Facilities
Umlani's traditional African reed and thatch huts will not only provide you with all the comforts you need, but will also provide you with an authentic experience of local tribal (Shangaan) architecture and style, which blends in naturally with the environment.
Each hut has en-suite facilities including an open-air bush shower fuelled by wood fires. The hut is comfortably fitted with white mosquito nets, crisp white linen and towels as well as with standard bathroom amenities, bottled water (although the tap water is perfectly safe to drink) and insect repellent. Umlani's philosophy of simplistic luxury and 'getting back to nature' is enhanced by the romance of operating without electricity, so each hut and the entire camp is lit by candle light and oil lamps, providing a warm and romantic atmosphere.
The camp can take a total of 16 guests. There are five double huts, two huts that sleep four people, and one hut that sleeps three people. This allows us to be flexible with friends and families that would like to share accommodation.
Activities
You will be taken out on two game drives per day, in open top land rovers. The morning game drive will leave at dawn and the night drive will leave in the late afternoon. There is always a ranger on stand-by for an optional morning bush walk.
During the day you can go on short walks with the ranger after breakfast, or lounge in the double hammocks around the swimming pool sipping your favourite drink. Alternatively, laze away the day in our spacious bush bar and deck overlooking the riverbed and watering hole. For exclusive tranquillity there is a tree house about 2.5 kms from the camp overlooking a dam, where we can leave you for an hour or two with blankets and big comfortable pillows as well as a cooler box with drinks.
In the evening you will be treated to pre dinner drinks in the traditional boma around the fire, followed by one of Umlani's award winning meals in the candle lit dining room, or out in the open riverbed surrounded by flares and cauldron fires.
The Timbavati Game Reserve
The Timbavati Nature Reserve, came into existence in July 1956, when a group of conservationist – minded people who owned game farms on the Western boundary of the Kruger National Park, cam together to form the Timbavati Association.
The size of the reserve covers about 60000 hectares of pristine African Bush, part of the world famous Greater Kruger National Park. The Kruger itself is a further 2 million hectares in size, which is about the same size as Israel or Wales. In the early 1990’s the boundary fence between the Kruger and the adjacent private reserves namely, Timbavati, Sabi Sands, Klaserie, Umbabaat, and Manyaleti was removed to create the Greater Kruger Park, covering an area of 2.2 million hectares.
The Greater Kruger has been zoned into 35 different landscape types. A landscape is defined as an area with a specific geomorphology climate, soil and vegetation, together with the associated fauna.
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