Kapama Private Game Reserve — Hotel in Maruleng Local Municipality

My wife and I stayed here for 4 nights as the first part of our honeymoon trip. Having never done a safari before we were a bit apprehensive but it has always been top of our bucket list and ended up picking N’kaya after being sold on the experience by our travel agent. ||We arrived weary after a days worth of travel to be greeted at the waterfront lodge where we did some initial check in details and got a refreshing iced tea. ||A few minutes later, Andres (the fantastic tracker at the lodge) picked us up and took us through the bush to the lodge, nestled away in the heart of the reserve. This is where we met Chantelle, one of the staff at the lodge who gave us some hot towels and showed us around the site.||There is a main communal building which is where you have breakfast, dinner etc. A lovely setting and great place to meet the other guests and staff, who sit with you and provide some great chat throughout your stay (and some excellent South African shots, Andre! 🙂)||There are 4 lodges which are very spacious with 2 bathrooms, 1 bedroom and a living area. The best part about the lodges themselves is all the small touches the staff provide. I won’t spoil the surprises but you come back in the evening looking forward to seeing what is left on your pillow!||The lodges all look inward towards a small pool which has some sun loungers. We didn’t use the pool but seemed nice enough! The pool often gets a few friendly visitors from the nearby wildlife. ||The star of the lodges facilities is the hideaway. A small thatched covered area looking directly onto a watering hole where you see all sorts of animals making their way past for a drink. We seen elephants, hyenas, buffalo, giraffes and more whilst sitting enjoying a drink. ||A day itself starts early; wake up at 5:30 for leaving at 6. You get greeted by Benji (our amazing guide and host) for tea, coffee and biscuits before setting out on your drive. At around 8:30 you stop for coffee, muffins etc with amazing views across the landscape. Returning at around 9:15 we were greeted by either Chantelle or Andre with a warm towel and letting you know breakfast arrangements. ||I’ll pause here to talk about the food. My wife has quite a few intolerances (gluten, dairy and a few others) so we were slightly worried about what might be available. These were completely unnecessary concerns as genuinely, we have never experienced better service in terms of catering for her requirements anywhere we have been before. Every single meal and snack had a delicious option that met all of her requirements. The food itself is of such a high standard, thank you Lucky and Lene for this, really meant a lot!||After breakfast, you have free time until high tea at 2:30. During this time we mostly stayed at the hideout enjoying whatever animals passed by. After high tea you then set off on your second drive at the day around 3:30pm. Again you have a stop for some drinks and snacks before heading back in the night with Andres spotting animals in the dark with a spotlight, massively impressive! ||Returning to the lodge, again greeted with hot towels, you then go for a fantastic 3 course meal. We tried loads of food we have never even thought about before and couldn’t be more impressed. We even got a special dinner one night since it was our honeymoon.||I’m not one for exaggerating so I say with complete sincerity that this was the best trip my wife and I have experienced. The staff absolutely make this place and if you have any doubts in your mind about booking just ignore them, you will have the best time and everything you need catered for.||The drives themselves are fantastic, we seen everything we wanted to see and more. The star of the show was seeing a 3 week old wild dog pup leaving its den for the first time! Very special. You very quickly appreciate the skill and expertise of Andres and Benji when it comes to tracking the animals.||Thank you again Andre, Andres, Benji, Chantelle, Lene and the rest of the team for such an amazing experience, we will be coming back sometime and promise to return with some Scottish drinks for you to try Andre!...

