Experiences

Our signature day begins after breakfast with a game drive through the Western Shores to the water’s edge, where our skipper is waiting with the barge. For two unhurried hours we cruise the Narrows of Lake St Lucia, Africa’s largest estuarine system.

Hippo gather here in great numbers, crocodiles bask along the banks and the birdlife is extraordinary. Afterwards, lunch is laid out as a picnic in the park before the drive home.

After breakfast we cross Lake St Lucia by boat, and your guide meets you on the Eastern Shores with the safari vehicle. The day belongs to the coastline: swim, snorkel and picnic beneath the highest vegetated sand dunes in Africa.

In the afternoon we take the long way home, a game drive back across the Eastern and Western Shores, arriving in time for high tea at the lodge.

Our two solar-powered eco-boats slip out from the bay in front of the lodge at first light and again in the late afternoon, each carrying no more than four guests.

The boats move in near silence, so all you hear is the water, the birds and the low murmur of the wetland around you, undisturbed.

Each morning and afternoon, our open vehicles head into the wetlands of the Western Shores, home to elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard and the smaller game and birds that live alongside them. In the late afternoon the drive stops for a sundowner as the light softens.

After dark the night drive looks for a different cast: hippo out of the water, genet, civet, serval, owls and nightjars. And there is always more to find: baby chameleons in January and February, fireflies in winter, and the small, unexpected life that only appears once the light has gone.

An early morning with Andrew Morrison, our birding enthusiast, out into the wetlands while the birds are at their busiest. iSimangaliso is one of the few places where lake, floodplain, coastal forest, grassland and shoreline meet within a single morning’s drive.

That meeting of habitats is why more than 520 species occur here, and why the same stretch of water or forest edge can hold something different every time you return.

Evenings move slowly. After the afternoon drive we gather around the fire on the deck, then walk across to the newly rebuilt boma for dinner beneath the stars. The wetland is close enough that the night sounds carry across the table.

For something more private we set dinner on the deck at the water’s edge, or in the Old Crab House. Built by the Morrison family around 1930 to pack lake crabs for the Durban train, it now sits in the arms of a strangler fig. A table for two, on request.

For longer stays, an early start takes you to Hluhluwe–iMfolozi for a picnic brunch and a morning looking for the Big Five.

We are back at the lodge for a light lunch. It is a lovely addition to a longer stay, though the heart of Makakatana will always be the water.

Tell us when you would like to visit and who is coming, and our team will shape your stay around you, from your first message to your last morning on the water.

We traverse the park under a concession from the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and follow its conservation rules on every drive and every cruise. Through that concession and our conservation levy, every stay contributes directly to the park.

On the bay, our solar-powered eco-boats glide in near silence. Since 2023, the lodge has run on a hybrid solar system.

Our levy is shared between wildlife vets, anti-poaching teams, the Ezemvelo Honorary Rangers and small projects led by our own staff.