Hoyo Hoyo safari lodge
A celebration of African style. We stayed on a semi-private tract of land within the Kruger National Park. The park is publicly accessible, but granted the hotel operator that we stayed with exclusive use of part of the park. This meant the that the hotel operator had access to the public parts of the park, while retaining the private use of the part of the park that we stayed in.
The hotel operator had 3 hotels in their private concession — Hoyo Hoyo (which means welcome in the local language), in which the hotel rooms are modeled after traditional African huts, Hamilton’s Tented Camp, which has colonial era glamping tents, and Imbali Safari Lodge, which we gathered was a blend of the other two hotels.
We stayed at the Hoyo Hoyo Safari Lodge, which featured outdoor showers at each room, private balconies, and a communal outdoor dining area with a pool and fire pit that was lit each night. The hotel had no fences around it, which meant that we required an escort back to our rooms each night since the buffalo that resided around the lodge liked to come within meters of the rooms and dining area each night. The locals say that the buffalo is the most dangerous animal around, since it gives no warning of whether it’s irritated, and therefore can charge humans without warning.
The highlight of the Hoyo Hoyo was the man made watering hole across from the dining area, which was visited by elephants every day between 12 and 3PM. Our room had small monkeys that hung out in the tree by our balcony, and our outdoor shower had views of the impala and kudu grazing.
The hotel had only 6 rooms accommodating a maximum of 12 people, so even though the dinners and game drives were communal, they were very intimate. The staff was simply superb, as everybody was very warm, friendly, and eager to serve you in the common areas. While we were on the morning game drives, our room would be cleaned and bed made, and in the evening our bed was turned down and the mosquito net around our bed was drawn. As an extra nice touch, the staff would leave us bookmarks each night with a different African bed time story.
2 Comments
Barbara
Wonderful pictures and colorful commentary. Can’t wait for the next trip!
TeronAlex
Thank you Barbara!:)