Day 2 Safari by Simi

We arrived in a rather chilly Jo’berg around 9:30am .. amazing service with Ali of course as we were met by a smiley Loyiso with his sign and he quickly ushered us through the VIP transfer… taking on the role of airport dad and giving Matt a break … even still it was a long queue and you could see he had taken on all our worries as apparently making the connecting flight, this time to Hoedspruit was going to be extremely tight. He even collected our baggage for us and loaded it onto a trolley and then requested us sweetly that we all sprint to the internal check in desk… we made it by the skin of our teeth!
But we made it… and a massive thanks to Loyiso as we deffo would have been shuffling around the arrivals lounge trying to fathom our next steps aka missing our flight if it had not been for him ! But hooray we made it! Ali triumphs again! What a bloody amazing service!

So why are we flying to Hoedspruit? So we can get to our safari lodge!

We were picked up by Den and drove through to our Lodge in the Klaseri private reserve. The Greater Kruger is the collective name given to the private reserves on the western boundary of the Kruger National Park.
These include the Klaserie, Umbabat, Timbavati, Balule, Manyeleti, and Sabi Sand reserves. According to their website these reserves dropped their fences to become part of one pristine tract of protected wilderness in the name of biodiversity conservation. Basically Kruger has a lot more tourists / more vehicles but is more affordable whereas this area has the same amount of animals as it’s the same land but everyone can’t come in so therefore it’s more expensive…. So this is deffo the even bigger treat of the holiday for us.

Kruger is a huge national park.. basically the same size as Wales.. bigger than some countries such as Slovenia, Kuwait and Fiji. It’s approx. 220 miles long and 49 miles wide . The park includes diverse landscapes like savanna, woodland, riverine forest, and mountain ranges and of course the big 5!
Rhino 🦏
Elephant 🐘
Buffalo 🐃
Lion 🦁
Leopard 🐆
Will we see all 5?🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

Anyway our home for the next three nights was the rather lovely Xanatseni resort-a place of the Mopane. Mopane is the name of a type of tree that is very popular with the elephant.

We were staying in the rather plush 2 bed villa! Check out the photos! Just gorgeous! We had a bottle of chilled fizz waiting for us courtesy of Ali . It’s an all inclusive place and the drinks on tap were insane and the food was never ending. I’m already feeling my clothes are getting rather tight and we’ve only been here a day! We’ve got the most stunning villa- lovely little touches .. our own coffee machine, a fridge full of drinks, huge beds, our own fire pit ( the staff make up a fire for us each night) , our own pool, the views of the reserve.. staff who can’t help you enough … they’ve already given us a new milk machine (to heat up the milk for Arushi’s hot chocolates and three adapters for charging phones / watches etc)

Lunch was a huge pork steak ( breaded aubergine for the veggies) with potato salad and coleslaw and ice cream. MASSIVE portions and we can tell we are about to embark on more meat we’ve had all year! Millen is uber excited! Midway through lunch a huge herd of elephants accompanied by a load of impala arrived at the water hole just opposite our lodge so we all raced to the viewing platform to gaze in wonder at these majestic creatures . The great thing about this place is it is small so there is no chance of over crowding - besides our villa there are 5 other rooms!

We have two game drives a day. One from 6-9am and then one from 3.30-6.30pm. Our first family safari drive was about to begin. .. another luxury .. it was just for the 5 of us! We were in a cool 8 seater open top safari jeep whose wheels could take on the world! Our ranger, a gentle mannered woman called Bryony filled our heads with both facts and awe.

The vehicle was very impressive with a “tracker” seat.. the tracker isn’t here this week so no tracker for us (luckily our ranger is brilliant but also Millen seems to be rather gifted in this department too having spotted so many animals before the rest of us) with huge boxes between the seats filled with water and blankets! Brilliant .

Bryony midway even took us to a little picnic spot where she then magically set up a table (complete with table cloth) and some sundowners and snacks (warm veggie spring rolls, crisps and nut… see they think of everything)!

So today this is what we saw!

Impala
These graceful antelopes are known for their incredible leaping ability, capable of jumping up to 10 feet high and spanning distances of up to 30 feet in a single bound. Watching them bound elegantly across the reserve was so relaxing. Their agility was very admirable .

Elephant
These are the largest land animals and are highly intelligent and social creatures. They can communicate through low-frequency sounds that can be heard over long distances. They have caused quite a lot of chaos to all the trees and so many have been uprooted due to their large appetites ! They are totally mesmerising to watch. Their trunks are just phenomenal!

Kudu
Known for their impressive twisted horns and striking markings, the kudu is meant to be quite elusive and often found in dense bush. Their ability to blend into the environment made spotting them a thrill. They were far bigger than I had imagined .

Warthog
These fascinating creatures have a unique appearance with their tusks and bristly fur. Warthogs often kneel to graze, which is a humorous sight apparently but we did not see that. We definitely have also spoke a LOT about Lion king on this trip and spent a while trying to recall the warthog’s name in this Disney Classic (FYI it’s Pumbaa)

Hippo
Despite their bulky size, hippos are surprisingly agile in water and can hold their breath underwater for several minutes. We only saw a solitary hippo deep in the water but still totally stunning. This is a fierce animal with the most human deaths, despite being a vegetarian and not even one of the big five !

African Cat
Sadly no photos as it was towards the end of our drive so pretty dark but this wild cat is quite a rate sighting according to Bryony..

Cape Buffalo
These buffalo are known for their strength and resilience, often forming large herds.The Buffalo has height of up to 1.5 m and a mass of 750 kg. Both sexes have horns, those of bulls characterised by a heavy boss and upward curved. Thrt definitely looked like they were judging us and had a sense of James Earl Ray about them!

Scrub hare
The upper parts of the scrub hare are a grizzled-grey and the under parts white. They have long ears which are grey in colour, and together with the black-and-white tail these become most visible whilst fleeing.

Red billed and yellow billed hornbill
These striking birds ( Like Zazu in Lionking) are everywhere! While the character Zazu is a red-billed hornbill, the Yellow-billed Hornbill is a more common species here and is sometimes nicknamed the "flying banana" due to its large, yellow beak!

Oxpeckers
These little birds seem to be on all the big animals apart from the elephant ( elephants are not keen apparently). Oxpeckers and rhinos have a symbiotic relationship, where both species benefit. The Oxpeckers eat ticks and parasites off the rhino's back so basically get a free lunch and provide a cleaning service. In turn, the rhino benefits from the removal of these parasites and also gets an early warning system from the oxpecker's alarm calls, helping them detect approaching predators or humans. How clever is this!

The sun sets around 6 here so the last half of the drive was done in the dark with a carefully used flashlight to help us spot animals . We even had an elephant in our garden when we got back. Amazing!

Overall, seeing these animals in their natural environment during a safari has been such an exciting experience and we have 5 more drives! Whoop whoop. Totally makes you appreciate the rich diversity of life on our planet.

When we got back we had a fire made for us outside our villa so we enjoyed the champagne and warmed our toes before another huge feast for supper- chicken, venison, vegetable curry and poached pears for pud. Yum!

This first full day surpassed all expectations ! Loved it!Read more