingly beautiful, sun-kissed corner of the world, and a great venue for a reunion of our family from the UK, Austria and Hong Kong. The 5.30am starts were well worth the pain, as your rangers always delivered! Steve and Mikey were very attentive to our group and always eager to show us and teach us about the nature and wildlife at Addo. And they were great with our kids and older folk alike! We had humbling close encounters with elephant families as well as loan bull elephants; there was challenging, wet-weather stalking of shy giraffes; we were honoured with an awe-inspiring half hour with male lions; we enjoyed entertaining moments with ostrich and zebras; and we even endured a few sombre and sobering moments with a poor dead baby elephant – closely watched over by a lounging lioness. Snacks on the game drives were just right (thanks for the introduction to Kudu Biltong!) and meals at the lodge were an extravagant reward for the hardship of the drive and hours of fresh air! Thanks for the introduction to South African wines and the photography tips. And please relay our thanks to your whole team for looking after us and making us feel so much at home. We will cherish our memories of our stay at River Bend for many many years.”