Steve Strydom
Google
My wife and I went there on a camping trip, Bonamanzi reception area is refreshing and well maintained, nice and clean and it's got a very pleasant inviting feel about it, the staff are friendly and helpful, we stayed at the standard campsite which was clean and well maintained as a matter of interest all the campsites and accommodation were well maintained of what we saw when we drove around. However there are 2 pools 1 at reception very clean and the 2nd by the campsite the water was clear but every day I went to the pool it was never brushed or the leaves and dead bugs were never removed. The Ablution block at our campsite which there are 6 campsites in a horse shoe shape that share this ablution block, was very clean be as it may that it's dated but everything worked well, so no need to complain except for one thing the water is brownish so although the showers work well you never feel clean after a shower, NB Please don't drink the water at allll. Please note that there was a lone Hyena that came through the campsite scavenging for food so don't leave food stuff out at night, it was really scary but very cool peeping out of our tent at night looking at it roam around before it wondered off into the bush. The overall game viewing was a bit disappointing whilst we were there which brings me to what I would say was my biggest disappointment at Bonamanzi reserve and most probably the big game changer as to whether We will go back to Bonamanzi and that are the Roads and the total lack of signage. Let me start with the roads... If you don't have a 4WD vehicle especially in the rainy season You will struggle, we got a Ford Tourneo Bus which has got good ground clearance and we struggled in the softish sand, you get 2 types of sand 1 is a clay type that is hard when dry but when wet you definitely don't want to be in it even 4x4 vehicles struggle in this when wet. The 2nd is almost like a beach sand and in certain areas it is a bit thick so we got stuck but were able to reverse and go a different route which brings me to my next point signage which is non existent. My advice is that you drop yourself a pin location of where you are staying so that you can use this to get back and pray you have signal, we on Vodacom which was fine most of the time. In my opinion don't try this reserve in a normal passenger vehicle as they charge R1000.00 recovery. So my disappointment was rerouting because of some bad roads then not knowing at all where you are so you spend your time trying to figure out where you are and stressing not to get stuck so you don't enjoy just relaxing and spending time looking for animals. Apparently they are working on it and I really hope they do because this could be such a beautiful park to drive around in.
Before I forget if you do walk around which you are allowed to do please note there are ticks around so take anti tick spray.
