9 Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari (20 to 28 Feb 2020) Trip Report Menu
Day 1: Singapore – Stellenbosch
Day 2: Stellenbosch – Stony Point – Cape Town
Day 3: Cape Town – Old Biscuit Mill & Super Rugby
Day 4: Cape Town – Lion’s Head
Day 5: Cape Town – Bo Kaap, Chapman’s Drive, Cape Peninsula, Muizenberg, La Colombe
Day 6: Cape Town – Phinda
Day 7: Phinda
Day 8: Phinda
Day 9: Phinda – Singapore
Day 7: Phinda
We were asked to be ready for the morning game drive by 5.30am and the morning call came promptly at 5am. There was some light breakfast available and we even had the first animal sighting of the day before leaving the lodge.
Our Spanish companions were interested to spot big cats so we were off to find them. En-route we saw a pair of white rhinoceros; they aren’t white in colour but differentiated from the black rhinoceros with their wide lips.
Our spotter Sipho noticed some fresh footprints and our jeep followed them until we found the culprit which made them in the middle of the track.
After realising that we were disturbing its sleep, it got up and moved towards the bushes.
February isn’t considered the best time for safaris in South Africa as it is still relatively green and the thick bush makes wildlife spotting more difficult. Nevertheless I was still happy that we could get a good shot of this fierce but beautiful creature.
Always amazed by how beautiful the African bush is.
There was positive intelligence that a pair of cheetah brothers were in the southwest corner of the reserve and there were several spotters teaming up to track them down.
Parked in front of a Marula tree, whose fruits are used to make the iconic South African cream liquer Amarula. We were then at the edge of the Phinda reserve and separated from another reserve by the fence. Zandri told us that unlike other land creatures, cheetahs are able to leap across those fences.
Sipho went down to inspect the footprints which appeared to be fresh.
No sign of cheetahs but we did see a tortoise.
We spent a good amount of time trying to locate them before another jeep did that ahead of us. Unlike the solitary leopards, male cheetahs often operate in coalitions; the brothers would spend their lives together.
According to Zandri, they could be hunting earlier in the morning but weren’t successful since their stomachs looked flat. They were resting now from the morning exercise.
Out-of-bed look
We waited for both to move to the shade before leaving. If there were no encounter with predators, it was likely that they would spend most of the day resting in the shade, only to be active from late afternoon onwards when it was cooler.
Our jeep drove past a pile of fresh rhinoceros dung and Zandri stopped to point out the dung beetles.
They would roll the dung into round balls which would act either as food or breeding chambers. Pretty fascinating to see these insects fighting over shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bpX8Ukeos?start=8&
Zandri asked if we would like to have bush breakfast and our companions preferred to continue to do more spotting, which suited us fine.
While making our way back to the lodge, we saw the last of the Big Five game animals – Cape buffalo. Due to their horns, Mrs would nickname them as ‘Mozarts’. They are also considered the most dangerous animals in Africa, due to their unpredictable temperament.
We encountered another pair of white rhinoceros. One would cross the track in front of us.
More Cape buffalos on the way back.
Breakfast was served on our arrival back at the lodge and I was impressed with the spread. We could have eggs to order as well as waffles.
After breakfast, I rested for a while before heading to North Phinda where I could check out the properties. Mrs didn’t join in as it was really hot and she was feeling a little under the weather.
It was a 45-minute drive via the tracks and I spent most of the time chatting with Sipho who was tasked to bring me there.
I would see two lodges there with Forest Lodge being the first.
The lodge manager welcomed me warmly and showed me around. Forest Lodge is one of the larger properties in the area with sixteen suites. The rooms are comparable to the ones at Mountain Lodge although they don’t have a plunge pool.
I was particularly impressed with its common pool area. Apparently, beside the nearby watering hole, it’s also not uncommon to have wildlife coming over to have a drink from the pool.
Then we went over to Vlei Lodge. Unfortunately the lodge was full and I could only check out the cosy common area. It was a smaller and more intimate property with only six suites.
There was a third property Homestead in the same area; unfortunately it was for private use only and wasn’t available for inspection.
Saw a family of giraffe on the way back to Mountain Lodge.
Although Mrs wasn’t feeling 100%, we still decided to go on the afternoon game drive. The staff tried to be as helpful as possible and provided some medicine and hydration salts.
As in the morning, we would set out looking for big cats again.
Relatively fresh carcass of the zebra which died a few days earlier; it would take some time before being completely decomposed.
Found more bones further up the road. Not sure if it came from the same zebra.
A large herd of Cape buffalos
Giraffe
Despite Zandri and Sipho’s best efforts, we weren’t able to spot any of the big cats. It was a really hot day and they were probably resting until later in the evening.
Thankfully we were adequately compensated with yet another beautiful African sunset.
Every few days. the lodge would arrange dinner to be at the Boma.
We decided to skip it as both of us weren’t too hungry. The staff was nice enough to send some pumpkin soup and bread to our room instead although it took them two attempts because they forgot about the spoon the first time round.
