South African safari

Sounds brilliant, Nfk. Which animals did you see? Did you get close to any of them?

All the big ones! Missed out on ant eater type stuff. Being a private reserve there was less restriction than in the Kruger. We were on top of open land rovers and the animals were quite at ease so long as we didn't stand up (apparently they just see a collective mass of harmless humanity). So the elephants walked all around us munching grass six feet away which was incredible. And the giraffe weren't fazed either. Lions and cheetahs ignored us completely (we walked to within 25 feet of the cheetah - apparently we are too big to eat). Zebra, wart hogs, hippo ..... a long list, some more nervous than others. I really hadn't expected it to be so good. The off-roading experrience was breath taking too. And we had a couple of birdie twitchers with us who spotted stuff we wouldn't have noticed, which was a bonus.

nfk so glad you enjoyed it. We had a safari trip to a private game reserve 30 years ago and it is still a remembered highlight of my life as far as thrilling goes. The dawn drives and the night drives were incredibly exciting, we saw a lion kill which was very moving and not at all as I expected. The lions had brought down a buffalo calf and the buffalo males in the herd formed a battering ram and drove them off so that the mother could say goodbye. Really! And eventually the rest of the buffalo females gently took her away, sort of guiding her with the heads and bodies. We left there; and drove only a short distance and had to stop to sleep off all the adrenaline of the 3 days that we were there. It was all go. And the food was to die for.

shd be 'guided her with their heads and bodies ...'

Such a wonderful experience. I will always be grateful that I spent time in Kenya in the 60s before poaching became a serious problem.

While we were near the female lions a kudu wandered a bit close and the lions, which had appeared to be asleep and oblivious to us, were instantly alert. It was amazing to watch them work together stalking the kudu, using us and the nearby perimeter fence. They missed by inches.
I've been wanting to go on safari for so long, I'm still on a high.

Thanks for the info! I am going to safari also, but have doubts, if it is OK or too extreme.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Sounds wonderful. Too much choice of places to go now that we have the time. Which shall we do first?

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.