Bulungula Lodge

This is a slightly belated update... but better late than never!

This is Bulungula Lodge, possibly the most amazing backpackers I've ever stayed at! It is a community development project, the first of its kind in South Africa. The Bulungula village own 40% of the lodge, and every activity is run 100% by the locals. It is this amazing place covered in bright murals and eco-friendly!

The artwork was down by Sarah - an English artist who periodically comes out to paint the lodge. She was such a cool chick, we sat around talking to her round the fire one night. This is some of her handiwork.


This is the shower - a rocket shower powered by kerosene I think. You measure out some kerosene and pour it into an opening in the pipe then light it. It goes off like a rocket, hence the name! you get about 5-7mins of hot water. And the mosiac was so beautiful, never seen a cooler bathroom.


This is the toilet, home to chickens also. They are ecofriendly toilets - the front section for liquid waste, the back for solids. After taking a dump you put in 2 scoops of dirt. The chickens took up residence in the dirt buckets after a guests dog attacked them and killed 11! They were so stressed they started laying in guests beds and living in the toilets. apparantly guests would go to use the bathroom and totally freak out upon discovering the chickens! So they lodge made proper nesting boxes for them so people would see them when they went in.

This was the roundaville Amy and I shared - it was so sweet!


The rondavilles are all greenish as they are coated with a local limestone. There is a section of the wall that is coated with a different brownish material that attacts the heat, they are so well designed that they suck in the heat during the day and stay sooo warm at night (me and Amy actually thought it was the amazing power of the candle that kept the room warm, but alas our scientific powers of dection were wrong!)

We went to the beach and these local girls, all sisters came up to us. the beautiful thing about Bulungula is that the community hasn't had bad experiences with tourists (like coffee bay where everyone rushes at you and asks for money or sweets all the time... more about that in the coffee bay entry). So white people and tourists are still much of a novelty. the little girls came and played with our hair and tried on my sunnies and Amy's headband. They also loved our cameras and took lots of photos of sand while they worked out how to use them! It was so nice to not just be seen as a walking ATM for a change - very refreshing. In fact even at the lodge it was the same. The community really does benefit from the lodge, and its a place for them too, they come and hang out there during the day and at night. It was sooo cool. I was totally inspired. Maybe oneday I will have an opporutnity to do something like it; community development in action!




The area was sooooo beautiful too. Like I couldn't get over it! Some of it totally reminded me of our south coast, but the little rondavilles everywhere were a constant reminded I wasn't at home. Man it was awesome!





Oh and food was to die for! I ate so much! it was Xosha food for lunch and a mix of things for dinner, but I swear it was some of the best food I've ever eaten, god even thinking about it now is making me hungry! There was also Xosha bread, made in the solar ovens there. It is sooo good. But we managed to get totally ripped off coz of it. I asked if maybe we could take some back to campus with us, and was told no problem. It was only after a lady (who turned out to be another guest, not even a village lady) had made us a loaf (filled with apples, nuts and other goodness) that we found out it was 70R! When you consider normal bread is about 5R a loaf you can see how stupid and cheated we felt, it was a sore point for a while. But I still ahve some frozen in the freezer and its very nice for breakfast with fruit and yoghurt. So all in all i guess it was ok.

So yeah. Bulungula rocked! It was good for the mind, body and soul (well possibly less good for the body given how much I ate, but who cares...). It was a 12hour trip each way which was a bit of a drag, but sooo unbelievably worth it. I've never seen anything like it. Hopefully I can convince Mum and Chrissie to check it out. We will see!