Safari

A few days after our dinner at the Africa Cafe I headed off on a overnight trip to a safari park. I went to Aquila Private Game Reserve, which is about 2 hours away from Cape Town. I caught a bus to the reserve and spent a night in the glorious African country side, being treated to some incredible sights.

My package included 2 games drives, accommodation in a little chalet and all meals (which were absolutely massive - I certainly didn't need that after the Cafe experience!). The set up of he park was excellent and the facilities were incredible. I was blown away by it all! It was a wonderful experience which gave me an opportunity to see some of God's amazing creatures that I had previously only seen in zoos or pictures. That's just not the same!

The best thing about going to a game reserve is that you're fairly well guaranteed to see all of the Big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard - which we saw in the infirmary) in a small amount of space and time. When you visit the bigger parks - where you are allowed to drive yourself around - you'll have a much lower 'hit rate' of spotting animals. Everything has its own positives though!

Next time I go to South Africa I'm going to head to Kruger to see if I can spot some more of these awesome creatures! Want to come with me??

As always, enjoy the photos

Love Sarah xxx

Checking out the views out of the bus window as I headed to Aquila

My welcome drink and first glimpse of the game reserve - patrons MUST NOT jump the fence as buffalos will charge!

The accomodation and dining area - blending into the environment fantastically

A massive bed all to myself!

An outdoor shower - it was pretty chilly in the morning but lots of fun to shower outdoors - I've never done that before :) It was raining at the same time which was pretty cool

Standing just outside my 'hut' - which was really close to the fence line. I did see buffalos up close quite a few times :) So exciting!

The outside of my hut - as you can see, it's split into two sections so this is actually two huts (photos loaded slightly out of order...)

Our safari cars - pretty cool hey!

First glimpse of wildlife - springboks! This was a young male herd

Next up, hippos! I just love hippos and I'm so stoked with this photo :) It's incredible that I actually managed to capture the baby with his mouth open!

One of two elephants in the park - they are both quite young still

What you lookin' at?

Zebras! A baby and its mother - they barely moved the whole time we were watching them

Just grazing, as you do!

This was a zebra with attitude! It rolled around, jumped up and did all sorts of crazy things :)

This is a baby white rhino - and although it's not white in colour it is the correct name! The word white in the name of the white rhino is a mistranslation of the Dutch word 'wijd' for wide, which refers to its square upper lip. The black rhino has a pointed/hooked lip

I love the clouds in this one

Some more friendly white rhinos :) You can see how close we came to the animals

Not phased at all by the safari car

We had a snack break half way through our afternoon safari - impressive view, don't you think?!

Enjoying a glass of sparkling grape juice - even though the sun was out, it was pretty chilly, hence the layers :)

The lions are kept in a separate area so they don't attack the rest of the animals. They were really relaxed and wandered around the car quite happily! Our guide did get a little nervous :)

Animals gathering together - an incredible sight!

Birds around the waterhole

I managed to capture this hippo with his mouth open! It was pretty tricky as it all happened so fast :)

When I came back from our first safari I was greeted by this gorgeous elephant on my bed :) and a chocolate too!

Our early morning safari left at 6:45 am. The first animals we spotted were wildebeest

The wildebeest were moving a lot, probably headed off to find their breakfast :)

The sun coming up - isn't the light incredible?

The one and only giraffe I saw - we barely saw the giraffe - we were sooooo far away. I had a lot of troubl seeing them with my naked eye as they easily camouflage into the environment. Let's just say that I saw the giraffe through my camera lens :)

A male lion watching the other safari car (see how close?!)

One of my favourite photos!

Let's not forget the ostrich :) Our guide told us that the male ostriches are the ones with the 'voice' and female ostriches can't really make a noise... they only hiss. How unfortunate...

The buffalo, up very close! The buffalo are very vicious animals and do attack. Our guide didn't hang around here at all! He put his foot to the floor and we were outta there :)

The amazing view across the park with animals scattered around :)

Hippos having their morning wash - I love this shot

My view at breakfast time.... it's hard to see but there were buffalo and ostrich roaming around near the fence. I was pretty happy with that! Talk about food with a view :)

And as I headed back to my hut to get ready to go, what did I see? A buffalo that came to say goodbye :) Pretty special

One super stoked Sarah

It was a fantastic ending to an amazing overnighter! Well worth it, that is for sure.