Singita

History of the Lodges

Originally, the land that makes up Singita Private Game Reserve consisted of two farms in the area between the Sabi and Sand Rivers. The farms, Castleton and Ravenscourt, were acquired by James Fawcett Bailes in 1925 and turned into a private reserve.

The first Singita lodge, Ebony, opened its doors in 1993 and, following its success, Singita opened up four more lodges in South Africa. In recent years, Singita extended beyond South Africa's borders to the Singita Grumeti Reserves in northern Tanzania and, most the recent addition is Pamushana Lodge in the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve in Zimbabwe.

Accommodation

Boulders Lodge and Ebony Lodge are both set within the Singita Private Game Reserve, which lies in the well-known Sabi Sand Game Reserve. The Sabi Sands has a particularly high concentration of wildlife and guests staying there have a good chance of seeing the Big 5, as well as plains game and top predators that hunt them.

Singita Lebombo and Sweni are both located in a private concession that falls within the Kruger Park's boundaries, an area that's been described as 'the nearest thing to East Africa in South Africa'.

Singita also has three lodges in the Singita Grumeti Reserve in the Serengeti. This privately owned reserve, bordering the Serengeti National Park, is only available to lodge guests and so has a very low vehicle density.

Pamushana Lodge is in a remote wilderness area in a Big 5 reserve in Zimbabwe , where - along with the Grumeti Community and Wildlife Conservation Fund - Singita is supporting an ambitious relocation initiative of the endangered black rhino.

Singita Game Reserves has taken top honours in the 2011 US Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards readers' survey, scooping both 1st and 2nd places among the World's Top 100 Hotels, as well as securing the winning slot for Best Hotel Spa in Africa and the Middle East.

Wildlife

Sabi Sands Reserve is known for its diversity and abundance of wildlife, particularly large herds of buffalo, zebra and antelope in the open expanses of grassland. The Sabi Sands is also famous for big cat activity and leopard sightings.

The Lebombo concession, located in the Kruger Park, near the Mozambique border, is one of South Africa's more remote, less explored wilderness places. Large prides of lion - including the famous mountain pride - thrive here, and guests are also likely to see elephant, buffalo, rhino, cheetah, hyena, giraffe, zebra, hippo, wildebeest, kudu, crocodile and many other mammal, reptile and bird species.

The Singita Grumeti Reserves are located on the famous migration route across the Serengeti which hundreds of thousands of wildebeest annually. However, the Grumeti Reserves are not just a seasonal wildlife destination, and has a well-established resident population of plains game and the ever-attendant predators such as lion, hyena, cheetah and leopard.

The Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve is a Big 5 reserve in south-east Zimbabwe with one of the highest concentrations of the endangered black rhino in Africa. The lake, situated below Pamushana lodge, attracts hippos, crocodiles, terrapins and monitor lizards, and is a birders paradise with over 500 bird species including 14 species of eagle.

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