Khaya Umdani

The property around Khaya Umdani forms part of the Marloth Park Wildlife Estate . The 2500ha estate is sandwiched between the Kruger National Park to the north and the estate's own game park, Lionspruit, to the south.

Wild animals roam free inside the conservancy, but the animals from Kruger and Lionspruit is fenced out. The purpose of the fences is basically to keep lions, hippos, elephants, and rhinos out of the inhabited area. There is however no guarantee that these animals would not enter Marloth Park.

Inside Lionspruit all of the "big five" with the exception of elephants can be seen on selfdrive or proffessional game drives. The visitors are allowed to get ot of their vehicles and there are a few nice picnic spots to enjoy a champagne breakfast in the wild.

Inside the inhabited area of the park between dwellings and lodges one constantly encounters zebras, giraffe, blue wildebeest, impala, kudu and warthog to name but a few. In fact when you've stayed at Khaya Umdani for a few days you barely lift an eyebrow if a zebra, kudu or warthog comes onto the veranda while you're preparing supper on the gas cooker. Leopard, hyena and python are seen on rare occasions with the very odd chance to encounter lions on your front porch! The smaller creatures like vervet monkeys, mongoose, servets, leguane, birds, bats and insects are as common as sunshine to this area!

Khaya Umdani is situated about 300 meters from the crocodile river which forms the southern border to the Kruger national park. Although one always seem to enjoy the evenings around the fire with lively conversation and gay laughter you'll always be reminded of where you are by the roars of the lions and hyena's (not so friendly) laughter.Without exception the conversation always leads to an intense discussion and speculation that that sounded too close to be on the other side of the fence.

During mating season the lions of Kruger and the ones of Lionspruit communicate to each other and with Khaya Umdani sitting between these two groups it adds a good dose of adrenaline to an already fantastic evening. This normally get boosted to high levels when you stroll along the border fence the next day and notice that it is really fairly easy for them to meet face to face!

Staying at Khaya Umdani brings you as close to the wildlife and nature as when you sleep in a tree inside Kruger, with the only difference being that you enjoy all the comforts of a four star lodge.