Another Night Safari Through Phinda

After a very long drive in the dark through extremely heavy traffic we arrived at the Boabab inn just after 7:15pm. It had already been a very long day after getting up at 6am, fixing the brakes, going shopping, doing a game drive through Hluhluwe, and then driving to Richards Bay, doing more shopping and then driving back.
This was the meal and drive we had all been looking forward to all day and we all ordered Heisbein pork for dinner with vegetables washed down with Windhoek draught beer and a sprite for Ellie. Then it was back in the car at 8:30pm and we made the 20 minute drive to Phinda private game reserve to do a night safari.
Obviously being a private game reserve with a public road running through the middle a night safari is illegal, especially with a spotlight, but there is nothing to stop you doing it as long as your careful and you could cut the excitement in the car with a knife.
We rolled through the entrance gate giving our details to security and then we were hunting.
Straight away we spotted wilderbeast looming in the darkness with only there eyes shining, then we spotted impala’s standing at the side of the road.
Then, out of the darkness walking up the middle of the road came a huge female lion. We couldn’t believe our luck. 2 lion sightings on the same road in 2 days. Then she came right upto the car and ducked into an opening in the bushes next to us and just stood there. She looked busy and agitated like she was looking for something. Then she turned around and came back towards us and walked right next to the car as we rolled slowly forward. She completely ignored us, she was in the zone. And then she disappeared off to our right into the bushes and increased her pace and disappeared.
We continued driving and about 1km later another female lion walked across the road out of the bushes right in front of us head down and her haunches high. She was stalking something and we realised all the lions were hunting and we were in the middle of the hunt as they communicated silently with each other. It was really amazing to experience.
After that we saw loads of owls, 2 water buffalo and then a Jenet climbing out of a tree. It was a crazy night drive and we knew we had been lucky with our experience’s.
From the final security gate it took us another hour to drive home. Fortunately for everyone there were no cows in the road and the drive was slightly less terrifying than the other night and we finally arrived home at 11:15pm completely shattered after being up for almost 18 hours.Les mer