Port Elizabeth – March 30, 2024

We were to be in Durbin but apparently the safety issue is huge now and NG decided best to skip it and do Port Elizabeth – much preferred than a big city. 

Docked the NG Explorer in the morning in PE and boarded a bus to the private game reserve about 90 minutes out of the port. Beautiful drive – very industry driven city and possibly one of the poorest in SE South Africa

We have been asked by National Geographic not to identify the game drives we visited to help preserve the animals we saw. 

The game drive was wonderful – we had one in the morning, lunch, and then one in the afternoon. Our driver was a star and throughly loved taking us about the huge land area. There are strict rules about how many vehicles in an area and when something was found, the guides all communicated where different animals were but again, no more than two vehicles to stop and watch…The lunch was a traditional brei (BBQ) outside near one of the lodges on the grounds, with many meats, local dishes, salads and rice. 

We saw so many animals – did not spot a leopard or cheetah but otherwise many that are some very common place and others harder to find. Two new ones for me were the kudu (never found on past game drives) and the nyala…there were several families of white rhino as well as some sleeping female lions and not too far away a male lion with his son – both resting (afternoon drive). 

Top to bottom – wildebeest and baby, giraffe, termite hill, kudu and a nyala. It was an overcast day and not too warm so while a daytime game drive, the animals were out and about!

Lunch break in a boma, cheeky monkey on the building where the food was, solitary elephant, sleeping female lions – there were three of them. One sleeping with its paw up – so got a great photo of her paw!! Giraffe…there were two, male lion resting and same male got up to drink, after which he sauntered over and laid down with his son.