I arrived early morning at Johannesburg International Airport for a connecting flight to Mpumalanga (formerly known as Eastern Transvaal and dubbed God’s Own Country). This region is famous for the 1870s gold rush, but even more so for the fact that this is Big Game country. By 5pm that same afternoon, walking shoes and insect repellent to hand, I was heading for a bush experience that went beyond anything I had ever dreamed of.

Home for the next few days was at Sabi Sabi reserve, a lush and totally plush private game reserve that has recently been integrated with Kruger National park. As an ongoing effort to create ideal living conditions for the wild life, all fences between the various private game reserves around and throughout Kruger and even with the neighbouring country have been removed so that the animals have an area the size of Wales all to themselves.

Accommodation was the Sabi Sabi five star Earth Lodge–the most modern of a trilogy of luxury lodges within the Sabi Sabi reserve. Its 13 luxurious lodges have been literally scooped out of the earth offering the ultimate in privacy. The sandstone walls create the safari feel and the headboard is literally half a tree superbly fashioned into an impressive piece of natural art. Beyond the bathroom each suite has its own plunge pool. I was totally thrilled that mine had been visited the night before by a thirsty elephant and was being cleaned and refilled as I arrived. As I took in the expansive view from my bedroom I could feel that Safari fever was taking hold.

The Earth lodge has its own spa and beauty parlour and I had the choice – reflexology or safari. I had afterall been travelling for 25 hours–but I followed Dorian, our ranger to the 4x4 leaving the therapist waving me off with an understanding smile.
 
“What would you like to see first” Dorian asked enthusiastically. Everyone in the truck agreed that any of the big 5 would do (lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinos) but he pressed us so we opted for the lions. Dorian nodded to Milion our tracker who sat on a seat attached to the front of the truck. The search was on.

Dorian conferred with other rangers via his radio for recent sightings while Milion looked for tracks. Within what seemed an eternity of just twenty minutes, a pride of listless lions appeared before our very eyes. “No-one stand up” Dorian whispered assertively. “The lions are used to the shape of the truck; if anyone disturbs the shape by standing or leaning out of the truck it will alert the lions to danger”.

We remained looking at the pride for the longest time perhaps changing our position now and again to get different vantage points for picture taking. We watched the pride yawn, stretch, roll with their cubs until finally, a lioness got up and casually walked past us, followed eventually by the entire pride of fourteen lions, lionesses and cubs. In this situation it seemed absurd that the lions were anything but tame. But Dorian’s demeanour told us otherwise. All hands stayed within the confines of the truck.

Our safari stretched over three days and on the second day some animals were frustratingly elusive. Giraffes were a scarcity and we were overwhelmed when we finally spotted a group happily dining on the canopy of trees. We watched in silent admiration of both the elegance and the stretch of their necks. We were treated to just one distant sighting of a buffalo. We spotted him grazing contentedly among a groups of elands, looking startlingly big next to those dainty deer like creatures. We also came across zebras, cheetahs and more lions. Amazingly, by now, we were actually beginning to take the lions for granted! Dorian reminded us that we were in fact extremely lucky to have so many lion sightings. But we were not listening; we had become aware of some disgruntled rhinos, who, as it turned out to our immense relief, were too blind to charge our truck with any accuracy.

As all attention was now on the rhinos, intrigued by their bulky mass and their intimidating horns, we almost missed the stunningly beautiful leopards who had joined the track and stopped to look back at us! Thank goodness for our tracker–Milion–who stayed alert at all times.

The next day we enjoyed one last early morning safari and it was on this trip that we had our most heart thumping moment at the hands of a lone elephant. We happened upon him as we swung around a bend and stopped to look. Not happy with the intrusion the elephant, almost without notice, charged us at frightening speed. The thud of the elephant’s giant feet against the turf seemed to thunder ever louder and in that instant we panicked. We did not settle down again until we had put a fair bit of distance between ourselves and that big, bountiful, beast. I was still talking about the experience hours later and throughout the much needed and highly calming reflexology session.

Getting there: South African Airways flies to Johannesburg or Cape Town. www.flysaa.com Reservations: 0870 747 1111.

From both of these airports you can fly into Kruger National Park or the surrounding private games reserves in Mpumalanga and the Northern Province. Most departures are in the evening for arrival early morning. Flights take 11-12 hours.

Where to Stay: Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve
85 Central Street
Houghton Estate
2196 Johannesburg T
el: 011 483 3939
Email: res@sabisabi.com www.sabisabi.com

13 July 2005