Magical Safaris at Sanbona

Day 2 at Sanbona

After listening to baboons during the night, an early wake up at 6:30 a.m. in order to get to 7 a.m. breakfast, and 7:30 safari.  After breakfast, everyone enjoyed watching the baboons playing on the top of our tent and turning it into a slide.

 We headed out with high hopes on a chilly morning—made better with my five layers of clothing, a provided blanket, and a much appreciated hot water bottle.  Pretty quickly we came upon a confusion of zebras (actually what a group is called!) who nicely posed for pictures.  Briefly saw a hippo in the water, and more of the antelope family—including leaping springboks.  Interesting short hike to see the rock art of the San people from 4,500 years ago on rocks that were hundreds of millions of year old!  Alvin also gave us quite an educational tour on different plants and their medical uses for both humans and animals.

Tues. night drive:  herd of elephants, journey of giraffes, field filled with baboons, hippo strolling across the street in the dark.  Best drive of the trip so far—three more to go!

They are feeding us well, all you can drink and eat.…gaining weight daily.  The meals are good—a nice breakfast buffet plus hot choices (eggs, etc.)  Cappucino on demand, a coffee break on each morning drive, and a choice of sundowners (drinks—alcoholic or not) to accompany the sundown during the evening drive.  we are welcomed back from our morning drive with hot chocolate (laced with Amerello—African version of Baileys) and adequate lunches—caesar salad, veggie wrap, burgers, etc.  Dinners were buffets with lots of veggies—delicious homemade breads.  We are seated at meals with Shoba—our safari partner, a delightful Indian woman now from London, who has adopted us as her parents.  Our conversations are interesting and ended up with many dialogues around marriage and relationships. 

Wednesday drives bring us to more animals, including a distant vision of cheetahs.  We continue to appreciate our hot water bottles and blankets on our very chilly morning drives.  We have a great encounter with a herd of elephants on their way to a watering hole.  They ended up right next to our landrover and we definitely followed Alvin’s instructions to sit very still and not make any sudden movements.  One full grown female came directly next to Steve’s side and stood staring at Steve for a few seconds, moving her eyes up and down—then sort of nodded her head.  Steve did the same—and felt he definitely made contact with her.  A highlight of the day!

Rides are increasingly bumpy as we go deeper and deeper into Sanbona, particularly looking for an elusive white lion—which Sanbona is known for in its efforts to breed this endangered animal.  Only through Alvin’s perseverance did we finally come upon her—but she was hidden from view from the trail, and was busy working on the kudu antelope she had killed earlier in the day.  Alvin actually left us alone in the landrover so that he could get closer by foot and grab a few pictures.  He promised we would get closer in the morning on our last drive.A few of my favorite shots: 

And indeed we did finally make our way to the white lioness early Thursday morning!  Still bundled in my five (!) layers (and observing their first frost of the season) while bouncing through the rough trails, we found her near the same spot, but at least out in vision.  My zoom didn’t quite do her justice, but it was fascinating to find her. 

Her two cubs however are not nearby and there is quite a bit of concern at Sanbona that they may have lost them.  The rest of the day we came upon baboons, elephants, giraffes, kudu, springboks, rhinoceros, jackal, and more.  A great way to end the safari!  We left there wanting more—a fantastic journey and certainly the trip of a lifetime.  We are heading to Camps Bay next…a seafront community at the foot of Table Mountain, and considered a southern suburb of Cape Town.