Explore the Wild: Discover the Beauty of the Thornybush Game Reserve
Opened in May 2023, the exclusive-use Kamara House is the newest luxury safari accommodation in the Thornybush Nature Reserve and is part of the Game Lodge’s refurbishment. A private house overlooking a small riverbed, it’s perfect for multigenerational families or small groups.
From the moment you arrive, everything is taken care of by our friendly staff and your dedicated butler, so you can spend the day relaxing on sun loungers with your book or watch passing wildlife from the rim-flow plunge pool. Close to Game Lodge, you can stroll across to the Spa for a wellness massage or pre-lunch drinks on the main deck.
Meals are prepared by your personal chef and served alfresco-style outside or in the spacious dining area. Each dish is created using the freshest ingredients, with little to beat the smell of home-baked bread wafting through the house as you arrive back from your morning game drive.
The interiors at Kamara House are a contemporary mix of organic textures and tones that echo its bush setting. The villa-style house has two en-suite bedrooms, and the third room is interleading to the main bedroom which provides a shower only. After dinner, sit around the table chatting about the day’s sightings or stargaze from your deck as the lions roar in the distance. Kamara House has a dedicated game drive vehicle, guide, and tracker.
Two bedrooms are connected to the main area of the house and one of them has an interleading children’s bedroom so little ones can sleep close by.
Wake to early birdsong as the sun peeks over the horizon to signal the start of another day on safari in South Africa. After morning coffees, you’ll head out in one of our open-air safari vehicles to discover what’s happened in the bush overnight.
This is the best time of the day for game viewing as the land is cool and just as some animals start to move around, you’ll see others returning to their dens or resting in the shade after a night on the hunt.
With our guide-and-tracker teams’ expert bush knowledge, you’ll encounter Big Five animals and incredible sightings of general game.
Our guides are also more than happy to stop and look at trees, birds and other smaller creatures too. Then it’s a coffee stop to stretch the legs and chat about the morning’s sightings before heading back to your safari lodge for breakfast.
After you’ve spent the day lazing by the pool, caught up on some sleep and had an alfresco lunch, we’ll meet for tea and set out on an afternoon game drive through the Greater Kruger Park.
As the light starts to soften, game viewing becomes a photographer’s delight. Will it be a pride of lions sleeping in the shade, wild dogs on a hunt, a dazzle of zebra in the dust or a majestic bird of prey circling above?
After drinks and watching the sunset at one of our breathtaking viewpoints, nocturnal wildlife takes its cue for action. Our guides will now focus on the thrill of seeing an elusive leopard walk silently through a moonlit riverbed or lions start to move in the darkness as hyenas cackle in the distance.
You may also catch glimpses of bushbabies swinging in the branches, civets, genets, the white-tailed mongoose or a prickle of porcupines.
A guided walking safari is a completely different experience to a game drive in the greater Kruger Park as it not only gives you the thrill of being on foot in a Big Five Reserve but is a chance to really immerse yourself into nature at ground level.
Our highly qualified guides have been specifically trained for walking safaris so you’ll learn about tracking, discover our birdlife, insects, trees and plants and gain an understanding of the powerful eco-system in the Greater Kruger Park.
