Coffee Bay to Kei Mouth » Nqabara

Nqabara Eco River Lodge

Email

tim [at] nqabara.co.za

Telephone

+27 82 320 9320
+27 31 207 4824

Website

http://www.nqabara-eco-river-lodge.co.za

Nqabara Eco River Lodge is sited on a remarkably beautiful promontory overlooking the confluence of the Nqabara and Nqabarana Rivers at their mouth, separated from the beach by a beautiful girdle of indigenous bush with the Indian Ocean beyond that.

Nqabara Eco River Lodge can comfortably accommodate 20 people in three cottages and the main house.

EACH COTTAGE HAS THE FOLLOWING:

  • Two furnished en-suite bedrooms with two single beds
  • A lounge area
  • A fully equipped kitchen
  • Lounge & Dining Area
  • Ablution Facilities
  • Large Deck

THE MAIN HOUSE FEATURES:

  • A fully equipped kitchen
  • Lounge, DSTV, Dining Area
  • Ablutions
  • Large Deck

As a low-impact eco-lodge, the entire place is run on solar technology and water is harvested and stored in tanks. 

The Nqabara area is pristine, one of the few places along the Wild Coast that has not been developed. It is designated “environmentally sensitive” and the Nqabara community proudly treasure this status. The people of the area are determined to preserve the beauty and natural heritage that they know is their greatest asset.

Nqabara Eco River Lodge is the perfect fishing and/or family holiday destination, a getaway for the leisure tourist, the volunteer traveller, a team-building experience, or for conferencing with a difference. Nqabara Eco River Lodge welcomes those wanting a quiet and beautiful “away-from-the-crowds-and-noise experience”.

Designed as a low-impact facility, Nqabara Eco River Lodge is fully off-the-grid. It harvests water from the heavens and innovative technology is used throughout the lodge to ensure that its environmental footprint is as small as possible.

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Facilities
Facilities: 
Pet Friendly - by arrangement, Secure parking, TV Lounge
Activities
Things To Do: 
Bird watching, Canoeing, Cultural excursion, Diving, Fishing, Hiking, Horse riding, Nature walks, Surfing, Swimming
Services
Services: 
Baby sitter, Daily domestic service, Laundry
Useful Info
Good to Know: 

Nqabara Eco River Lodge
Proceeding beyond the Badi trading station, the Nqabara River dramatically increases in width and volume on its route towards the Indian Ocean. Located 50km east of Willovale, the Nqabara Eco Lodge is a community- owned facility. 
The lodge’s founder and current manager, Captain Xhayi, returned from Johannesburg in the early 1990s and noted the tourism potential of the Nqabara River mouth area. 

“There was just bush here, so I tried to organise 12 villages under our chief and we established a trust [the Nqabara Community Tourism Trust and Community],’’ Captain recalls. “We then tried to get funding.’’ It would take decades for the lodge to become a reality, and it was only in 2012, with funding provided by the European Union, that the project was completed. 

Fishing
The lodge offers a canoe hiring service, which allows visitors to effectively fish the Nqabara River, and its tributary, the Nqabarana River. Visitors can fish kob, garrick, kingfish, spotted grunter, river bream, and snapper. The Nqabara River mouth is home to good populations of honeycomb stingrays and lesser guitarfish (sandshark). The rocky coastline on the opposite side of the Nqabara River offers good drop shot opportunities for kob. 

Bird-watching
The natural bush/forest, which contains large yellowood and white stinkwood trees, is located along the Nqabara and Nqabarana rivers, and offers excellent bird-watching opportunities. Species that may be sighted include trumpeter hornbills, African fish eagles, malachite kingfishers and, in the higher-lying grasslands, southern ground-hornbills. 

A walk down the coastline, beyond the first rocky point, offers kilometres of gullies in which reef fish species, such as bronze bream and blacktail, can be targeted, while watching white-breasted cormorants, African black oystercatchers, and other coastal birds hunting for food.

To cross the river, visitors can hire a canoe. Alternatively, subsistence fisherman, Zolani Nzdombane rows visitors across the Nqabara River for a nominal fee. “When the water is high you catch especially blue fish [bronze bream] there,’’ Zolani says, pointing to a rocky point. 

Source: Farmers Weekly

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