&Beyond Phinda Mountain Lodge - May 2025
This is a trip that we had planned to take in late November 2024, coinciding with turtle nesting season in KwaZulu-Natal, the Indian ocean coastal region of South Africa. But due to a pet health emergency (one of our dogs was diagnosed with GME following a seizure that happened a couple of days before we were due to leave), we had to reschedule it to May 2025. Too late in the year to watch turtles nesting on the shores of Sodwana Bay unfortunately, but a great time weather-wise in the Fall season of the Southern hemisphere. Located on a former pineapple plantation, Phinda is a private game reserve that successfully reintroduced wildlife in the 1990s. Spread over 29 866 hectares (73 800 acres), it boasts a variety of landscapes (marshland, lakes, grassland and forest) housing not only the Big Five (elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, lion and buffalo) but also an array of smaller mammals and birds. We stayed at the Mountain Lodge, one of six lodges locate...