South Africa Beach Resort: Rocktail Bay Lodge

Rocktail Bay Lodge ~ Classic 4 Lodge

Rocktail Bay Lodge is situated in the northern reaches of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park in an area of northern KwaZulu-Natal that is locally known as Maputaland. Here, between Kosi Bay and Sodwana Bay lies an area that is wild, without any development and Rocktail Bay lies in the centre. This whole region has been declared a World Heritage Site.

Situated offshore from Rocktail Bay is the Maputaland Marine Reserve, which offers additional sanctuary for wildlife, engendering extraordinary diving and snorkelling with exciting encounters with huge shoals of fish, dolphins and whales. The lodge is situated metres inland from the warm Indian Ocean and some of the most incredible beaches in all of South Africa. At Wilderness Safaris, we pride ourselves in hosting our guests in some of the most remote and pristine locations on Earth. Rocktail Bay Lodge is one of these locations, since around the lodge there are some 30km of undisturbed Indian Ocean coastline, which is rich in marine life. Outside Magazine in the USA voted Rocktail Bay's beach as one of the best in the world! Here the waves meet endless and diverse beaches where it is possible to walk for hours without meeting another soul or seeing a building.

Even the Lodge is tucked away just inland amongst the trees and out of sight. There are no power lines or telephones lines here. This solitude is a rare feature found in few places on our planet, and the value of this experience is what we offer at Rocktail Bay Lodge. The lodge is built away from the coastal breeze, just inland from the beach and within the forest canopy of vegetated dunes that occur along Maputaland's coastline. Rocktail Bay itself was named after a trawler that sank off the Bay many years ago.

Accommodation is in 11 "tree-house" chalets. Each room has its own balcony, an en-suite bathroom with flush loos and hot and cold running water and an additional outdoor shower in the forest. The main area of the lodge has an inviting lounge, pub and pool. Wholesome home-cooked meals are enjoyed either in the main dining room, at the poolside or outdoors under a huge Natal mahogany tree. Rocktail Bay Lodge is not a conventional deluxe "Bali"-style hotel on the beach with telephones and TVs; rather it is a comfortable lodge that is ideal for people who want to truly relax and unwind on one of the best coastlines anywhere in the world.

At Manzengwenya, 11km south of the camp, we have our own fully accredited dive-centre with a diving operation that is unrivalled anywhere in South Africa. We offer boating excursions out to sea around low tide to enjoy scuba and snorkelling on the pristine coral reefs offshore. (Please take special note that dive certification and pre-booking is compulsory for scuba activities.) The reefs here are very special and have hardly ever been dived, in fact, we are continually finding new reefs! Snorkellers often dive with dolphins, whale sharks and even whales! One of the highlights in our summer months is diving with pregnant ragged-tooth sharks when they migrate up north to our area and rest in the caves in our reefs.

Other lodge activities include fly-fishing, snorkelling, swimming, horse riding and drives to Black Rock, the nearby hippo pools and to the surrounding community in open 4x4 Land Rovers. Birding in the forest turns up many of the KwaZulu-Natal birding specials and one can spend time at our bird hide in the forest and enjoy great birding - especially in our winter months when birds like Flufftails often come to the water.

During the summer months Rocktail Bay Lodge is integrally involved in the ongoing loggerhead and leatherback turtle research that has been going on since the 1960s (see article on Maputaland Turtle Monitoring Programme under Conservation). Guests are able to accompany the resident turtle expert on research drives at low tide at night helping to monitor the turtles' nesting numbers and their behaviour.