National Geographic safari in South Africa: Big love for Africa's big five

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This was published 7 years ago

National Geographic safari in South Africa: Big love for Africa's big five

By Julietta Jameson
Lion and lioness in Timbavati, Kruger NP, South Africa.

Lion and lioness in Timbavati, Kruger NP, South Africa.Credit: Thomas Retterath

When you set out on a National Geographic-branded tour, you can be pretty sure you won't be experiencing life from behind the glass. "This is one week that will change your life," the brochure says of my South African safari itinerary by National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures.

Still, rule No.1 of safari, we've been told, is to stay in the vehicle at all times. Don't even stick a limb out. And here is our guide Solomon and tracker, Thomas, breaking that very rule. On an early-morning game drive at Karongwe Private Game Reserve in the north of South Africa, they stop our open air Land Rover, alight, and wander off into the bush.

A few nervous minutes later, Solomon returns. "Please get out of the vehicle and follow me in single file."

Giraffes in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Giraffes in Kruger National Park, South Africa.Credit: Edwin Remsberg

Thomas and Solomon have kept us alive thus far through close encounters with dangerous animals. So we do as we're told. We follow Solomon into the bush, where we see Thomas, at a distance, gazing into the shade of a tree.

It takes a second to register it, about three metres away from him, an adult cheetah feasting on the gory, glistening remains of an impala, his night's kill.

Electrified gasps run through our group. My brain attempts to compute what is happening but is stuck in a mix of gratitude for experiencing this and outrage at being put in the situation.

That cheetah is usually very chilled out.

Grant Beverley

"Come, take pictures," Thomas says softly, beckoning us closer to the big cat. Three of us move forward. Six hang back slightly.

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The cheetah locks eyes on the two people in front of me. He stands up, his engaged muscles puffing him to twice the size of his reclining self. His eyes lock like a laser. He crouches and charges at us. Panicked, the people in front turn to flee.

"Don't run!" Solomon and Thomas say, managing to combine urgency and the necessity of keeping calm. Somehow, it makes the bolters stop. (I'm just frozen in disbelief.) "Take pictures," Solomon says soothingly. "Just take pictures."

Chisomo is one of several accommodation options in Karongwe.

Chisomo is one of several accommodation options in Karongwe.Credit: Julietta Jameson

We turn back to the cheetah, who, having pulled up just short of us, has already slunk back to his feast. Later, we'll learn this is called a mock charge, warning us away from his breakfast.

But in that moment, we know nothing about mock anything and yes, this is one moment that has changed my life. At the very least, I know more about my place in the food chain.

This is a fresh itinerary for G Adventures as part of the innovative Canadian company's new collaboration with the National Geographic Society. Each of the National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures premium trips has an element of access to a National Geographic expert or facility.

Ours happens to be an afternoon with a cheetah expert – Grant Beverley, field officer with the partially Nat Geo-funded Endangered Wildlife Trust. Serendipitously, we meet him shortly after our cheetah encounter and we bombard him with questions. "That cheetah is usually very chilled out," Beverley says, citing what happened as "unusual".

And it is unusual. Though you hear stories of elephants trampling vehicles and people being taken by lions, safari operators of the expert level you find at a class outfit like Karongwe remove as much danger as is humanly possible. The cheetah encounter was a calculated, well-rehearsed risk. We are far from the first people to approach this particular animal on foot.

But unpredictability is the bedrock to the thrill of safari – the uncertainty about what animals you'll see, and how they will behave – these are wild animals, after all. And the bedrock of G Adventures' itineraries has always been to not just take people somewhere, but to dig beneath the surface and help them truly understand it, its culture and fabric. In these few seconds, we've fully experienced the beauty and terror of this remarkable place in dizzying technicolour.

The journey to all that begins in Johannesburg, from where we travel one of the world's great driving routes through lush valleys, and up awe-inspiring rocky mountain peaks – the Panorama Route. Our driver pulls into a service stop at Mashishing, where there's a bookshop. He advises us to buy a thin book with maps of Kruger National Park, but, more importantly, an illustrated guide to the mammals and birds of the park.

After our 450-kilometre drive, we check in to Kubu Safari Lodge near Hoedspruit, enjoy a braai dinner – South African barbecue – under the stars and retire.

I am soon roused by a low, resonant bellow – lions calling in the dark, and not too far away.

It's a primer for the next day's activity, our drive in Kruger National Park. We see lots of animals along the hour's journey there: giraffes, baboons, zebra and more. But the park itself is the rock star: one of the world's most significant animals reserves, home to almost 150 large mammal species. It is a humbling privilege just to drive through the gates.

When we visit, Kruger is in drought, one of the worst in decades. The park's condition is harsh. That doesn't make for amazing wildlife viewing. (Big cat guy Beverley says, pragmatically: "It's great for predators.") But some of our encounters are breathtaking; a group comprising zebras and warthogs with young, plus a jackal, all hanging out around a waterhole. A young male elephant trumpeting and charging to warn nearby waterbuck off a tree with foliage, right next to our vehicle.

And the denuded trees make for incredible bird spotting. I am hugely surprised by the colours and quirks of the park's winged population. About 500 species are found here. Because the grass is low and thin, we're privy to seeing a group of rare, and in these parts, critically endangered, southern ground hornbill, who don't need much water at all. And as we leave for the evening, we see a large herd of cape buffalo, settling for the night in grass by the road.

