Grey Goose Game Lodge

Over all experience was good and good place to stay with family for holidays too

We were at the restaurant on Sunday afternoon of the 25th June. I was not impressed and the waitress who served us was made aware. We were on table 84 outside next to the jumping pillow. While waiting for food we were offered water without any request. We drank the water with kids but the taste was off. We then realised there was brown debris inside the water. Raised the complaint with the waitress and she said the water was from the river and collected from the tap apparently that’s the norm. Like why were we given water from the river without our consent. There’s lots of cholera cases in South Africa and people are dying. The thought of coming here from Johannesburg to drink water from the river is very unsettling . I am not happy and we are still hoping we don’t get sick with kids from the river water. No sort of remorse from them even after personal complain or email sent.

We were looking for 1 night's accommodation half way between northern Drakensburg (Witsiehoek) and southern Kruger (Nkomazi) and came across the Grey Goose Game Lodge. What caught our attention was the modern Superior Suite rooms and the opportunity to do a walking safari. We arrived around 12 noon and were given the map of the walking safari which we planned to do if our room wasn't ready. The reception staff were very nice and efficient and Flip gave us a good overview of the safari walk. We headed off with map in hand and directly opposite the car park there were a collection of Grey Geese so that was a good start (and obviously a mandatory viewing given the name of the lodge) but we didn't see any other animals for about 20 minutes after that. Then after going over a ridge, we saw a large collection of buffalo, zebra and blesbok. The path skirted around the outside of where they were gathered and we assume the animials keep away from the path as a general rule. There were large parts of the walk where the wildlife was absent and then you'd come across another cluster of animals. We saw more groups of springbok and blesbok and then the highlight... those 2 crazy lady ostriches. They were in the northwest area and as soon as the ostriches saw us they rushed away to the east. But at this point the path went east so 5 minutes later we were upon the ostriches so they then rushed across to the west. But guess where the path then winded to, yup, the west and again we were upon the ostriches. As the path zig-zagged the ostriches were always trying to rush away but only to the next point on the path. It was quite funny and by the 6th time we came across them they were too tired to rush away so we got the good photos. You'd think the ostriches would have worked out the route of the path by now but maybe rushing around is more important! After the walk we got the keys to the Superior Suite. There were building works going on around the Suite as they appear to be renovating all of the rooms. The room we were allocated was nicely decorated with a great bed and a nice bathroom. The bath had red petals all over it which was a touch over the top but a nice gesture regardless. We did run the bath but the water came out with dirt in it. We expect this is a temporary issue as the workers were working directly outside. A couple of improvements would help... the addition of a chair beside the sofa with a small coffee table. Also some form of heater in the bathroom as it was very cold on 31 August. The biggest let down was the restaurant. It really does need redecoration and looks more like an afterthought. Very uninviting and really cold. The food at dinner was basic but nice. The breakfast was also lacklustre. Very few options and the worst we had in 3 weeks in South Africa. We enjoyed our stay and especially the 2 crazy lady ostriches!