More African Animals! New Safari Experience Thrills Sisters

Days 103-106, 2024 Grand World Voyage

Monday-Thursday, April 15-18, 2024; Thanda Safari Private Game Reserve, South Africa

(Editor’s note: Enjoy the first of my sister Eloise’s two guest blog posts about the safari she and my sister Elaine took in South Africa!)

What is a trip to Africa without exotic wildlife? At least that’s what we thought as we left the Zuiderdam for a few nights, leaving Jo to hold down the fort. Which is how I ended up writing a guest blog for Jo.  Hello, I’m Jo’s sister Eloise.

This was not our first rodeo safari. On last year’s world cruise, our safari was at Shishangeni Game Lodge in Kruger National Park. This year Elaine and I went to Thanda Safari Private Game Reserve, about 200 miles south and only 54 square miles in size compared to Kruger’s 7,576 square miles. Thanda’s savannah is more bushy than open and lacks the river for hippos and crocodiles. Still, at both you have the experience of riding around in a safari jeep with only air between you and the animals, which may be around any turn of the road.

What is a day at a game reserve like? It’s delightful but long. The wake-up call comes at 5 a.m. for the 5:30 excursion departure, because animals are most active at dawn and dusk. There’s barely enough time to throw on clothes and chug down a cup of coffee before departing, but the payoff is a magnificent sunrise and an excellent chance of seeing wildlife. Mid-morning, we return for a hearty breakfast. Mid-afternoon we head back out until nightfall, then return for a delicious dinner.

Thanda is working to restore open grasslands from what was once cattle ranches and cotton farms. Grasslands are where we saw herds of cape buffalo and zebras. Antelopes like impala, wildebeest, kudu and nyala were also out standing in their fields there. Electric fences, marked by white knobs, keep the elephants in the reserve.

Open savannahs have no place to hide, but there’s little cover for lions, leopards, cheetahs or hyenas to sneak up, either. Elephants and giraffes preferred the brush, because they browse on leaves and branches, but strangely, roadways are a popular place to hang out. So, there are expected habitats but any animal can be anywhere and we kept our eyes peeled.

The joy is not just checking animals off the must-see list, but watching their behavior. We found elephants by watching for violently shaking trees.  Elephants tear off limbs and uproot whole trees to get to the leaves. A rhino calf wanders over to get a closer look at the jeep, then stampedes back to mom when he notices she’s so far away.  

Two impala bucks look up from butting heads when the jeep drives by, then go right back at it. Cape buffalos ignore the jeep as they lounge in mud holes right by the road.

After a large meal of buffalo, lions stretch out on their side or back to allow room for their bulging stomachs. A nearby tower of giraffes keeps a close eye on three cheetahs lounging and playing near them, even though giraffes are much larger than a cheetah’s normal prey.

A young lioness stalks a large cape buffalo, who is not amused.  She calls it off when her sisters say, “Yeah, no way,” and they all head back to mom. Crested francolins (aka bush chickens) scratch for bugs in the road.  As a jeep approaches, they just keep running up the road ahead of the jeep until the last minute, when they dive into the brush.

The plants also are exotically beautiful. The candelabra tree (Euphorbia ingens) was the area’s most exotic cactus. My favorite was the Dr Seuss-ish fever tree (Vachellia xanthophloea), with its smooth, yellowish trunk and leaves clustered at the top. The white of the thorny sicklebush flower (Dischrostachys cinerea) turns pink when it is pollinated.

During every drive we took a break from the strenuous wildlife viewing for a bush break. Out came the snacks, along with the French press in the morning or the ice chest in the evening. The first morning I had a coffee with Amarula (similar to Bailey’s Irish Cream). The second, I had the same but told them to hold the coffee. That hits the spot! Our guide always parks us in an open spot for safety, but we still had animal surprises, such as the nyala below wandering over to join the party.

At the beginning of morning drives and the end of evening drives, our spotter flashed a spotlight through the dusk looking for the reflective eyes of nocturnal animals. We spotted several side-striped jackals this way. (Back home in Arkansas night hunting with a spotlight is called jack-lighting and is very illegal. Do not do this in front of the game warden.)

Before the trip I wondered if a second safari would be too “been there, done that.”  But seeing the exotic animals is always exciting, and the safari setup was enough different that it was new. Thanda Villa iZulu had several enrichment options that added a new dimension, which I will describe in the next blog.