The Epicurious Wanderers!

Wow, where do we begin, apart from to say absolutely amazing!
The drive from Nelspruit takes 3 – 3 1/2 hrs normally, we took a little long due to a flat tyre on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, but hey all adds to the adventure.

On arrival we were greeted warmly and then shown to or room to freshen up before dinner. What a room it is, set on the banks of a stream with a private plunge pool, it’s bigger than some peoples houses. Just amazing.

We were the escorted to dinner. After dark you are not allowed to walk around on your own. The lodge is inside Kruger Sabi Sabi Sands reserve and has no fencing so the wildlife can come and go. In fact just as we arrived a large elephant was just off the deck where we dined. Dinner was around a fire in a communal area, here we met some fellow adventurers. We got to know a couple from Alberta, Canada and sisters from US, one who know lives in Capetown. Great company and a good source of advice on what lay ahead…..

We had a fairly early night, as the morning game drive starts with a 5:30am wake up call. Then after coffee it’s off on the open land rovers to see what you can spot. We had an amazing first drive! Just around the corner from the lodge we can upon impala grazing on side of the track, hadn’t been going more than 5 minutes. The we saw a large male impala who jumped the fence, not a bad efforts considering its over 2m tall. Just after this Robin, our guide turned off the track into the bush. They can only do this to see one of the big 5! After a few moments we came upon a huge bull elephant, we got within meters of one, truly amazing. We watched him for about 10 minutes then moved on. Not long after we came upon more elephants, a mother and young, but couldn’t get to them due to boundaries between game reserves.

As we headed along we saw several more groups of impala and some water buck, another type of deer. Then we stopped to watch a female giraffe feed, they are so graceful to watch. Next on our list was a couple of buffalo, again an old male who wasn’t able to keep up with the group, with a younger male who may have been injured. After this was some hippos in a small lake, lots to see.

The next hour was spent stopping at several sights while Robin our guide listen on his radio and conversed with other guides. We became aware something special was in the air. Sure enough after many radio chats and our tracker pointing and talking to Robin we headed into the bush again. This time we stopped several times and the engine was switched off as we listened to other vehicles and noises around us. The revving of an engine acted as a compass point and we headed in that direction again stopping several times. The scrub was thick bush we pushed through knocking over young saplings. After a while we came upon 3 rhinos in the scrub, an old male with battle scars , a younger male and a female. This was amazing, we were within touching distance of this immensely powerful and unpredictable creature in his backyard. A truly awe inspiring experience. We watched and took photos for about 15 minutes, having to stop a few times a he became restless with our presence. Finally we had to move on, we were already late for breakfast! As we headed back we drove along a bush airstrip and came across a family of warthogs, very funny to watch as they frolicked and grazed.

After breakfast we went on a wildlife walk with Liam, another guide/ranger. Quite an a experience as well walking through the scrub with no vehicle to escape in just Liam’s rifle in case of danger. We didn’t find danger but we did encounter a mother giraffe and her youngster. Amazing to watch these graceful creatures from up close.

I would love to share photos with you but the damn card reader I plug into my iPad has decided to not work so any pictures will have to wait till we are home. Which is a pain but just the way it has to be unless I come up with another way to read SD card on iPad…

And that’s on the first half of day one, still the afternoon game drive to look forward to and we’ve already seen three of the big five, just lions and leopards to go. What a first day..

Oh well of to lunch now..

Helen and Simon