Our first “Real Safari” was at Edeni Private Game Reserve. It’s basically next door to where we stayed, meaning only a 30 minute drive. Jo dripped us off at the Edeni gate at 5pm where our driver was waiting to take us to the Lodge. The vehicle was a Landrover, with four rows of seats open to the elements. At the lodge we picked up two other passengers (a nice British couple on holiday without their 3 kids) and were immediately off on the drive. Leading us was our “tracker” who sat on the left side of the hood in a special seat. About a minute into the drive, around the bend and wow! An elephant in the middle of the road. The driver stopped the jeep and observed for awhile and realized it was a whole family (about 10), including a 3-week-old baby. They munched for awhile and then walked across the road directly in front of us. The “tracker”, a guy who sits on a rigged seat attached to the front of the vehicle could have reached out and touched them, they were that close! The matriarch and several of the older females were extremely protective of the little guy, keeping themselves tight around him and between us and him. Once they crossed the road, one of the elephants felled a 30ft tall tree, just crack and it was down.
Onward, we spotted impala, kudu, waterbuck, zebra and rhino. This was our first rhino spotting (it was a white rhino, quite docile compared to the black rhino). These animals are quite habituated to the jeeps and people observing them. But it’s very nice to see them in their habitat, with amazing space to roam.
These game reserves (a preserve has a much higher standard for certification, requiring the owner to remove all non-indigenous plants,etc., so most in this area settle for being a reserve) are quite amazing operations. They are huge (this one is 21,000 acres), but employ many trackers that scout the property for animal activity. They are all hooked up with fancy communication equipment, no walkie-talkies here. When a tracker spots something, all the jeeps are notified and then race to that particular location. Sometimes we arrived at the same time as other jeeps, but in the most part they did a good job of keeping the humans separated and so each jeep felt they were “discovering” the animals.
After spotting the rhino, word came in that lions had made a kill. So, we raced to the other side of the park – it took probably 45 minutes, high speed, over very bumpy dirt roads. Anticipation and nervousness was high. We got to the spot and could see nothing out of the ordinary. The tracker showed us a bloody spot on the side of the road. The driver then drove the jeep off-road, I can’t even describe how amazing- we were literally trail blazing over small trees, big bushes and high grasses. It was slow going and all I could think is we could never make a fast get away if we wanted to.
About 50 yards off the “main road” we saw some lion ears sticking up over the grass. My heart was racing! Natalie got a little anxious and I had to calm down to calm her down. Kept reminding myself that no tourist had been attacked (but then a little voice in my head said that I really didn’t know that for sure!). We kept going until we were about 6 feet away from 3 lions, a lioness (about 8yrs old) and her two cubs, 1 male and 1 female, about 1.5 yrs. old. They were laid out, clearly satiated. Talk about lazy. It was major effort for them to raise their heads to look at us, and the only reason they did was because they became slightly alarmed about this gigantic loud jeep crunching over brush moving towards them. They would get up, stagger a few feet and plop back down again. They looked to be in prime health, with beautiful coats and bright eyes. The kill (a large kudu) was hidden under some other brush. One of the cubs got up and walked behind our jeep (that got everyone’s attention) and back to munch on the kill (right on cue), we listened to all the crunching chewing sounds and could see part of the carcass.
It took us about 10 minutes to back up and manuever out of the brush, the lions calmly watching us the whole time. Apparently, the lions perceive the jeep and everyone in it as one unit – like a large elephant. If a person makes himself distinguishable, then that person is fair game. So, we all stayed seated!
After that, the sun was setting and we raced to a rock out-cropping and stopped for drinks and a snack. It was cool, but comfortable in long sleeve shirts. No bugs or mosquitoes. Would have no desire to visit here in the “summer” – all of the vegetation would make game viewing very difficult. We have defintely come at the best time, considering weather and game viewing.
Then we continued with our drive, by then it was dark. The tracker on the front of the jeep had a high-powered spot light and would sweep the light back and forth to spot animals. Their eyes would light up red. We saw several “bush-babies”, small monkey-squirrel type creatures that live in the trees – they would leap amazing distances. Never got a very good look, as they are quite shy. Spotted a genet (small cat) sitting fu-man-chu style on a stump. He looked at us for a brief moment and then slinked off, showing his very distinctive markings. Also, spotted a cerval, another nocturnal cat with very big ears. It was hunting something in the dried grass that we could hear scurrying around.
Then, headed back to camp for an exotic buffet dinner, outdoors. Local girls preformed traditional dances around the bonfire. Very primal beat and amazing grace these dancers have. Natalie, who was still recovering from her flu, slept through most of the night drive and the entire dinner, dancers, beating drums and all!
Click to see the Edeni Private Game Reserve Photos!
The Next South Africa Entry: The Crocodile “Factory”
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary