History & Vision
Lion Roars was established by the Bailey family in the late 90s, offering personalised luxury travel to Southern Africa, with a particular focus on Zimbabwe’s wildlife. The family’s love of the magnificent Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia inspired the development of Royal Zambezi Lodge and the progression to the unique Mwambashi River Lodge.
The success of Mwambashi, not only as a family getaway, but also as a sought-after retreat, paved the way for the growth of the portfolio to the Eastern and Southern Cape.
The family’s extensive investment in property in Port Elizabeth encouraged the development of Singa Lodge, an oasis in the Summerstrand beachfront area. Shortly afterwards, the simple, stylish and well-located Ibhayi Guest Lodge was added to the portfolio in the tranquil, leafy suburb of Walmer.
Cottage Pie Guesthouse, nearby the family’s long-term beach residence on Robberg Beach in Plettenberg Bay, allowed an opportunity to share another of their favourite destinations with guests.
The acquisition of a large portion of the Bushman’s River Conservancy in the Amakhala Game Reserve allowed the family to share their love of the rolling Eastern Cape landscape and further their commitment to conservation. Hlosi Game Lodge and Bukela Game Lodge were added to the portfolio offering warm hospitality, sumptuous accommodation and a Big 5 game experience a short drive away from Port Elizabeth.
The result is a portfolio of venues that the family loves to be in and is proud to share with new-found friends. While each location has its own character, the portfolio is bound by a consistently superior experience in terms of comfort, attention to detail and warm and genuine hospitality.
None of what we do is possible without the combined efforts of a carefully chosen team. Our team pursues our hospitality vision with passion and dedication, and continues to identify and develop new destinations of distinction – this is the Pride of Lion Roars!
Our Management Team
Lion Roars Management Team has international experience in various business sectors, as well as strong local roots and experience. Please click HERE for more information on our management team.
Our Marketing Team
Lion Roars Marketing Team has considerable experience in marketing for international companies. Please click HERE for more information on our marketing team and activities.
Social Responsibility
Lion Roars is proud to be South African, and a large part of our vision is to work together with our communities to have a positive impact on the lives of the people we work with. To help us implement this vision, Lion Roars has established the Lion Roars Foundation.
Lion Roars Foundation
The Lion Roars Foundation is a conservation and social responsibility Foundation dedicated to raising funds for the ongoing preservation of our natural resources and upliftment of our community.
Fundraising activities kicked off in June 2010 with a golf day at Humewood Golf Club in Port Elizabeth. The inaugural Rhino Skins Golf Day was sponsored by Lion Roars Lodges, and was held to raise funds for the Save the Rhino campaign. Local companies showed overwhelming support for the event, registering 18 sponsored four balls to play in the competition.
The next fundraiser to be held is the Rhino Race sponsored by Lion Roars Lodges. The Rhino Race is a mountain bike race at the base of the Zuurberg mountains behind Addo, and will be held on Sunday 27 June 2010. This is a great opportunity for our local Director Pete Allanson to get some serious mountain bike riding done, in preparation for his 330km ride through Namibia in the Challenge4aCause bike ride (see News Article on this subject).
For further details on our fundraising events, or on the activities of the Foundation in general, please contact Peter Allanson at Peter@lionroars.com. For a copy of the Lion Roars Foundation Constituion, please click here.
Banking Details for donations are as follows:
The Lion Roars Foundation
First National Bank
Account: 62269231165
Branch: Walmer
Branch code: 211217
As part of our commitment to our social responsibility vision, we also partner with established local development organisations. These include Umzi Wethu Academy, a not-for-profit social intervention programme, and the Amakhala Foundation Trust.
Umzi Wethu Academy - Lion Roars Internships
Umzi Wethu Academy, a not-for-profit social intervention programme initiated by the Wilderness Foundation in 2006, is a response to the social and economic development needs of the Eastern Cape Province.
Umzi Wethu is a training academy which offers a gateway for vulnerable youth to access support, qualifications and self-sustaining jobs in the tourism industry through the provision of accredited skills training, internships, life skills and mentoring, which together qualify vulnerable youth for jobs secured through partnerships with private game reserves, lodges, hotels and national parks.
Through a partnership with African Global Skills Academy (AGSA), Umzi Wethu Hospitality students, based at Umzi’s Port Elizabeth Academy, receive THETA accredited training in Professional Cookery and Table Attending equipping them for a wide range of jobs. Theoretical training is coupled with ongoing on-the-job practical training, which provides students with the chance to turn theory into practice in real work situations.
Umzi’s Field Ranging Graduates, through partnership with AGSA, and based at Umzi’s Somerset East Academy, work towards the following qualifications: Natural Resource Guardianship coupled with rifle training, first aid training, a driver’s license and FGASA 1 Qualification Certificate, which qualifies students for jobs as Field Rangers and Field Guides.
In partnership with Umzi Wethu, Lion Roars is proud to provide internship opportunities for both Cookery/ Table students and Rangers, at our various Lodges. Together with Umzi, our goal with these internships is to provide a valuable experience component to students’ ongoing development, and to work with Umzi Wethu to coach and mentor students through a 6-month internship programme. We're particularly happy to be able to provide students with exposure to the wonderfully diverse cultures and nationalities of our guests.
During your stay at the Lodges, feel free to ask your host to introduce you to our Umzi Wethu placements. We think you’ll find, as we do, that these are remarkable and vibrant young people with great futures ahead of them in the hospitality industry.
