Vacation Pt. 1: Ferrari Safari

No trip to South Africa would be complete without seeing wildlife. Following in the footsteps of the brave tourists that have gone before us, our group decided to take a long weekend and go on safari. Armed with a newly-bought safari hat and safari shirt (think Steve Irwin…too soon?) we loaded into the cars at 6am on Thursday morning and drove the 10 hours along the garden route (absolutely beautiful coastal drive) to Kwandwe Game Reserve (in between Port Elizabeth and East London). If you were thinking leisurely game drives along the sun-scorched African outdoors you’d be in for a surprise. It was freezing; the South African winter had finally arrived.

No worries however. What was lost through the weather was made up for through the accommodations. Through a slight scheduling mix-up the first night we were upgraded to a five-star Relais & Châteaux all-inclusive lodge in the middle of the reserve. This place was incredible. Easily one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed in. Although, I will admit, during the planning stage of this trip I originally pushed for a more grounded safari. Preferably one with tents and…well…not five star accommodations. I guess the idea of staying in such a posh and uppity place seemed superficial to me (somehow I doubt the native bushmen had similar accommodations when they were living off the land). My reasoning was I could stay at five-star resorts when I get old, but I’m young and can afford to rough it a bit. Regardless, after asking the mathematics gods to help us figure out what type of trip would be most economical, it turned out the grass-roots-down-to-earth safari was just as expensive as the celebrity excursion. This was due to the added expense of having to buy air fare for a flight to Kruger (if we wanted to sleep in tents in the bush). I’m not going to say I was necessarily outvoted in the matter, but at the end of the day I saw the merit of the other option and was incredibly happy with the decision to go to Kwandwe.

Instead of narrating all our game drives I’m only going to focus on a few highlights of what we saw.

Day 1

It was late when we started our first game drive and didn’t end up seeing much. We did, however, get used to driving around in a large open-air Land Rover in the rain.

Day 2

1. Two cheetahs (brothers) on a hunting expedition

2. A giraffe blocking the road

3. A herd of buffalo (maybe 40 – 50) making their way to a watering hole.

4. LIONS! One male with two females were lounging around in the grass after a large meal. These guys were so close it was scary. It felt like a mix between Lion King and Jurassic Park. The whole time I was running through all the escape scenarios in my head in case one of those guys realized how tasty Collins can be. Luckily they had already eaten and were more content to hang out and chill like Mufasa (as opposed to wild Raptors).

5. A springbok staggering away after munching on some Euphorbia plants (the guide told us these plants produce hallucinations and feelings of euphoria for Springboks, but are deadly to humans)

6. Other animals (warthogs, zebras, porcupines, lots of animals that looked like antelopes, and wildebeests)

Day 3

1. More LIONS! This time the male from yesterday was out on his own looking for some ladies. We found him right outside our guide’s house, at which point our guide launched into a story about how he was attacked by an aggressive lion about a year earlier. We followed Aslan/Mufasa for a while until he met up with a different pride of females. Apparently they were jealous he was spending so much time with the girls we saw yesterday because they roughed him up a bit before climbing high into the hills, where our Land Rover couldn’t follow.

2. A mom and baby white rhino devouring a field of grass. These were some of the largest beasts I’ve ever seen. I would have liked to see some black rhino, but apparently they are much rarer and much more aggressive.

3. We never saw any elephants. We searched high and low but apparently the world’s largest land mammal is also excellent and hide-and-seek.