Around the World: Durban and East London

In Durban and East London we had planned to do two game reserve safari’s and we had both been really looking forward to it. Just from the drive to the game reserve we could tell that South Africa was not what we had been expecting. A lot of the areas that the game reserves are in have a lot of hills and bushes and tons of trees. On our first day we set out to the Tala game reserve which is a private reserve about an hour away from Durban. Private game reserves are ones that are fenced in so most of the animals can’t come and go freely. The reserves are very big as it is mandatory to be a certain size depending on what animals you have. Just like if you would go to one of the National parks like Kruger you are not guaranteed to see all the animals because they may go into the bush or be off on another part of the reserve. Once there we got into an open air land rover that would seat about 10 and went off with our guide. The first thing we saw was Ostrich and Zebra. The first Zebra’s that we saw were standing side by side with their heads pointing in different directions. Our guide said that they do this so they can have a 360 degree view of what’s going on. As we continued on our drive we saw rhinos, hippos, and tons of birds. We had two really neat experiences at this game reserve the first was that we came across a group of about 10 Giraffes. As we sat there and watched the giraffe two antelope came along and decided that they were going to fight. So our land rover and the 10 giraffe sat and watched as they fought it out with one eventually giving up. We also came up very close to a few rhino. The first set we had to go right in the bush to see and then of course had a hard time getting out after. The second set was a mother and baby (the baby was about 5 years old) who the guide said seem to still stick together. The mother had the biggest horn of all the rhinos on the reserve which was between 2-3 feet. We were able to get fairly close to them and I think we were the only group that got to see all the rhino on the reserve. We also saw a lot of warthogs which are a lot smaller than we thought. Our guide said that they are one of the strongest animals and that he has seen a leopard corner a warthog and the warthog kill the leopard. He also told us that the warthogs are the only animals on the reserve that will attempt to get out and succeed. The reserve has an electric fence that runs around the perimeter. Not only do they have to do this so they don’t lose the animals that they may have paid for but also because poaching is still very common here so they want to protect them as well. The game run in Durban was great and it was really exciting to see all the animals in their natural habitat.

The next day we arrive in East London for another day safaris this time to a reserve called Inkwenkizi that had the Big 5 animals that most people want to see when they come to Africa. The reserve was really big and they told us the President’s daughter was getting married there in a few weeks. We arrived at the reserve only to be told that they had a special surprise for us...we could pet Cheetah’s! They keep the cheetahs in a very big enclosure with bushes and trees because they are endangered and because they are still heavily hunted. They seem to have a lot of problems with other people coming onto game reserves and hunting animals that are highly sought after like the big cats. As we came into the enclosure where they keep the Cheetah’s the man whistled and said “Come on guys” as one of the Cheetah’s ran up the hill. We were able to pet them as they purred and rolled all around. It was pretty amazing. We then set of in our land rover again. This reserve was very hilly and at times had to go up some very steep rock. We didn’t see as many animals as we had the day before because this reserve was so much bigger to house the Big 5. We did see ostrich, zebra, antelope and some birds. We were lucky and saw the only elephants on the reserve before they went off into the bush. The big thing we were all waiting to see was the lions. This reserve had white lions which are a bit rarer and they were trying to breed them so they had them separated in this huge enclosure. The lions of course were close to the entrance into their section I’m assuming because they could hear people and wanted to know what’s going on. As we entered into the enclosure there was a man with a rifle watching just in case something happened. We were surprised because our guide didn’t seem to have a gun or anything which most safari guides have on them. As we came in to the enclosure the lions were just sitting all together under a bush. We drove past them a bit and we were going to go around to see them from a different angle when the biggest male lion got up and started to walk about 25 feet from the truck. He didn’t seem overly happy that we were there but decided to sit down in the grass and then out of nowhere he jumped up and ran at our car coming within about 2 feet of it. I think everyone watching gasped and we were all a bit stunned. You definitely realize how it’s hard to even have time to react when an animal that big is running towards you. Our guide told us that he was just bluffing and that lions don’t usually do anything unless they have to. He ended up going back to the other lions and sitting down with them. This game reserve experience was great. Although we didn’t get to see as many animals as we had the day before the big cats made up for it. The only animal out of the big 5 we didn’t see was the leopard which apparently is the only animal that they can’t keep on the reserve because it is able to get over the fence so it just comes and goes.