'When you visit South Africa you can expect all seasons to happen in just one day. When visiting South Africa you can have a bit of every continent to be seen in just one country'
'Go see the big 5!!'.
So many things people have told me when I said I was heading towards here. And honestly..although I have travelled a lot in my life, I never have really seen any wild life (and I mean animals which are really next level) just in the wild.
So this was a first!
I have never really gotten into how it works to see wild animals. Here in South Africa it is hot outside. That doesn't only count for humans but for animals as well.
Would you want to see some wildlife in action, that means you go outside around sunset but also around sunrise. That means leaving at 5 am to catch see something.
Even though it is really early, all of this paid off.
Ofcourse we all know the giraffes, but I was still very surprised to see how tall they actually are in the wild. You know they are.. but you dont know they are
I dont know a lot about animals around here as it seems. They guys here I called them something like 'big fat deers' but they are called 'kudus' which is a form of antilope.
A beautiful animal and I was also really surprised to see then at night walking around me.
Nambiti
I saw all of this at Nambiti private game reserve. This is a private maintained reserve where all the best interest is in the animals.
It is about a 4 hour drive from Johannesburg and you follow the roads towards Harrismith and Ladysmith.
Just look at these Gems! No not the gems like a beautiful diamond. But a gems as in the animal. We also have them in the Alps but there they feel a lot smaller than here.
The horns are always twirled up and it is just a beautiful animal.
You know you are a tourist when....
When you try to make a snap with your phone through a binocular. All people here have these very fancy camera's with turbo lenzes for zooming in. But I only have the phone which does a decent job.
Nevertheless I tried the phone through the bino to tey to get these cheetas on snap. Those are big scary cats right there!
But who would know...because you need to zoom in realllly far to actually see.
But what do these cheetas then eat? Well they start hunting in the evening and can run up to 80 km per hour. That is crazy fast!
And one of their prays?
These hogwarths and especially the ones carrying around cubs which makes them travel slower.
Sorry guys, you might just end up for breakfast tomorrow
The cool thing about wildlife?
Well you dont always get what you would want. Take this fantastic elephant, (which is again so much bigger than you actually realize) and think about the fact that you would only see the rear side.
Well that is exactly what happened..
This elephant never actually turned around and only showed his but while he was muching on trees but also tearing them down.
Still. He has a beautiful ass and what a magnificent creature. Or what about the head this giraffe sticking out of the bush. So cool!
One thing that remains so weird to me is the hunt for rhinos and their ivory. Ivory is just callus on the nose of the rhino but people pay thousands of dollars for it, usually killing the animal for the horn.
We talked about it a lot and I can not wrap my head around it honestly. Why the trophy..it is weird
So wildlife!!
Yeah I really like seeing all of this nature acutally raming around. Sure these private reserves eventually are also fenced but they are miles and miles big and that is enough for the natural population to mingle and reproduce.
And that is what is important. Keeping the populations happy!
Wow, so cool! How lucky to see all those species.
I went once to a Natural park in Angola and when I saw the elephants in the wild...I got mixed feelings. First I was super enthusiastic, then I got a bit scared as the guide told us we should not make a sound and at the same time, the elephant was just there, very close and the sound of the vegetations cracking...
I can barely imagine what you felt...elephant, giraffe, cheetah, what's next!? 😀
Haha i know exactly what you are saying. These guys are BIG! Not scary but there size just makes them so damn impressive.
How did you find Angola?
Great photos from you travel. You are right indeed you need to get lucky to have great photos of wildlife.
Yeah and it feels so close! And they are just minding their business. It really is something special
Thx @ackhoo for the find. Much appreciated!