AndBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge Enters A New Era In 2024

19.02.2024 - 11:28 / forbes.com

One of South Africa’s pioneering eco-lodges, andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge, has entered a new era as it emerges from a complete redesign.

We spend the morning forging a path through the diverse landscape of rare sand forest and windswept golden-green grassland, following the tracks of what our guide believes is a pair of female lions. We follow paw prints left in the sand, see where they left the outline of their bodies from lying on the sandy ground, and listen to the skittish impala letting off their alarm call.

Almost at the point we think we’re out of luck, two lionesses appear around the corner ahead of us, striding straight towards our vehicle. They disappear again into the dense thicket at the side of the road and as they let out a roar it becomes clear that they’re looking for one of the lioness’s cubs, which have been left alone in the woodland.

We stay with them, slowly trundling along the road nearby, as they search the forest just meters from us. They stop for a moment, no longer calling out for their cubs, before re-emerging from the undergrowth with the younger lions in tow, making their way, unbothered by our presence, along the roadside before re-entering the thick wilderness, leaving us in awe of their presence.

On the way to finding the lions, we’d already come across some of this rich habitat’s zebra, giraffe, countless antelope such as nyala, and a lone cheetah, sitting, watching us from a distance. Each morning and afternoon game drive on Phinda Private Game Reserve comes with close-up encounters of the resident wildlife, from cheetah and lions to elephants and both black and white rhino, along with glimpses of colorful birdlife like the crowned hornbill, and sightings of smaller creatures like the leopard tortoise and dung beetle.

Phinda Private Game Reserve covers a vast 73,800 acres of protected wildlife-rich landscape in the coastal South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. Seven distinct habitats, from woodland and grassland to wetlands and mountainside, make up this unique environment.

Of andBeyond’s six lodges inhabiting this land, andBeyond Phinda Forest Lodge places a small number of guests in what’s recognized as some of Africa’s only remaining dry sand forest. Game drives from this lodge take guests through the reserve’s different habitats in search of the resident wildlife, for bush breakfasts and to scenic sunset spots.

Closer to the lodge, the woodland is also explored on walking safaris. And, since reopening at the end of 2023 following its complete redesign, the forest-enveloped lodge has come up with another way to experience the surrounding environment: on the lodge’s new e-biking experience following a series of sun-dappled woodland trails winding between Lebombo