South Africa - Sabi Sands   (8/31-9/3/2010)

To get to Sabi Sands requires a one hour flight from Johannesburg to Nelspruit and then about a 3 hour drive over mostly paved roads to the lodge. We had a very knowledgeable Afrikaner driver that had many interesting stories to tell us on our drive. The drive is through beautiful country side and we passed by many towns and villages along the way. Sabi Sands and the Kruger area are bordered by very long game fences that prevent the animals from wandering into populated farm areas, keeping both the animals and the people safe. This means that the traditional migrations of the animals in South Africa no longer occur. Once you enter the reserve areas through the Sabi Sands gate, you immediately leave all human signs behind and start to see animals, both large and small. Elephant Plains lodge is a beautiful complex with the traditionally built lobby, lounge and dining room buildings surrounded by individual suites and rondavels. The rooms themselves are very luxuriant with thatched roofs and decks overlooking the waterhole area. We saw Cape Buffalo and Elephants right from our deck. The meals were wonderful with dinner served in an open rondavel area under the stars.

Wildlife viewing at the lodge was excellent. The lodge is surrounded by open bush area with thick vegetation and trees. Dirt roads crisscross the surrounding area allowing the viewing vehicles to traverse through the bush and spot and track animals. The lodge uses large Land Rovers that are completely open on top with three rows of raised seats to maximize viewing. The animals are most active early in the morning and later in the afternoon, so our schedule was to get up before sunrise (5:00 am), load up into the rovers and drive through the reserve observing animals. We experienced beautiful sunrises the three days we were there. We would stop somewhere along the tracks about mid morning for a snack and would return to the lodge between 10 and 11 for brunch. We did as the animals and rested during the heat of the day and then we would go out again at four for the second game drive of the day. We would stop somewhere for a sundowner at sunset and then spend another hour with search lights observing animals at night. We would return to the lodge in the evening and then have a wonderful dinner under the stars. We repeated this schedule for three days and each day was different in terrain and the kinds of animals we saw. I think three days is probably the perfect time to spend at the lodge so that you see the entire area but don't start repeating areas.

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