The Safari Diaries (Part 1)

The Safari Diaries: Ngala Game Reserve (&Beyond)

Some of you may know that my wife Laura won a national photography competition on the UK through the Guardian newspaper last year. Her prize was a 5* safari for two in South Africa and the opportunity to write a photo essay for the paper which would be published. So thanks to my awesome wife, we went on an amazing safari with '&Beyond' at Ngala. Ngala (meaning Lion) is a private game reserve attached to the world famous Kruger National Park. There are no fences between the two so animals run freely between. 

Sunday 2nd September 2012

Laura and I flew from Jo’burg to Hoedspruit and were collected and driven to Ngala. The service and customer care that &Beyond pride themselves on was evident and demonstrated immediately by Elvert, our driver. The wildlife couldn’t wait for us either. On the way to the lodge we saw a group of elephants, giraffes and warthogs and we hadn’t even started yet.

We arrived and were greeted with fresh towels and a drink, were treated like VIPS and introduced to our butler Noel and our room – complete luxury. I enjoyed a sherry from the decanter and unpacked a little before meeting up with our safari ranger Robin, having ‘tea’ and heading straight out.

Drive 1

Of the ‘Big 5’ I had never seen leopard but this was satisfied 30 mins into our first drive, a female leopard was up a tree near to where she had put a kill in another tree. She was beautiful and we stayed transfixed for quite a while.

Ernest our tracker with Robin the Ranger 

We also saw the ubiquitous impala in several locations, a few elephants and our last ‘spot’ was an African Wildcat which looks very much like a domestic cat. Sightings of these are very rare indeed.

Monday 3rd September 2012

Drive 2

After a wake-up call of 5.30am our morning drive was due to start at 6.00am. At 5.50am however there was a rush of excitement in the lodge as one of the trackers told his large group to “get up, don’t finish your tea, there are Cheetahs –quick!” This meant of course that everyone was up, out and in their Land Rovers within a minute or so… except me however as I was on the toilet. A frantic knocking on our door told me all I needed to know and we were third group out – the maximum allowed for a sighting like this.

I hadn’t even thought about seeing cheetahs, I thought leopards would be difficult enough. So it was a rare privilege to see two males stalk through the bush.

The reverse photo taken by me 

Laura and I in the van in the background

Soon enough the cheetahs left Ngala which meant they could no longer be followed. We decided to go back and pay a visit to a group of buffalo, in fact a group of ‘grumpy old batchelor bulls’ that we had seen earlier.

The final excitement of the morning was the call that there were a pack of wild dogs resting in an area of the park. Like many of these animals, wild dogs are seldom seen so we rushed to the site to see 6 adults and 4 puppies resting by a tree.

We returned to the lodge absolutely buzzing. What an incredible morning we had enjoyed. Since Laura and I had got off the plane we had seen four of the ‘big five’ in less than 24 hours (and we had seen lions before in Uganda). Our guide Robin referred to the ‘magnificent seven’ – adding wild dogs and cheetahs to the big five. Little did we know the animals still had a few more tricks up their sleeves for us.

We had breakfast and then were straight out again on a community visit. &Beyond are partners with ‘The Africa Foundation’ who work with local communities. We visited a school, a newly built health centre and a craft shop which is run by local women. Having visited many schools in less developed regions, I was very impressed by the school buildings and toilet facilities but more so by the quality of teaching we observed. &Beyond have the opportunity to add real value as they have the benefits of wealthy customers who have been generous in their donations in the past.

Once we finally returned to camp, we fell asleep instantly and were lucky that we woke up in time for our next game drive later that day...

Part 2 - http://stephendcook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-safari-diaries-part-2.html

Check out Laura's pictures at

http://www.lauracookphotography.net/gallery.html?folio=Travel%20Wildlife%20Photography&gallery=Wildlife#/0