During my recent trip to Durban, South Africa, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend at Nambiti Big 5 Private Game Reserve. Here I stayed in a SpringBok Lodge and had an incredible experience spotting amazing Big Five.
What is the Big Five?
The Big Five is used by game drivers and tourists to group together some of the most popular African wildlife. These include the African leopard, African lion, Cape buffalo, African elephant and rhinoceros. Out of the list of five, the only one we didn’t see was the leopard, however there were two cheetahs.
What is a Game Reserve?
Game reserves exist to safeguard wild animals and provide a secure environment for them to live away from any poachers, hunters, and other intruders. These game reserves are created as a safe place for animals.
Nambiti Private Game Reserve is set in KwaZulu-Natal on 23,000 magnificent acres near the town of Ladysmith. It is about three and a half hours to Johannesburg and two and a half to Durban.
What is a Game Drive?
A game drive is an adventure that entails viewing wildlife in the comfort of an open-sided safari vehicle. Our vehicle accommodated ten people, eight in our party and two who joined us. It is a great way to get that classical safari feeling. Overall we went on four game drives the three days we were at Nambiti.
Each day there are two drives, one that starts at 6:30am and one at 3pm. The drives could last between two and three hours and there is no chance you will see anything. We were lucky as every drive was a magnificent experience.
During each drive, we would have either a breakfast stop for tea and coffee or a sundown stop for a drink and snacks. Here we stopped overlooking a waterfall for our last morning in the wildlife.
If you ever get the chance to do something like this, then jump at the opportunity.
There was one moment on our first drive where we were sat watching elephants through the bushes when a herd came walking past the vehicle. One elephant came so close its trunk touched the bonnet. Our driver was funny, telling it to leave his car alone.
The lion cubs were the most fascinating to watch, as they played with each other and used a piece of tree as a jungle gym.
At one point, one of the cubs seemed like he was posing for our cameras as he looked towards the group of people in a vehicle in front of the pack.
All the animals are in a safe environment where you can observe them in their habitats. In short, it is a fascinating thing to do.