Just after leaving CBRE I gave myself a treat: a quick relatively inexpensive South Africa safari. Here’s my notes and photos of that trip.
Johannesburg
2/6 – Arrived in Johannesburg after overnight flights from LA to London and then from London. Walked to Elizabeth Manor guest house then walked to mall for lunch. Walked around mall for a while. Watched Joker movie back at guest house. Then took Uber to/from the mall for dinner. Huge rainstorm that night and the power went out most of the night.
Driving to the Park
2/7 – The first full day of the South Africa safari I got picked up by the Viva Safari driver at guest house. Then picked up 2 British couples and a Canadian couple from their hotels near the airport. Both British couples were retired and living in Turkey. One was a retired fireman from London and the other a retired ambulance driver from the Midlands area. The Canadian couple owned a large sheep farm in Saskatchewan. Long drive up over 6,000 foot high veld (Joburg at about a mile high) to the lodge. Saw tons of coal trucks and coal piles through part of the drive. Immediately went on a game drive. Saw water buffalo right out of the gate. Lots of impala.
Sat by a pride of around 10-15 lions for a bit. It was very peaceful. They were all panting heavily in the heat. Bernard, our driver, then heard about some fresh rhino droppings. So we headed to that area and he spotted the rhino deep into the bush. It was amazing that he could see the animal. He drove in and we spent some time right near it as it grazed. It was a male black rhino. Had a BBQ outdoors and there was a hyena just past the fire waiting for scraps.
Full Day at Private Reserve
2/8 – Up at 5am for a snack then a game walk. Right outside our lodge we saw impala running, then we saw a pack of 7 African dogs. There are only about 500 left in South Africa, so seeing 7 was very rare. We watched them for a while. Even the guides took pictures. Then we drove to the place for the walk. Walked for over 2 hours and saw birds, unique trees, stopped by a termite mound, then saw a line of ants attacking some termites under some elephant dung. Had a snack by Oliphant River. Saw a pack of baboons. Stopped by a termite mound with a tree growing outside it. Guide took the head off and I ate a live termite. Tasted like a crunchy prawn shell. It’s an amazing source of protein.
It rained on our way back to the trucks and we all got thoroughly soaked. On the 4-hour afternoon game drive we saw a small pride of 3 large male lions. Bernard spotted the lions by vultures on the trees above. Saw two separate giraffes, 2 elephants eating their way down a hill, and some hippos in the river. We saw a fish eagle and a monitor lizard. We had a nice sundowner snack and drink at the top of a ridge. It was dark when we drove back and we saw the pack of dogs again through Bernard’s lights. Seeing the dogs twice in one day was very lucky. He’s only seen dogs about 10 times over the past year.
Kruger National Park
2/9 – Drove about 90 minutes to Kruger Park. Could only drive on the main roads at Kruger so saw most of the game from a distance. Saw a lot of impala, zebra and wildebeest. There were multiple elephants and giraffes. Saw some jackals and one was playing with what looked like a zebra tail. Best part was watching a pack of hyenas try to chase a lioness from a kill. They did manage to pull a leg out but couldn’t get anything else.
At one point they got really excited and started barking really loudly. There were about 7-8 of them. It rained hard a few times and I ended up sitting in the cab with Raymond the guide since I forgot my poncho. We talked about how he has 5 kids. One is 25 and got an engineering degree but was finding it hard to find a job. The next oldest was in university. He said most kids don’t want to work in tourism services because the pay was low, but that was where most of the work was.
Final Morning Game Drive
2/10 – The final day of the South Africa safari started at 5:45am for a one-hour game drive. It was just me and the guide. It rained hard all night, but the rain stopped just as the game drive started. We saw a giraffe by the road browsing and eating various small trees. Saw a pride of lions relaxing in the cool morning air. Had a long uneventful drive back to Joburg. Was not able to see Blythe Canyon because of the fog and rain. Shared the ride with a Brazilian couple on the first half. They both worked for Globo TV. She produced telenovas and he was a DP. They talked a lot about how bad the corruption was in Brazil.
2/11 – It ended up being a cool, cloudy day so I just hung out at the Holiday Inn I was staying at and reading and watching a movie before heading to the airport for my overnight flight to London and then morning flight to LAX.
