South Africa: Review Gomo Gomo Game Lodge (Klaserie / Kruger National Park)

2015/08/27 Gomo Gomo Game Lodge – Klaserie Private Nature Reserve / Kruger National Park

The first 2 nights in South Africa we stayed at the Gecko Lodge in Hazyview. From there we went to the Kruger National Park to a private game reserve and spent 2 days at the Gomo Gomo Game Lodge.

If you passed the Timbavati main gate you have to drive round about 10km and a little sign shows you the way to the lodge left from the main road. We were happy that we have an off-road car, because there are some humps on this way. You can arrive it also with a normal car, but be careful and drive very slow. The lodge is round about 2km far away from the main road.

To drive slow is always a good idea after entering the Kruger Park, because you can see a lot of animals if you are a bit observing. We saw giraffes, steenbok, impala, blue wildebeest and some birds.

The Lodge

The lodge offers a parking space for round about 10 cars I guess. This is enough, I think, because there are also just 8 cottages. Between the cottages is the main house with the breakfast place and also a place where you can take water, coffee, tea and juices for free all over the day.

The reception is in the main house. We were greeted on the parking space by a man from the lodge and he showed us the lodge, said us were we find everything and then we did some paperwork for the registration.

From the terrace behind the main house you have a wonderful view to the waterhole. There are chairs and canvas chairs and also a little pool. If you are lucky you will see some animals which come to the waterhole to drink. We saw baboons, impalas, kudus and warthogs. But elephants or lions are also possible, the people from the lodge said.

Left beside the main house is the space where the braai starts after the game drive in the evening. All guests and rangers sitting together in a circle and in the middle is a fire.

The room / cottage

The room was really nice. First it was a bit weird, because you get no keys. But this was no problem. The room offerd enough space. We had a double bed, 2 chairs, a table, a wardrobe and two bedside tables. The windows and the door to the front have fly screens. So you could let the door or the windows open over night if it is too warm.

The bathroom was also nice. There is a shower, a corner bathtub, a toilet and a lavatory. At the evening the house-keeping arranged the bathroom with a candle light and they closed the jalousie.

The most time you didn’t spend in the room, because you are on a game drive, or at breakfast, lunch or dinner. So over the day the temperature wouldn’t be a problem I think. In the night it was not too warm or too cold. We stayed at the end of August in the Gomo Gomo Game Lodge. Maybe in the South African summer it could be a little bit different.

You had just one blanket for both people, I prefer one blanket for each of one, but this is a peanut and was not really disturbing.

Against the Gecko Lodge, the room in the Gomo Gomo Game Lodge offered enough sockets. So to charge our electronic stuff wasn’t a problem. But they hadn’t also no socket in the bathroom to use a hairdryer. But in the big room is a mirror and a socket, so the possibility is given there.

In the video below you can have a look into the cottage and also für the game drives and the lodge area:

The food

We stayed 2 days, so we had two times breakfast, lunch and dinner. At dinner you get a starter, a main menu from the braai and a dessert. At breakfast we got a yogurt with cereals and toasted bread. If you want, you can also order different kinds of eggs. I had scrambled eggs with bacon and on the departure day the chef made me a special, scrambled eggs with french toast.

At 2:00pm is lunchtime. For lunch we had on the first day a salad with pork and on the second day we got a kind of lasagne, but it wasn’t with noodles. I have no idea what it was made of.

At 7:30pm was time for the braai dinner. The first evening was a sweet potatoe soup served and then we could pick up beef with 3 different kinds of vegetables and a mushroom sauce. For dessert was a chocolate brownie with cream served. The second evening we had vegetable soup for starter and for main menu were pork and chicken with couscous. For dessert was a mix cake with a taste of orange. At this day a guest had birthday and her children organized her a birthday cake made by the Gomo Gomo crew. Every guest got a piece of this chocolate cake, too.

Every of this meals were very delicious. (I don’t like onions, so the couscous wasn’t my favorite, but the rest was quite good)

The game drive(s)

In the booking were 2 game drives per day included. There was a morning and afternoon game drive. The morning game drive starts with a wake up call (a ranger knocks on your door) at 5:30am. At 6:00am you can have some tea or coffee and the drive starts at 6:15am.

You are back at the lodge at 9:30am and 30min later the breakfast starts. After the breakfast you could have a bushwalk if you like. At 3:30pm starts the afternoon game drive, which ends at 7:00pm.

You have to be aware of, that on a game drive is no guarantee that you will see all animals of the bush. The ranger and the tracker do their best to show you the big five and all the other animals if it is possible. But it is a big area and the animals have the possibility to go where they want. During the day it is mostly to warm, so the hours in the early morning and in the late afternoon are good times to see the most animals. At the end of the afternoon drive it was dark and if we saw some animals then just with the shine of the flash light. That was not the time to got some good pictures for me, but this was ok.

During the drives – morning and afternoon – you will made a break for some drinks and a little snack, which will you served by the ranger and the tracker.

We enjoyed the drives.To be in the nature and see the animals was a great experience and we can recommend it.

For the drives we advice to bring a jacket and maybe a scarf along, because it could be a bit cold in the early moning and the late afternoon when you sit in the roofless car during the drive.

In the video above (by the food part) you could take part at the game drive on day 1 and get also a view into the cottage and the area of the lodge. In the video below you can follow us on the game drives of the second day:

Internet connection

We had 2 vodacom prepaid SIMs with data plans. After we passed the main gate, there was no connection to the network. The lodge offers a free wifi, which is available in the main house, but if you are lucky you will get connection also in the room.

The speed isn’t really good, but for checking mails, Twitter, facebook it is absolutly ok. So you have a bit more time to enjoy the nature.

Conclusion

The Gomo Gomo Game Lodge presents a beautiful arangement in nature of the Kruger Park. The rooms are absolutly fantastic, the food is very delicious and the staff is always helpful and simpatico. It isn’t far away from the Timbavati Gate, so you don’t need so much time to get to the lodge. We could absolutly recommend a stay in this lodge.

More informations:

website: gomogomo.co.za

trip advisor: tripadvisor.co.za

foursquare: foursquare.com

blogpost about our stay at Gomo Gomo

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This text is posted in English. I’m not a native speaker and I know I have to improve my English as well. If you want to learn a language the best way is to use them as much as you can in your daily life. To publish tweets or blogposts in English it is a extra motivation for me. I’m sure I will do mistakes. Please give me a notice if you spot some of them. Mainly I create the most of them in grammar.