African Explorer Private Game Lodge

The forest area is quite nice for a wedding, and the animals are tame and come up to you. The place has potential, but it needs to be finished and have enough staff before I could recommend it. There’s no restaurant, and meals are limited to whatever they make that day. Our wedding food cost R300 per person and was laughable. Some rooms were still being built, while others had no water or electricity, or no hot water. The rooms were dusty and unclean, and guests had to open the gate themselves. I tried contacting staff several times and got no response. Guests also had to ask for toilet paper, which was embarrassing and shouldn’t happen.

I paid nearly R5000 for one night in a ten-person house, about R500 per person including breakfast, and the place was filthy. It looked like it hadn’t been mopped in weeks. Most plugs didn’t work, and I have serious doubts about whether the electrical installation is safe. There was no soap, no coffee or sugar, not enough towels, and just one and a half rolls of toilet paper for ten people. Of the two kettles, only one worked, and only from a plug in an upstairs room. There wasn’t even a dustbin, and the kitchen cupboards were still a work in progress, with loose planks. Their prepaid drinks credit system is a joke: they later said I owed over R700, when they actually owed me nearly R100. Why not just let people pay as they order? I’ll avoid this place as much as I can.

Guests traveled three hours for the wedding only to discover there were no rooms for them, despite the confirmation that rooms were available. Some people ended up in hospital after being served untreated water. The guests had to set up the venue themselves because staff were nowhere to be seen, and builders had to serve the reception food. The food was terrible, there were no card facilities, and the service was nonexistent. The owners of African Explorer clearly had no idea how to put on a wedding, and the bride and groom were ripped off on a biblical scale. We were there on 1 April 2017, and I can’t even list all the failures. Something must have changed drastically in the last eight months or so, because it’s nothing like the glowing comments below. Do not use this venue.

No hot water, and some rooms weren’t even finished when guests arrived. Others hadn’t been serviced for three days straight. The wedding was understaffed and under-catered, and all the guests had to set up both the reception and ceremony areas. It was a complete embarrassment for the couple and everyone there. This venue should never host another wedding. Don’t use it.