With more than 300 recorded species, Sani Valley is a magnet for serious birders. The mosaic of montane grassland, lake wetlands, rocky ridges and acacia thicket draws everything from dainty Malachite Sunbirds to power-soaring Bearded Vultures and eagles. Listen for the bubbly call of the Drakensberg Pipit and watch Orange-breasted Rockjumpers bounding over basalt ledges, while our wetlands shelter breeding Wattled Cranes and clouds of migrant warblers and hirundines.

Although we haven’t built formal hides, patience on any shoreline or koppie is highly rewarded. Keen photographers love the “Vulture Restaurant”, where hundreds of Cape and Bearded Vultures descend when local farmers donate livestock carcasses, offering unrivalled raptor action at eye level.

Even travellers who arrive bird-agnostic tend to leave with a life-list in hand; the daily soundtrack of larks, cisticolas and distant eagle whistles becomes part of the lodge’s identity. Bring binoculars, field guide and a sense of wonder—Sani Valley will do the rest.

This spectacular World Heritage Site is a true hiker’s playground. UNESCO praises the Park for its “exceptional natural beauty, soaring basaltic buttresses, dramatic cutbacks and golden-sandstone ramparts”. Those wild contours are yours to explore.

Step straight from your chalet onto Sani Valley’s own trails or follow well-marked routes that join our boundary and lead deep into the protected park. Whether you fancy a gentle ramble to mist-veiled waterfalls, a brisk summit circuit on established paths, or a multi-day adventure that leaves the beaten track far behind, Sani Valley has it all.

The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park provides a spectacular environment for mountain bikers. It offers a plethora of riding trails for all kind of levels; and for the most mountain biking enthusiasts riding up or down the Sani Pass might be a tempting challenge and one never to be forgotten. 

Please bring your own bikes to enjoy the landscape we have to offer.

The San bushman rock art is partly responsible for adding World Heritage status to the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park. It is the principal monument to ancient hunter-gatherers who survived here until the 19th century. The Drakensberg has between 35000 and 40000 works of bushmen art and is one of the largest collection of such work in the world.  

Come see it for yourself.