Best “Safari” in 28 years of visiting Africa
Posted by Pam | Filed under Articles
I have just returned from a tour of 13 days, of which 7 days was a game viewing “safari” in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, at Addo National Elephant Park and Shamwari private game reserve, with 4 people, of whom one young man of 22 was a wheelchair user.
We set off from Cape Town through to the Garden Route via the R62, the longest wine route in the world, overnighting in Oudtshoorn, the Ostrich capital of the country. Here we visited the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where they have a breeding programme for the endangered Cheetah. They also have White Lion, White Bengal Tigers and many more very interesting animals and birds, many endangered such as the Cape Vulture.
We then visited the Safari Ostrich farm, for a tour and lunch ( no potatoes!!). Afterwards we then headed to the coastal area over the Outeniqua pass to Knysna for a night. This is where the real adventure began, with sightings of Elephant, Buffalo and Warthog. Yes we saw 2 of the 6 Lion, a female that decided she liked the look of us staring at her from a koppie and decided to walk back up the hill, so back into the car – fast – and then tried to follow her, but she slunk off into the thick Spekboom vegetation fast.
The next morning the sunrise was beautiful and as I was taking a photo of it, I heard a roar, Keith shouted he’s walking at about 200m direction 12 o’clock from the guest house that overlooked a waterhole and low and behold what a beautiful male Lion. More of this was on the cards over this very lucky spell.
We arrived at Shamwari and in the first game drive of the evening, we followed a male Cheetah on the hunt. This happened a few times. We also followed a female with 2 cubs a few times over the 8 game drives we did. The Elephant encounters were also special, with the young bulls really play fighting a lot. Other sightings included a herd of Elephant and a White Rhino with calf, which were in the same location as the Elephant.
In the mix
We also encountered that same White Rhino with calf who had rolled in the red sand with a Black Rhino who was totally out in the open, who took a dip in a very small mud pool. We managed to get a photo of both types of Rhino together – another first for the rangers.
So many firsts for seasoned rangers on this trip the angles were really smiling down on us. And so it went on with one special encounter after the other. A Lioness with 2 cubs of about 6 months, was not happy with the males advances, and tore a strip off him by growling and chasing him. He tried to block her wanting to leave, but she chased him with lots of growling and roaring – a sight I tried to video but was shaking too with excitement.
More Lion encounters, chasing the Male cheetah out of their territory. I can almost write a book about these 4 days at this private game reserve. Well, the verdict at the end of the tour was – after having visited most of the Sub Saharan countries of Africa over 28 years and doing many game encounters, this was by far the best ever experience for Keith, Liz & Tom. Seb enjoyed his first visit and I am sure he will be back, as I am sure the Somerville’s will be.
Keep reading and I hope to set up a photo gallery for these magnificent safaris we do in MALARIA-FREE area – Cheers for now – Pam Taylor.
Lioness one of many seen
Tags: Addo Elephant Park, Africa, black rhino, Cape Town, cape vulture, cheetah, cubs, endangered, Flamingo Tours, game drive, game viewing, Garden Route, Knysna, lioness, Lions, malaria free, ostrich, Oudtshoorn, Outeniqua, Pam Taylor, safari, Shamwari Private game reserve, South Africa, Spekboom, Sub-Saharan Africa, wheelchair, white lions, white rhino, white tigers
