Timbavati Private Nature Reserve

Before I jump into our travel day to our first game reserve, I thought I’d share a bit of the history of Cape Town. I referenced the Dutch East India Company in my previous post. The city was founded in 1652 by this company as a supply station for ships traveling to the East. Over the centuries, it became a key colonial outpost for both the Dutch and the British. From the mid to late 1900s, Cape Town played a significant role during the apartheid, which was legalized racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government. The city was home to both fierce resistance and deep divisions, symbolized by areas like District Six and Robben Island. District Six was an area of the city once inhabited by Coloured people (not a derogeratory term in South Africa, but an actual race distinction); in the 60s and 70s, some 60,000 residents were forcibly removed from their homes and the area was classified as a white-only area. Robben Island, located 30 minutes by ferry from Cape Town, is another symbol of this city’s history, as this is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Today, Cape Town is a vibrant, multicultural city with many races, cultures, and religions. It’s also a very accepting city, with one of the largest LGBTQ+ populations in Africa.

Monday morning began early with a 6:30 am departure to the Cape Town airport. We had a hilarious moment at the airline counter when the agent asked where we were flying to and none of us knew the answer! Thankfully, she found us in the system and politely told us where we were headed! (We decided at this point it was probably best to read through our itinerary!) We boarded our two-hour flight to Hoedspruit Air Force Base, located on the edge of Kruger National Park. After landing, we had a 90-minute drive to Ngala Tented Camp in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, with our driver kindly stopping when she spotted a giraffe and an elephant alongside the road!

Calling this a “tented camp” is a bit of a stretch. Think of it more as five-star glamping. We are in the bush of South Africa and Ngala is understated yet beautiful and supremely serene. You are completely surrounded by the rough, overgrown effects of bushland. We are allowed to walk freely in the camp during the day, but must be escorted to our tents after dark. Apparently, hyenas among other curious creatures make themselves at home throughout the camp at night. This rule is completely fine by me!

Upon arrival, we were greeted by several nyala and bushbuck (two of the 72 antelope species found in Africa) that roam freely through the camp. We were given a short tour of the property, including a beautiful pool, had a lovely lunch of fish tacos and passionfruit sorbet, and then retreated to our tents for a short rest before our first game drive.

We ventured out around 4:00 pm with our guide Daniel and tracker Harold and almost immediately I spotted a warthog in the distance! It was our first sighting! The terrain in the bush ranges from open, grassy areas with an occasional dead tree to dense, overgrown areas with multiple varieties of shrubs, bushes, and trees. Our ATV, a Toyota Land Cruiser, is quite the machine and can easily bulldoze over large bushes and small trees in our way. We quickly learned to duck down to avoid getting hit by a branch on the way through the more dense areas.

We saw a wildebeest, a herd of impala that were clearly listening and standing watch for possible prey nearby, and banded mongoose. And we saw a multitude of birds, including a Burchell’s starling, Swainson’s spurfowl, red-faced mousebird, red-billed hornbill (aka Zazu!), magpie shrike, blue waxbill, and a yellow-billed hornbill. There’s also such a thing as the “little five” – the five birds with one of the Big Five mentioned in its name, and we checked one of these off our list – a red-billed buffalo weaver.

Right at dusk, we heard over the radio of a leopard sighting deep in the bush near a dry creek bed, so we made our way there. After a pretty treacherous drive and maneuvering through the bush, our incredible tracker sighted the leopard’s kill – an impala high up in a tree. We sat in darkness and silence (except for the sounds of the wild all around us – including lions snarling in the distance) for a good 45 minutes, hoping she would return, but no luck.

We made our way back to camp with the plan to return to this spot during tomorrow morning’s drive. A crystal clear night gifted us with a sky blanketed with a million stars – simply breathtaking. And right as we figured we could see no more animals, we passed the outline of a large bull elephant!

I had preconceived ideas in my head about what a safari would be like, but nothing prepared me for this experience. Words simply can’t describe it. The sights, the sounds, the smells. It’s a constant feast for the senses; you feel like you are in hyper aware mode every second you’re on a game drive.

We arrived back at our tent to find heated blankets on our bed – a perfect way to thaw from the chill of the night air. Needless to say, we slept hard and fast in anticipation of what tomorrow will bring!