Day One: South Africa Safari Begins

Today we made the 15 hour flight to Johannesburg.  The flight was a long one, but very comfortable thanks to some great food and service topped with a hit of ambien.  Before we knew it, we were landing in Jo’burg where Michael and I met up with Brandon and CJ at the airport.  We had a few hours to kill before our connection to Hoedspruit so we made our way to the S. African Airways lounge to refresh.  Blood Mary’s awaited us and we toasted to a fantastic safari week ahead.

Toasting to a great trip ahead!

Upon landing in Hoedspruit, we were then picked up by our driver who was to take us to the lodge.  We had about a 1 ½ hour drive from the airport where we were able to view some of the small towns and villages made up of mostly Mozambique refugees.  Children lined the streets and welcomed us with waives as we passed by.  The poverty was very apparent, but at the same time, the people seemed happy and welcoming as they waived us by. 

Here we come Simbambili!

 We finally made it to our lodge!  The Simbambili Game Lodge located inside the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.  We were greeted by the lodge managers Alison, her fiancé Liam and Al who along with Mumps (our trekker) who was going to be our safari guide extraordinaire! 

The Simbambili Lodge was something straight out of a movie.  We entered the main outdoor lodge area and couldn’t help but notice a view that took our breaths away.  One complete side of the lodge is completely open and housed a complete unobstructed view of a watering hole that for the next 4 days would be home to animals of all kind trying to keep cool or simply searching for a cool drink of water.  Our private butler, Phil offered us some sweet tea then guided us to chairs where Alison handed us all a form to sign acknowledging that we knew what we were about to get into!  Basically, “Please sign here and we’re not responsible if for any reason a hippo snaps you in half”…which if you choose to read on actually almost happened!!!

Simbambili Lodge Lobby

Our experience at Simbambili started off with a bang.  We were told if we wanted to make the evening safari drive, we’d have 20 minutes to get our things together and hop in the Range Rover.  Even though our bodies were worn out from the last 20 hours of travel, we made a quick dash to our rooms, dropped off our things and made it back with time to the truck with time to spare.  Al and our tracker Mumps welcomed us and we were off to the bush!

As we headed away from the lodge and into the bush, little did we know that on day one of our safari we were going to see things that few people get to ever get to witness.  “The Big 5” represent the 5 most difficult and dangerous hunted species of Africa back when hunting was legal and widespread.  They are made up of lions, leopards, rhinoceros, buffalo and elephant.  In our first of 7 drives we hit the jackpot and saw 4 of the five.  Not only did we see buffalo, rhino, leopard and a pride of female lions and cubs…but no males.  We all have our fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing some adult male lions!  We also were able to see a full spectrum of local other favorites including zebra, water buck, giraffe, impala, and a group of bathing hippopotamus!  This all took place in about a 3 ½ hour safari drive.  Jackpot on day 1!

The mother of all mothers!Black Rhino

Hungry cubs!

It was such a fantastic experience to see all of these animals in their natural environment, but one specific sighting took the cake!  The pride of lions apparently was a sighting that rarely takes place.  We were able to watch 11 lions…a few females and their cubs waking up from an afternoon nap.  Our vehicle was able to get within a few yards of this pride and we witnessed cubs waking up, playing with others and nursing on mom.  We were speechless.

After a few hours in the bush, we headed back to the lodge and had no idea what was about to take place.  Down in the riverbed, below the main lodge, the staff had set up one of the most beautiful dinner settings I’ve ever seen.  A fire pit and candles lit our natural dining room for the night where we enjoyed an amazing meal made up of a variety of salads, soup and grilled meats.  The sounds that came from the bush made up the perfect soundtrack for dinner.  Frogs, insects and who know what else all added to the setting that made up the perfect ending to a very crazy day of long travel, an exciting safari, fantastic food and good friends.  

Till tomorrow!

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