On Safari

It didn’t seem right to spend this much time in South Africa without a trip to one of the game reserves, so we booked ourselves a few days at Umlani – in the private reserve at Timbavati which borders the Kruger Park.

We booked a direct flight from Cape Town to Eastgate airport at Hoedspruit – a SAF airbase which earns extra income by allowing commercial aircraft to land and support the local Safari trade. It’s other claim to fame is that it has a 3.5km runway which was an alternate landing site for the US space shuttle – in case they missed California or Florida.

We arrived in time for lunch and then had an hour to get organised before our first game drive. We met our guide and tracker – Shaddy and Ephraim (more on biblical names later) – and the other 6 people in our truck – a couple each from Sweden and Chicago, a single American lady from Boston and a South African tour organiser. 

A good sighting of a herd of Elephants was followed by solitary male buffalo, then Giraffe, Zebra, Impala, and Waterbuck before a radio message had us haring across the plain to catch up with pack of African Wild Dogs. By the time we arrived we could only see the Alpha Male & Female – the rest were hidden in the long grass but we did see them later.

After the obligatory sundowner, we made it back to camp in time for a pre-dinner drink and an excellent meal. We were here 6 years ago and while there have been some changes, it still has a special feel and it was very easy to slip back into the Safari routine – even if that did mean getting up at 5.00am each morning.