Today marks Zululand Safari Lodge’s 43th
birthday! It opened its doors for business on 15 October 1970 for the first
time, changing the future of Ubizane Reserve forever. In co-operation with Cape
Hotels Group, Safari Lodge was established and realized Norman Deane’s dream
for the beautiful reserve to become a tourist destination.
Back in those days, Safari Lodge had a very
different look and feel to it. As the
only lodge on the reserve, it had a dining room, cocktail bar and 42 double
rooms. Safari Lodge also had two boma’s
– one for dining and one for Zulu dancing.
Today we still have the one boma which we use as a dining venue. The
dining room and bar has been moved to Tree Lodge as the main restaurant.
Ownership has shifted tremendously
throughout the years moving from private ownership to leisure companies such as
Sun International and the Three Cities Group, and then back to private
ownership again. With each owner
bringing their unique atmosphere to Ubizane, Safari Lodge soon became a popular
tourist destination.
The Three Cities Group owned Ubizane until
2009 with the group consisting of the main investors from three different
cities; Mark Taylor, Mike Harrison, Robert Maingard and Alan Burke.
In 2009, one of the Three Cities investors,
Mr. Alan Burke, saw the potential of Ubizane Wildlife Reserve. Ubizane was in
desperate need at that stage for renovation and a make-over. Mr. Burke bought out all the shares for
Ubizane Wildlife Reserve in December 2009 and renovations began in 2010.
Now, three years later, Safari Lodge (and
the whole of Ubizane) is still under Mr. Burke’s ownership and has been showing
remarkable progress as rooms have been beautifully refurbished and a team works
hard every day to keep the original dream of Norman Deane alive.
If you have any photographs of Safari Lodge
throughout the years, send them to social@ubizane.co.za
and we’ll post it into our “memory lane” album on Facebook.
