Honeyguide Ranger Camp

Stayed at this camp for 3 nights in July as part of the 12 day hosted Limpopo Explorer Safari booked with Alexandra’s Africa. The camp has a small number of large upmarket, tented rooms scattered around the bush with all the facilities you need (both 1 and 2 bedroomed) including a large comfy bed, fridge, plenty of storage/hanging space, hairdryer, mosquito net and fan (the last two needed I guess in the warm summer months). The one bed tented rooms have an indoor bathroom with sink and toilet plus outdoor shower with continuous hot water provided by individual gas cylinder. Perfect for the cold winter mornings especially when returning from the morning game drives. There is no heating in the rooms but this is fine as there are electric blankets provided on the beds which are switched on while you are having your evening meal – so really cosy once you are in bed. There’s Wi-Fi in the dining area if you need it but not in the rooms. Great food provided in the communal dining room/bar including eggs cooked fresh to order for breakfast. Plus reasonably priced drinks with wine by the glass. We also had a braai out in the bush on our first night where we kept warm around a roaring fire – a real experience. Lovely friendly, professional staff who can’t do enough for you. We had a game drive morning and evening while there with a fantastic ranger called Julian who was very knowledgeable and told us all about the animals and plants around the Entabeni Reserve showing us the spoors and burrows as we travelled round. The only shame was there didn’t appear to be a huge range of animals in the reserve. Saw lots of wildebeest with a few giraffe, elephants, hippos, warthogs, kudu and impala. Fortunately the reserve does have two cheetah brothers who happily sat and posed for us for ages. We were also lucky to see two lionesses with cubs although they were hidden in the grass. With the lack of animals Justin asked if we liked to take a drive up to the top of Hanglip Mountain overlooking the reserve on our last evening. The steep drive up/down was hair-raising and so credit to Julian’s driving. Brilliant view from the top while we had our sundowner drink and snacks. The other great part of the camp is its unfenced so can have animals wandering through plus if you are at the swimming pool or in one of the rooms on the edge of the camp you can watch animals wandering by. It does mean that you need a guide to take you to and from your room when it's dark but this all adds to the experience. Would recommend staying at the Honeyguide Ranger Camp it if you want somewhere to visit close to Johannesburg or as part of this brilliant hosted safari.

Reception staff very welcoming, efficient and pleasant. Accommodation comfortable, could do with a kettle and tea and coffee in the tents so one does not have to go to the dining area to get that first early morning cup of coffee. Breakfast and dinner are included in your stay, lunch if you require is an additional cost. Drinks are not included in the rates. The camp is not fenced in and as as there are predators (around we heard them)you are not permitted to walk around at night and have to wait for your ranger to escort you to your tent after dinner, so there is a little bit of pressure on you not to sit for too long after dinner. I am not sure it is a child friendly camp not being fenced in. Food I would say is sub standard ,stew two nights out of three which was a bit oily and not to everyone’s taste, a braai on one of the nights which was ok the meat tended to be a bit dry. There are one or two things that should be addressed at mealtimes regarding guests and staff hanging around watching you and waiting for you to finish so they could eat,it is a bit uncomfortable. The kitchen staff were extremely unpleasant and unfriendly their food service and attitude left much to be desired. Attention needs to be given to food service while we were not allowed to help ourselves due to Covid restrictions which is completely understandable and acceptable, there were no health measures in place preventing flies from sitting all over the food. This was mentioned to the ladies serving the food but ignored. They need to brush up on the cleanliness of the serving area it’s a bit off putting. Some of the guests do notice this. The game viewing was good, we saw two Cheetah and a kill which was incredible, we did not see the lion on the game drives we went on but the four other members of our group did, but heard them at night which is awesome. The Rangers are knowledgeable and accommodating, our Ranger Charles was most pleasant as well as one of the staff Benny who went out of his way to assist you, sadly we did not see him on the morning we left. As a group of 6 people we are generally easy going and not demanding so hopefully the above will be addressed on an ongoing basis. We did enjoy ourselves however and would probably return.