Amakhala Foundation Trust
As part of the Amakhala Game Reserve, Lion Roars is a proud supporter of the Amakhala Foundation Trust, an umbrella body under which the reserve’s social development programme and conservation centre is managed.
The aim of the foundation is to contribute to the building of strong communities in the reserve’s surrounds. Projects include early childhood education facilities with bursaries on offer, skills development for existing staff and unemployed members of the community, funding and delivery of HIV/Aids-awareness campaigns, counselling, voluntary testing and nutritional support for community members with HIV/ AIDS.
On the conservation side, the centre conducts research and monitoring in the reserve, hosts environmental education activities and promotes conservation beyond Amakhala’s borders.
To be part of the exciting and relevant work being done by this foundation, all you have to do is book a night at Hlosi or Bukela Game Lodge. Every stay at Hlosi or Bukela results in a direct donation to the Amakhala Foundation Trust. If you’d like to be more involved in the work being done, check out the initiatives below, or chat to your host or ranger during your stay.
Current initiatives
The Isipho HIV/ Aids Program cares for Aids orphans and vulnerable children in our local town, Paterson. It also provides support and education to those living with the HIV virus. The Amakhala Foundation supports the Isipho HIV/ Aids Program in Paterson in various ways, through management support, monthly food parcels, outings for the children and fundraising.
Isipho currently operates out of municipal buildings that are unsuitable for occupation by young children. The municipality has also requested that Isipho moves as soon as possible as they require the buildings for other purposes. Last year, through funds raise largely by guests to the Amakhala Game Reserve, we were able to purchase a large property with an industrial type building on it.
Buy-a-Brick fundraising campaign
The Amakhala Foundation and Isipho Charity Trust have begun a new fundraising campaign this year to raise money to renovate the building purchased last year. Our aim is provide the Isipho project with its own premises that are safe and welcoming for young children whose lives have been so terribly affected by the HIV virus. WE would like it to be a place where they receive support, love, care, food and education, a place where their sense of self worth is kept intact, and a home they can be proud of.
Fundraising is taking the form of Buy-a-Brick tickets which are available for purchase by guests at all Amakhala lodges. The tickets are R100.00 each and we hope to raise R100 000.00. The donors’ names will be listed on a wall of thanks at the new home of Isipho.
Renovations will result in four classrooms for the 120 pre-school aged children and an apartment for the 9 orphans that are in the care of the Isipho Safe House. The safe house will also be big enough to care for more orphans.
Amakhala Game Reserve is actively involved with the management of Isipho & our guests have contributed in many ways through fundraising & donations. If you would like to make a donation please contact Justine Weeks trustee of the Amakhala Foundation or the Isipho Charity Trust for banking details held by De Jager & Lordon Attorneys.
If you’d like to visit Isipho to meet the children and the wonderful people caring for them, or just to see the buildling progress, please ask your host or ranger at the Lodge. We’d be happy to arrange to take you there.
Amakhala Craft Centre
The Amakhala Foundation has begun its first income generating/poverty relief project in the form of the Amakhala Craft Centre. It is a project that started very tentatively earlier this year ago. An idea that has been brewing for a couple of years, it took two well-timed coinciding opportunities for it to finally become a reality. Reed Valley School closed down in February this year and the school building become available for another use. At the same time, ex-Handson Volunteer, Frances, was doing some pretty persistent begging to stay on at Amakhala in lieu of work. And so the Amakhala Craft Centre was born.
The aim of the Craft Centre is to create an opportunity for unemployed women from Paterson to earn an income. We encourage all guests on Amakhala to visit the Craft Centre, where they are able to purchase the items that have been made there. Products that have been made so far include beaded jewellery, elephant dung handmade paper, ostrich eggshell mosaics and embroidered items. Candle making is next on the list.
HIV/Aids Peer Councillor Course
As part of Amakhala Foundations fight against HIV/Aids, a five day Peer Councillor training course was held in June. The training was provided by Nola Elliot from the Raphael Centre of Grahamstown and was designed to equip two staff members from each lodge with the information and skills to provide support to those infected and affected by HIV/Aids amongst their colleagues, in their communities and to their own families.
We are so proud of Salani Mangobe, Nombulelo Mayinje, Nolita Zealand, Lumka Ntsete, Nomonde Matyila, Thando Nkewana, Liyanda Mgilane, Sylvia Solani and Ncomeka Sokola who gave so much of themselves to complete this course. Their support is so desperately needed in our country where one in five people are HIV positive and 1700 new cases of infection are reported every day. It was also a wonderful opportunity for firm friendships to be made.
This week of training coincided with the 3 monthly HIV/Aids programme run on Amakhala Game Reserve. A partnership has been formed with the Raphael Centre and Amakhala, the Raphael Centre provides quarterly counselling and voluntary testing to everyone working on Amakhala and we in turn offer the staff of the Raphael Centre much needed time out in our lodges termed, Care for the Carers.
A social worker from the ARV clinic at Settlers Hospital in Grahamstown spoke on the importance of early detection of the virus and the effectiveness of ARVs and a counsellor from the Raphael Centre spoke on the importance of healthy eating habits. This kind of information helps to dispel untruths about the disease and attempts to break down the stigma that is attached to HIV/Aids in this rural environment.
For more information about any of our social commitment and conservation activities, please contact Jules Bailey at Jules@lionroars.com.