What rhymes with long weekend? That’s right – camping!! We just knew that we had to take advantage of the last warm days of summer before the onset of Winter 2019, so we booked a spot at Kyleu Bush Camp in Dinokeng. As they are usually fully booked during long weekends, we booked early in the year and we were right, the camp site was fully occupied during Easter Weekend.
Kyleu Bush Camp is situated in the southern regions of the Dinokeng Game Reserve. For those of you that are not familiar with Dinokeng, its Gauteng’s only Big Five game reserve and it was established when a group of landowners in the area partnered up with the Gauteng Provincial Government to launch an eco-tourism and upliftment project. This project has created so many jobs in the area, and it’s fast becoming one of the most popular areas for camping and getaways. We’ve visited Dinokeng before (you can read about our previous stays here and here) and we’ve been very keen to visit Kyleu, as its touted as having the same feel of camping in Botswana, something that we’ve been looking for in South Africa but couldn’t find. We appreciated the personal touch of the owners, who greeted us on both our way in and out of the camp site.
Stand number 3 
Our Xcape was such a pleasure once again 
Dish washing area 
Well thought out ablutions 
Your shower with a view 
12v LED lighting are installed in the ablutions
Kyleu Bush Camp is very small in comparison to some of the other Dinokeng resorts but I hope it stays that way. They’ve got a number of stands that boasts private ablution facilities on each stand, as well as river stands, which is a bit more secluded but without any facilities. We were allocated stand no 3 and we loved it, it wasn’t as private as we were hoping for but we still enjoyed the ambiance and quietness of the camp. The ablution consists of a dish washing basin and counter as well as a shower and toilet. The gas geyser provides piping hot water for showers and the toilet is a traditional flush toilet. There’s no electricity available in the camp sites.
Our resident Golden silk orb-weaver spider 
Camp site visitor 
I’m watching you… 
The camp resort is unfenced so the animals in the game reserve can freely roam in the camp. We had lions walking through the camp area early on the Friday morning, and sadly my night cams did not pick up any of the movement but is was a thrilling experience nonetheless. We pre-booked our self-drive permits for the game reserve and it was ready for us bright and early on the morning of our first day at the camp. The animals were very shy this time, and our game viewing was not the most successful ever, but Dinokeng is a beautiful game reserve, and we enjoyed the scenery very much. We had the privilege of sharing our camp site with a gorgeous female Golden silk orb-weaver spider and we took turns to check up on her and her various snacks that she had lined up on her huge web.
We also booked a game drive with Devon for the Sunday morning which was amazing. He took us straight to the lions and we spent a little bit of time with the magnificent animals before he took us to a lesser seen area of Dinokeng, where you feel like you’re driving in a tropical forest. This area is off limits to self-drive visitors so it’s something that we’ve never seen before. Green and lush with a river flowing through the trees, with breath-taking bird viewing. We were very grateful to have been able to experience this and we were quite sad when we had to leave the tranquility behind us en route back to the camp site.
The breakfast wraps were delicious 
Off the grid solutions for dealing with the heat
Food wise, we decided that we were going to take it easy this time round. We had our usual breakfast staples of bacon and eggs, and switched it up with breakfast wraps one morning. Dinner was the usual braai’s and on Sunday we made a delicious chicken potjie. It was so refreshing not to rush from the one meal to the other, and we also took out some time for some well-deserved napping and catching up on my new books.
We truly enjoyed our stay at Kyleu, so much so that we have already made another booking to go back during the June school holidays. This time round we were allocated stand no 9 so we’re keen to see what this area looks like. In case you were wondering, this camp resort comes highly recommended if you’re in to a more relaxed camping style, and if you appreciate being close to nature.
Happy Campers SA 