An immersive wildlife experience in South Africa.
Words & Imagery Tim Charody
An immersive wildlife experience in South Africa.
Words & Imagery Tim Charody
I STROLL INTO SABI SABI EARTH LODGE IN MY 15-YEAR-OLD JACKET AND A BEAT-UP TRAVEL HAT.
I'm suddenly a little anxious this outfit doesn't really belong at the five-star, luxury accommodation we're checking into. I gauge faces to see if it has ruffled any feathers or garnered any strange looks. Negative.
In fact, by the looks of the positively radiant smiles of the staff, it seems to have had the opposite effect. Straight away I feel right at home – a home I'll be staying in for the next four days.
We’re on safari in Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, part of the immense Greater Kruger National Park, a whopping 19, 485 square kilometres of pure, wild African bush.
State-of-the-art engineering, design and architecture means this magnificent lodge is literally part of the land, seamlessly integrated within the natural bush. They took the name Earth Lodge very seriously when building this place. At ground level, you can barely tell what’s earth and what’s lodge. The surrounding bushland, complete with all its wildlife, flows over and around the lodge like water. There are no fences, no division. There’s nothing to separate you from the African bush, yet we’re in complete and total comfort.
"I think it's looking at us".
Bambi but make it African.
"I think it's looking at us," pt. 2.
During our stay, we’d have buffalo, hippos, elephants, bushbuck and giraffe walk right through the lodge grounds in front of us. Warthogs would regularly mow the grass by the bar. Colourful lizards darted across the earth-textured walls and we’d even return to our room after lunch one day to find two huge elephants standing at our window, slurping greedily from our plunge pool (yes, we had our own pool).
The least aggressive animal you'll see.
That you, Simba?
HIT PLAY, WE DARE YA!
As a self-professed wildlife nerd who grew up watching David Attenborough documentaries, the idea of waking up at sunrise each morning and taking off into the bush to film exotic animals made me giddy with excitement. And now here we are: the sky a deep sunrise red as our open-top safari vehicle grumbles and groans along the dusty road. I have an excessively huge camera lens in my lap and a grin plastered from ear to ear.
Sabi Sabi’s motto is empowerment, and this reaches deep into the surrounding villages and communities who call this land home.
Our spotter Bongi is sitting precariously on the very front of the vehicle, pointing to the ground and saying something in Shangaan (an indigenous language of the region). Bethuel, our guide stops the car, looks briefly down at a small scratch in the dust, turns and says to me with complete certainty; “there are two male ostriches chasing each other in that direction after fighting over a female.” I look down at the dust, then back up at him. Sure.
We lurch forward another 50 meters and sure enough, two male ostriches burst out of a nearby bush and bolt past, their huge nude legs galloping their fluffy bodies and long awkward necks at full speed, leaving behind a bewildered-looking female.
The males fade off into the distance only to reappear in another clearing over a kilometre away, still running away from the female they’re supposed to be chasing.
Keep calm, it's just an elephant.
Aaaand we're no longer hungry.
IT'S THE SMELL AND SOUNDS AROUND YOU; THE LIGHT, PUNGENT BREEZE IN YOUR FACE, THE BUZZING FLIES, THE HYENAS DRIFTING CAUTIOUSLY INTO PICTURE FROM THE SURROUNDING BUSH
The next characters we come across are two male lions and their sister lioness. They’re fat-bellied and breathing laboriously, lounging beside the blood-stained bones of a recently killed buffalo. A second, untouched buffalo lies dead just meters away. I’m guessing that’s dessert.
As we roll slowly towards them in our open-top and side vehicle, the smell of the kill is strong and confronting. The sound of the lions’ powerful jaws crunching on rib bones sends a shiver down my spine and the trees around us start fruiting with huge squabbling vultures – the entire scene is alive. This is what you don’t get from watching documentaries on television.
Glimpse several animals on safari in Sabi Sabi's private reserve.
Spotted: a zebra in its natural habitat.
Big yawn or aggressive snarl?
It’s the smell and sounds around you, the light, pungent breeze in your face, the buzzing flies, the hyenas cautiously drifting into the picture from the surrounding bush, waiting for a chance to steal a scrap of intestines. It’s noticing old scars in the lions’ skin scribing tales of previous battles, the moments of tenderness as they gently rub faces together and lay down in a tangled heap, exhausted after a successful hunt and consuming a hundred kilograms of meat. To be completely immersed in this brutal, beautiful scene playing out in this wild place is a truly special experience.
We returned to this same spot two days later and of the two huge dead buffalo, not a single scrap of flesh or bone remained.
If you’re a conscious traveller like me and want your travel dollars ending up in the right place, then you really can’t go past a proper wilderness safari. It’s travellers witnessing these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat that gives them hope. Poaching and habitat destruction is incredibly brutal, but very real. Without safari tourism, it’s likely many of these animals, and the wilderness areas they live in, will lose their much-needed protection.
Knock-offs done right.
Post drink-in-the-pool.
Dinner with a view.
Sabi Sabi’s motto is empathy, and this reaches deep into the surrounding villages and communities who call this land home. In a bid to enrich the lives of the underprivileged members of these communities, Sabi Sabi has set up a series of training programs to teach vital skills that could see locals land jobs in the lucrative safari industry, the now lifeblood of the region. These opportunities not only benefit the individuals and communities but also help protect the wildlife they share this beautiful place with.
A good feed after a great day.
Everyone feels like family at Sabi Sabi.
“In the past, we look[ed] at them as an animal to hunt to eat... but now we no longer look at them as an animal to hunt to eat, it’s an animal we need to look after, because they attract more people who will create more jobs [for] the village [and] that benefit[s] the whole community,” says Bethuel, head guide for the whole of Sabi Sabi.
Recounting every magical moment we witnessed here in the bush around Sabi Sabi would require an entire book of its own and I only have this blog. I hope it’s doing the trick.
Luxury is having your feet cool as you eat.
get in the know South Africa has three capital cities, and none of them are Johannesburg. The executive capital is Pretoria, the judicial capital is Bloemfontein, and Cape Town is the legislative capital.
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