As much as we are avidly ticking off sightings in our books, though, there's something afoot that's much more moving than the checklist.

It strikes me fully during our first game drive in Karongwe Private Game Reserve. Our second safari destination, Karongwe, is 100 kilometres south-west of Kruger and in much better condition. It's blessed to be crossed by four rivers and the 4000-hectare park is lushly verdant.

Our first drive there is an evening one, and our first big five encounter is with a lone water buffalo.

He's in some bushes by the road, scoping a waterhole that's inhabited by hippos. We're so close, we can hear him huff and puff in annoyance that the hippos are ruining his plans for a bath. He enters the track, about three metres in front of our vehicle, and rubs one side of his head in a muddy puddle before huffing and puffing again at its inadequacy and moving back into the bushes, to spy, in faint hope, upon the bathing hippos.

The intimacy of the encounter moves me to tears. "It's their presence," one of our group says. "It's indescribable. But it's real." I agree.

Not long after, we come across a pair of lions who are in the midst of a period of mating. They're snoozing, with their back feet entwined, footsies-style. After our dazzling encounter with them, Solomon and Thomas drive us to a clearing and set us up for sunset drinks and nibbles – a signature Karongwe move. (We get a muffin and coffee break on morning drives, too.) As the sky erupts into a perfect blaze, one of our group plays Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King on his smart phone, and as cheesy as it is, we really are feeling the lion love. And it's exhilarating.

Karongwe has several accommodation options on site and we stay at luxurious Chisomo in glamping tents that face one of the river beds. We have to be escorted back to our tents after dinner by security. Cheetahs have been known to breach the fence. We go to bed to the cacophonous calls of wildlife on the move. The experience is immersive, exciting and addictive. I go to sleep plotting my next safari.

There are three more game drives for us, including an evening one with Beverley, upon which we spotlight an imperturbably relaxed leopard resting high in a tree. Across all our drives, we tick off the big five twice – leopard, rhino, lion, cape buffalo and elephant, including baby rhinos, leopard and elephant.

On our final outing we see four of the big five. And, if that isn't life-changing enough, there's this remarkable moment: we are still as can be in our vehicle, listening to morning birdsong and the snap and crackle of elephants feasting in nearby bush. They're invisible to us until suddenly, one appears out of the foliage.

She's the matriarch, crossing the track in front of us with a baby by her side. Then more, and more come, and a pair of young males break into play not four metres beyond Thomas' tracker perched on the front of our vehicle, pushing and pulling each other with their trunks. It's so, so surreal. And scary. Will they tumble on to us?

They don't, and more and more pass, nearly 20 all up, until the giant bull with his humungous tusks appears from the bush at the end of the parade.

"I'm terrified," I whisper to the person next to me. She holds my hand.

He passes by so close that we hear his breath and the surprisingly soft shuffle of his feet in the sand as if he were wearing slippers. Then the herd disappears in silence into the bush, as if it were never there.

Weeks after returning to my city life, thinking about those magical elephants still moves me to tears.

And if I think about that cheetah, his burst of aggression and how minutes later, he lay in the sun, his belly full, licking his lips, not giving a thought to our presence, other than to stare at us blankly, I am still deeply moved by him; the majesty, the power, my vulnerability in his presence, the privilege of being in it.

That line in the brochure about this trip being life-changing is no empty promise.

AN ADVENTUROUS PARTNERSHIP

The union between National Geographic and G Adventures is the result of a two-year thorough assessment on both sides. "For them they wanted to check that we were authentic in terms of our social enterprise model and that we believed and lived by our values," says G Adventures founder, Bruce Poon Tip.

"And for us, we'd never been in partnership with such a mammoth organisation," he says of his 25-year-old niche tour business, based in Toronto. "For us it was scary; how could we work with such a great company without them consuming us? And would they share our values?"

The result is that National Geographic is "merchandising their research and we are tasked with telling their stories". "For instance, in Africa, they've done 100 years of big cat research, but that doesn't mean they were ready for travellers. So we had to say, when we have travellers come in, they need to be treated this way."

On the Explore Kruger National Park tour, that involves a representative (such as Grant Beverley) from the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Carnivore Conservation Program, joining the tour group (of up to 16) to offer insight and answer questions on a game drive and during a session at the lodge.

Other itineraries feature historians, archaeologists, explorers, conservation experts and other top scientists.

Each trip also includes one of G Adventures' social enterprise experiences. This itinerary includes a morning visiting the Children's Day School at Shalati, an inspiring facility supported by G Adventures' Planeterra charity.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

www.country.southafrica.net/country/au/en

GETTING THERE

South African Airways flies from Perth to Johannesburg with Virgin Australia codeshare connections across Australia. See www.flysaa.com

TOURING THERE

The seven-day National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures "Explore Kruger National Park" tour costs from $2099 a person, including accommodation, some meals, transport with guide and game drives. It's a round trip from Johannesburg.

There's no single supplement; G Adventures will put solo travellers together with someone of the same sex into a shared room. The own room option on this trip is $949.

Phone 1300 350 931. See www.gadventures.com.au. Meanwhile, Lonely Planet has just released a revised 10th edition of its South Africa guide. See www.shop.lonelyplanet.com.

Julietta Jameson travelled as a guest of G Adventures.

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