Abelana River Lodge

What an absolute experience! We were treated so well by all the staff from arrival to departure! We came with our parents and friends as part of our honeymoon and the manager and her team made some extra special touches to our room including a romantic dinner for 2 on the last evening - we loved it and so appreciate the lovely gesture. On the first evening I was feeling unwell from the flight and was attended to personally by the manager and offered some things to make me feel better which was really amazing as we didn’t even think to bring with Rehydrate or things like that. We had incredible sightings of elephant swimming in front of the lodge in the river as well as in the bush, hippos in front of our bungalows in the river, lions, cheetah (freshly released as we were ther), plenty buck and more. Do note that this park has thick Mopane bush so sightings are spread out but you do still see a lot and the ranger and guide make a big effort to ensure that. We even got to take part in a conservation darting exercise - which is a once in a lifetime experience- where a team of vets, conservationists, a helicopter and a group of tourists (us) went with the mission of replacing a male buffalos gps collar and a male lions collar that had a small snare on it. The darting was very professionally executed and so special to witness the conservation efforts of about 30 people and Abelanas team take part in. Thanks Abelana!

What an absolute experience! We were treated so well by all the staff from arrival to departure! We came with our parents and friends as part of our honeymoon and the manager and her team made some extra special touches to our room including a romantic dinner for 2 on the last evening - we loved it and so appreciate the lovely gesture. On the first evening I was feeling unwell from the flight and was attended to personally by the manager and offered some things to make me feel better which was really amazing as we didn’t even think to bring with Rehydrate or things like that. We had incredible sightings of elephant swimming in front of the lodge in the river as well as in the bush, hippos in front of our bungalows in the river, lions, cheetah (freshly released as we were ther), plenty buck and more. Do note that this park has thick Mopane bush so sightings are spread out but you do still see a lot and the ranger and guide make a big effort to ensure that. We even got to take part in a conservation darting exercise - which is a once in a lifetime experience- where a team of vets, conservationists, a helicopter and a group of tourists (us) went with the mission of replacing a male buffalos gps collar and a male lions collar that had a small snare on it. The darting was very professionally executed and so special to witness the conservation efforts of about 30 people and Abelanas team take part in. Thanks Abelana!