The Venda Village Lodge, Limpopo

The Venda Village Lodge at Leshiba Wilderness.

© Bridget Hilton-Barber

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The Venda Village Lodge at Leshiba Wilderness is designed as an African village, with a series of interconnected rondavels or sleeping huts overlooking the Soutpansberg Mountains. The lodge was designed by acclaimed South African sculptor Noria Mabasa, who spent several months transforming a few old farm huts into an extraordinary game lodge.

There's a generous eating, living and lounging area, decorated with traditional Venda fabrics, pots, statues and a tableau of sculpted mythological creatures. The lodge is famed for its unusual shower – a lifesize figure of a young Venda man with a shower head coming out his ear! The bathroom is open on one side, so you can shower while looking out across the majestic mountains.

Leshiba Wilderness is a private game reserve at the top of the Soutpansberg, South Africa's northernmost mountain range. Leshiba is home to a variety of game including giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and rhino.

You can go on guided 4x4 game drives, or head out on one of the many hiking trails that lead to forests, gorges, waterfalls and grasslands. Leshiba also has many rock art sites dating back to the time when the area was inhabited by the San.

There is other accommodation available at Leshiba Wilderness: Hamasha Camp is a self-catering camp in a remote part of the reserve, overlooking a gorge; and the Indigenous Knowledge Centre is a camp for large groups.