Safari - Part 1 Timbavati S.A.

After our whirlwind day tour of Jo’burg we had a mid morning flight to Hoedspruit, the gateway airport to the northern private reserves west of Kruger National Park.  (It's north of Nelspruit, southern gateway airport, shown on map).  Also reference location of Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Agulhas, George, Garden Route from previous posts.

Kruger is the sixth largest national park in the World.  Outside of Arctic National parks in US, Canada and Greenland, only the Naukluft in Namibia is larger - and we’ll be going there soon. 

Kruger is located in the NE corner of SA.  In addition to the park, on the west side of Kruger are several private game reserves.  The advantage of going to the private reserves instead is they limit the number of lodges and guests in the reserve; there are no paved roads except to get between the airport and lodge entrances; the guides share information about sitings so you have a good chance to see wildlife, but at the same time they communicate with each other to limit the number of vehicles around any site; there is no “self driving” so the idiots are off the road; and the lodges are more service oriented than camping or park lodges.  The private reserves also are unfenced with each other and Kruger so the animals roam free over a wide area.  

Our friends went to Mala Mala in Sabi Sands reserve, one of the premier wildlife viewing/lodge reserves, and one that has a greater population of leopards, which was their priority.  We wanted a more rustic “tent-like” lodge that was by no means roughing it (we were glamping).  And, since we hadn't been to a safari before we were also pretty open to the diversity of animals.  We stayed in Timbavati Private Reserve at the Tanda Tula lodge.  The guides were terrific!  They see in the dusty road animal tracks that we would have driven over. Each day we had a tracker and an driver/guide (who was also a tracker) Once, our tracker left the vehicle for almost an hour (without his gun) to track down the lion in the bush.  Finally, he radioed our driver/guide, who was taking us around to see other animals, where he was.  We pick him up and we saw the lions.  In comparing notes both reserves and experiences were top notch.

See Red Arrow for lodge location

What we also liked about Tanda Tula is "Travel as a Political Act.  The owners are part of, and contribute to, the community.  While they are white South Africans with their own children they adopted a local village child to add to their family, they created a foundation so all the staff’s children will get the same education at private schools that their children  attend to help build the future for SA, and were clear about a succession plan.  They started by identifying the next leadership and transferring some ownership to three top employees (one white SA, and two black).  They have such a commitment to the staff and community that some employees have been with them over 23 years!  In talking with other guides in other resorts that was uncommon.

The resort is almost completely open to the wild. They have an electric fence around the property to keep out the elephants as they can be very destructive.  All the other animals can come right onto the property and up to your tent.  We saw many animals on the property through out the day and evening.  Every morning (we woke up at 5:30 and left by 6:00) and evening after dinner we were escorted back to our tent with a guide to keep us, not the animals, in control in case of an encounter in the dark. Never did here - but a future post will tell another story.  

While we weren't focused on "getting the Big Five" we manage to see all in our days at Timbavati.  The photos can speak for the safari.  But I will add some explanation.

 Interior of our Glamping Tent (note elephant towel)

 Outside view of our tent

Common Area 

Lillac Breasted Roller


Lioness suckling cubs (Big Five No 1)

Lion Cub Stretching 

 Cub and Mom

 Leopard (Big Five No 2)

 First Sundowner with Scotch (Guide) and Patrick (tracker)

 Lioness and Cub at waterhole

 Crested Guinea Fowl

 Lesser spotted Eagle

 Elephante' and Baby (about a month) - Big Five No 3

 Love knots

 Mom and baby digging and drinking from water hole

 Mom and Dad (I think) comin on

 Here's lookin at you, kid

 Breakfast after morning safari with Brian and Steph

 Private lunch spot at lodge where the Monkeys attacked us.  They won - we left.

 Zebras

 Zebras

 Staff dance for us - more personal than you'd think.

 Giraffes

 Second Sundowner

 Tracks - this is how they did it, and these are good!

 Walking safari.  Scotch, the jokester got very serious

 Giraffes in the wild

 Cape Buffalo - Nice Hair (Big Five No 4)

 Cape Buffalo

 Warthog, Hakunamatata

 Warthog

 Elephante - mom and child

 Steenbok

 Lion in Wilderness

 Lion in Winter

 Hyena (cooler than Disney)

 Kudu

 Kudu

 Wildebeest

 Wildebeest

Rhino Couple (Big Five No 5)