The name N’Kaya translates as ‘home’, and that’s how I felt as we pulled through the main gate of the lodge: like I’d come home. We’ve been lucky enough to visit N’Kaya on three previous occasions and I still count it as one of my favourite places on the planet.||||André and Lené are wonderful hosts - warm, welcoming and generous. Nothing was too much trouble. Christmas was an especially great time, with celebrations starting on Christmas Eve and continuing throughout the next day. Christmas Day is also my husband’s birthday (which he shares with Lené), and they made him feel very special. He wanted to thank them especially for his birthday pangolin - a lovely surprise and much appreciated!||||André guided us himself with first Andrew and then the legendary Andreas acting as trackers. We had some fabulous sightings, getting to appreciate the little things the bush has to offer as well as the headline acts. André is an excellent photographer, so he appreciates where to position the vehicle to get some great shots.||||Accommodation at N’Kaya is in one of four thatched lodges, each of which has a bedroom, living area, bathroom and separate shower room. Each room has air conditioning / heating units so you can control the temperature in the main areas. The incredibly comfortable bed has mosquito netting that is put in place before bedtime. There are several power points in the room, most of which are the round, three pin South African type (note: most ‘universal’ adaptors do not cope with these, and you have to buy a separate one). They do also have a single ‘UK’ (three square pin) outlet and two USB power outlets. Rooms are supplied with ‘Doom’ spray, so you can dispatch any unwanted visitors, and ‘Peaceful Sleep’ anti mosquito spray. They also supply an insect repellent cream, which is useful for putting on your face and neck. Bathroom supplies include the usual soap and shower gel, but they also give you bath crystals (the double ended tub is comfortably big enough for two!), cotton wool, q-tips, body lotion and tooth picks. The lodges have tea and coffee making facilities, and they also put a lovely jar of rusks in the room. There is now a mini fridge in the rooms so you can keep drinks or snacks lovely and cool. For those with a sweet tooth, a little box of candies is also supplied. The tap water is OK for brushing your teeth, but they suggest you don’t drink it as they mildly chlorinate the water. Filtered drinking water is supplied in an insulated carafe which is refilled twice daily.|| A typical day at N’Kaya starts early. Wake up call was at 05:00, then meet in the main lodge for a quick cuppa before leaving on game drive at 05:30. Typically, the game drive lasts until 09:00, including a stop for morning coffee and fresh muffins in the bush. It’s then back to the lodge for breakfast. Both a cold buffet and a hot breakfast are provided, with different offerings every day. After breakfast you’re at leisure until high tea at 3pm. There is free wi-fi in the rooms and main lodge, a small swimming pool to take advantage of, or you can go down to the hide by the water hole and see who visits. High tea is typically a couple of savoury snacks and a couple of sweet snacks. Afternoon game drive starts at 4pm, and continues until about 7pm when you return to the lodge for a three course evening meal. You stop part way through the drive for a ‘sundowner’ drink in the bush. ||||The food is amazing. Lené and Lucky provide interesting and varied menus. They cater seamlessly for vegetarians and vegans as well as those omnivores amongst us. Some highlights this visit were an exquisite fillet steak, and a beautifully decorated gingerbread cottage (that nobody wanted to break apart, it was so pretty). My OH also appreciated his personal birthday cake. Christmas dinner in the boma beneath the African stars will take a lot of beating!||||Do I recommend this place? Well,...... we’ve already booked to...

I was so excited to try Kapama after a few I know have been to River lodge and rave about it, I decided to choose Southern camp as it had the villa option and seemed better from the advertising. But wow was it disappointing 🥺🙈 If you are a serious bush person, this lodge is not the place to be at. Ranger and tracker we got were by far the worst we’ve ever had from 5 years of wonderful safari visits around SA.

Guide & tracker : It was more a checklist for our Ranger to show us big 5 for 5 minutes each and then drive aimlessly for the rest of the drives, as soon as a big sighting was done the rest of a drive seemed to have been wasted and we drove around aimlessly following no fresh tracks and listening to no leads from the radio while the rest of the guests were out seeing incredible sightings the exact same time. Seeing the big 5 isn’t a checklist for us, as we’ve seen them already. It is more the adrenaline and excitement of chasing fresh tracks and animal movements and seeing quality sightings. Even if I didn’t see the big 5 I would’ve been so much happier if I just had an exhilarating guide and tracker that shared their knowledge. I also asked him questions about the certain prides and packs and he could not respond. While we are well aware this is a bush experience and much of it is luck, we know multiple other guests we spoke to had great sightings that were communicated to them via radio and they were predominantly in parts of the park that had fresh tracks and movements of animals which we didn’t have. Our driver was driving in an area of the park that had no fresh tracks for 3 hours and when we asked the tracker what we were looking for he agreed there was nothing on that side of the park.

Service : On the second day I requested an iron and ironing board, and over 40 minutes later and 4 phone calls to reception we finally got an iron, that was just shocking service for a 5 star place?! 😂 Room service is also not an option at this place despite it being a 5 star lodge so that was also interesting?

Birthday dinner : My boyfriend tried to organize a birthday dinner which the manager spoilt on the day of arrival. Later that day we were told that actually we can’t request any special menu and will be served the same food everyone else will be eating. We were quoted R1750 over and above the R40 000 To be served the same food as everyone else. Every other lodge we have visited go over and beyond and out of their way to make occasions special, including setting up lunch or dinner with no extra charge. Let me not forget to mention that they still tried to charge us for this R1750 at checkout and receptionist told me that it was drinks we had at the bar (drinks were included in our package).

Overall view : Sadly these last few points along with other small issues in addition to this which I won’t mention all takeaway every extra effort that could have been made considering this is supposedly a 5 star lodge and the experiences we know family members have had at River lodge. Regardless of this experience we still made sure that we tipped our waiter, Ranger and tracker despite the dismal efforts we received. A very disappointing experience for me considering I chose this place out of many lodges to spend my birthday at, we gave Kapama the feedback and really weren’t expecting much and alas all we received was a “Sorry” 😂 so while you all ask me about this reserve. I think it’s an incredible reserve but don’t go to Southern camp. I know many people who have had a better experience at...