Lion Sands - Ivory Lodge
www.lionsands.com
I cant even begin to describe the beauty of this place – The international award winning Lion Sands Ivory Lodge is ulta luxurious, yet simple and uncluttered. The lodge is about overriding exclusivity with complete privacy, where each suite is operated as a private villa. Neither word nor photograph can capture the sense of the pure beauty which is breathed in when opening the carved wooden doors leading into this private recluse.
Villa set in the wild
Living room, Plunge Pool/Pool deck, Bedroom
Living Room
Bedroom and our view of the nature
Plunge pool and great landscape
Milk Bath prepared for us on our first night
The Lodge comprises six generously sized privately situated villas, each with a separate living room, heated swimming pool and an open plan en-suite bathroom with an enclosure for the outdoor shower – 6-star luxury in the middle of the bush. And because there are only 6 villas, 12 guests at any one time, each of us were greeted by our first names!
The only bummer was having to wake up at 5.30am every morning for our morning drive and freezing in the cold as our 4wheel drive go in search of the Big 5 – we trek, following the trails, the footprints and the poop left behind by the animals.
There are 2 drives a day – mornings @ 6am and afternoons @ 4.30pm.
It’s like Night Safari and Jurassic Park thrown together – except that we’ll never know what to expect and the animals are not caged up and can come as close as an arm’s stretch away. We had close encounters with an elephant, a leopard, some lioness and their cubs, buffaloes, warthogs etc. We even witnessed a lion feasting on an impala (bambi lookalike) and on our last day, we finally found the giraffes we have been tracking for since we came... I mean, we kept finding giraffe poop and footprint and only managed to see them for real on our final morning drive.
Other interesting encounters included waking up to find hippos just outside our villa and having a hyena following in our trail when we stopped to have some drinks n munchies in the setting sun. We also heard a hyena outside our bedroom on our last night and I was pretty freaked out by the proximity of its calls.
Because we were living in a wildlife resort, we were given strict instructions not to roam or leave our villa unguarded after the sun sets. Mylord, our personal security guard, would walk us to join the rest at dinner and back to our villa every evening.
We had such a fabulous honeymoon and I wish it din have to end so quickly. It certainly has inspired T and I to go in search of new places and travel around the globe if schedule, work and family obligations allow.
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