Ulusaba Rock Lodge

Within the same Ulusaba concession as the adjacent Safari Lodge, Ulusaba Rock Lodge is built on an even more dramatically elevated granite outcrop above the Mabrak River, with six suites whose deck positions and the property’s vertiginous hillside location give it views across the surrounding Lowveld that are genuinely difficult to match among the Sabi Sand’s many excellent viewpoints. The rock lodge format — smaller, more intimate than the Safari Lodge, positioned at the highest point of the Ulusaba outcrop — gives it a different social atmosphere and a more concentrated sense of isolation above the bush despite the proximity of the two properties. The shared concession’s wildlife access means that game drives from Rock Lodge cover identical territory to those from Safari Lodge, with the two properties’ rangers coordinating sightings information across the Ulusaba area.

The six suites’ outdoor sleeping platforms and the private pools cantilevered above the bush give the Rock Lodge experience a quality of direct engagement with the Lowveld environment that compensates for its smaller size relative to the Safari Lodge’s more extensive facilities. The game drive programme accesses the Sabi Sand Reserve’s Big Five and the consistently productive leopard sightings of the Mabrak corridor, and walking safaris in the riverine habitat below the outcrop provide the ground-level wildlife encounters that complement the vehicle programme. The Virgin Limited Edition service ethos is applied across both properties, with the informality and genuine attentiveness of the Branson hospitality philosophy expressed at the Rock Lodge’s more intimate scale.

Ulusaba Rock Lodge’s conservation contribution is identical to that of the adjacent Safari Lodge, with the combined revenue of both Ulusaba properties contributing to the Sabi Sand Reserve’s conservation infrastructure and the Branson Centre’s community development work in the villages of the greater Kruger ecosystem.