The South African Safari Begins

Londolozi Guest November 17, 2013 2

After a few long flight and two night in Joburg we were finally on our way to Londolozi. Londolozi, located just west of Kruger National Park, is famous for it’s leopards. And that’s what we came to see. In our previous trip to Kenya we were shut out. No leopards. We wanted to see leopards and hopefully leopard cubs!

To get to Londolozi we flew a 19 passenger Beechcraft 1900 airplane to a small airstrip at the camp. We were greeted by the camp staff and taken to the camp about a mile away.

The camp was beautiful and the staff very warm and helpful. We checked in, went to our rooms to clean up and then had a wonderful lunch. Meals were served on an open covered deck surrounded by trees. Wildlife was all around us with vervet monkeys, nyala and bush buck immediately apparent.

Each day we would have two drives. One beginning at 5:30 am and one at 3:30 pm. During the middle of the day the animals sleep and hide from the heat. After a quick break for coffee and biscuits we were off on our first game drive.

The camp provides Rangers and Trackers to drive the Land Rovers and track the animals. Each photographer had his own seat row, so there was plenty of space to lay out our gear and to move around and shoot.

The afternoon game drives would run from approximately 4 to 6:30 pm. Sunset was at 6 pm, thus we were typically out until dark. Our Ranger was Richard and our Tracker was Like. (Africans often translate their names from their native language to English, thus coming up with names such as: Like, Remember, etc.) Londolozi is a private reserve. This restricts the number of people and hopefully improves the viewing experience and reduces stress on the animals.

So off we went for our first drive. During the next 3 hours we saw grey herons, impala, water buck, lions, hippos, a blacksmith lapwing, Egyptian geese, giraffes, oxpeckers, Bateleur eagle, wildebeest and rhinos. Not bad for the first drive.