Two elephants press trunks together on a sandy track a few metres from a game-drive vehicle, a tracker seated on the front-mounted seat, a calf behind them

South Africa  ·  Northern Sabi Sand

Elephant Plains

Big 5 game viewing in the northern Sabi Sand, with the Kruger National Park across the boundary.

Elephant Plains Game Lodge sits in the northern reaches of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, sharing a boundary with the Kruger National Park. The Sabi Sand's reputation for Big 5 viewing is well earned, and Elephant Plains makes the most of its northern corner of it.

The lodge is candid about its ambitions: excellent game viewing, comfortable rooms and food that rewards the appetite a game drive produces. Where it becomes interesting is the range of places to sleep. There are Rondavels, the round rooms that feel properly African in a way that squares never quite manage. There are the Luxury Suites for those who want more room to stretch. And there is the Manyeleti Honeymoon Suite, set aside for people who would prefer that the only large mammals they see are outside.

Close portrait of a male lion in hard side-light, his mane dark and the background falling away to black
Male lion, side-lit
A couple, a family and a first-timer can all leave the same morning drive having had the trip they wanted.

It is a lodge that suits several kinds of traveller at once, which is rarer than it sounds. A couple, a family and a first-timer can all leave the same morning drive having had the trip they wanted.

Northern Sabi Sand, Kruger next door, and a rondavel to come home to. That is a difficult combination to improve on.

01

The lodge

The main lodge at dusk: a peaked thatched entrance on dark timber posts, the rooms behind lit warm orange against a deep blue sky
The main lodge at dusk
A four-poster bed hung with white mosquito netting under a thatched roof, with a bath and twin basins in the room beyond
The Manyeleti Honeymoon Suite
A timber deck with wicker armchairs and footstools outside a grey-roofed suite, green bush pressing up to the railing
A suite deck, facing the bush

02

On drive

Seven guests in an open cream game-drive vehicle, one with a long lens raised, the tracker on the front seat, green bush behind
Out on drive
A white rhino cow with two oxpeckers on her back stands over her calf, which sits in dry grass beneath her
White rhino and calf
A leopard sprawls along a fallen, sun-bleached log, legs hanging, while guests in a game-drive vehicle watch from behind
Leopard on a fallen logNorthern Sabi Sand

Elephant Plains

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