Nambiti Big 5 Private Game Reserve

Going on a Safari has been at the top of my bucket list for my entire life, and because of this, I was keen to splurge in order to get the best experience that I could. My friend Lauren had planned to come with me, and having been on many safaris and game drives before, she knew exactly what to plan and where to go to get the best experience. 

The most popular place for a safari in South Africa would undoubtedly be Kruger National Park. It is an area in the NE of South Africa, nearly 20,000 km2 in area, making it one of the largest game reserves in all of Africa, and is home to more than just the Big 5. There are also many smaller, private game reserves in South Africa that can give you the same (or better) experience, but in a much smaller area. Because of this, it can be easier for guides to find and track animals for good sightings, including going off road into the bush. In big parks like Kruger or Hluhluwe, this typically isn’t allowed, and because of their size, it can be harder to see all the animals in only a few days. 

With that said, Kruger is one of the most popular options for people, and you can easily ‘build your own’ safari here to accommodate many budgets and make the most of the time that you do have. You can typically get a day pass for a reserve for a day for ~$25, but then you will need to sort out your own accommodation, as well as game drives. Everything is an additional cost that adds up pretty quickly — food, game drives, accommodation, etc. If this all sounds like too much work and hassle for you, you can do as we did — splurge, and go to a ‘fancier’ place that does it all for you. You can do this within Kruger, or go to a smaller, private game reserve. We opted to go to a private game reserve a few hours outside of Durban, called Nambiti. Nambiti is a private game reserve in KwaZulu Natal, that is 23,000 acres in size, and is home to over 40 game species aside from the ‘Big 5’, which means that you will undoubtedly see some amazing wildlife during your time there. To learn more about Nambiti, check out its website here.

There are many different lodges that you can stay at within this game reserve, but they all work together to ensure that you will have an amazing experience. Lauren had done most of the planning beforehand, so she had done most of the research on which lodge to stay at, etc. I didn’t even look at photos before we arrived, as I wanted to be surprised by the experience – and she didn’t let me down. We stayed at a lodge called Ndaka, a small lodge with a few private, luxury tents. The lodge itself was impeccable; our room was a (huge!) private ‘tent’ with an outdoor shower and living room, with everything opening right up onto the reserve, allowing game animals to come right up to it. The lodge had a shared infinity pool overlooking the reserve, and the meals (all included) were to die for. The staff here would go above and beyond to ensure that we had the essentials (+more), and the guides were incredibly knowledgeable in the wildlife that we would come to see. We spent 2 nights here, and I could have spent a week. They allow for 2 game drives per day – one for sunrise, and one for sunset, each 3 hours long, so you get to spend so much time admiring the incredible game within the reserve! To check out Ndaka or to book your own safari experience, you can get to their website here.

Everything about Ndaka and the game drives that we went on was a literal dream come true. I was like a kid in a candy store the entire time – my eyes wide, watching all of the incredible wildlife that the African bush had to offer unfold everywhere in front of me. The animals must have known we were coming, because they were there to put on a SHOW. We went on 4 game drives in the 2 days we were there – one at 5 am, and the other at 4 pm every day to try and see different animals when they are most active. The sunrise drive included a stop with some coffee & Kailua with homemade biscuits, and the sunset included a stopping place to have a sundowner drink overlooking the game reserve and immaculate sunsets that seem to happen here every night. Going on 2 drives a day gives you the opportunity to see the ‘Big 5’ when they may be most active, or coming out to play. The big 5 include elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, and rhino and are given the title, as they were the 5 most dangerous, and therefore hardest animals for hunters to kill to claim their trophy. Though this is the ‘standard’ big 5 in safaris, my big 5 was a bit different. I was thrilled to be able to see lions, elephants, leopards, giraffe, zebra, rhino, cheetah, and warthog– okay I had more than 5, the list could still go on. Though we missed seeing the leopard, we got spoiled with what we did see and got the opportunity to experience. Keep reading below to see some amazing photos from our drives (thanks Linda for some of these!), hear some remarkable stories about the experiences we got to witness with some of the wildlife, and some fun facts about the animals.

Overall, my first taste of a safari was more than I could have ever wished for; I got to see the most amazing animals in their own habitat. Lion, giraffe, zebra, rhino, buffalo, cheetah, elephants, hippo, kudu, warthog, wildebeest, dung beetles, ostrich, a bunch of neat birds, and more, were all there to show us how incredible nature truly is.

Our first game drive was the evening that we got there, and on this drive, one of the big 5 - the elephants, treated us. We managed to find a big herd of them, including babies, before one large elephant came right up to our bukkie (the truck), nearly sticking his trunk right inside, no more than a foot in front of me.

The elephant is an incredible animal, they are incredibly smart, and are fascinated by humans just as we are by them. In the wild, they can live up to 70 years old, weigh up to 7 tons, and up to 13 ft tall – in other words, African elephants are massive – in fact, they are the largest land animals on Earth. Different than many other herd animals, elephant herds are matriarchal – led by a female. She typically leads a herd including other females (cows) and their babies. Males (bulls) usually roam on their own, or in smaller, all-male groups.

The biggest threat to survival of an elephant isn’t other animals – its (sadly) humans. Poaching is a significant threat to the elephant species, and as the ivory trade expands and more and more elephants are poached for their tusks, the closer the elephant gets to extinction. Before the Europeans began colonizing Africa there were an estimated 26 million elephants living in the wild. Now, there are less than 400 thousand. Poaching has also had another huge effect on the evolution of elephants – they are now starting to become tusk-less. Studies have shown that areas with more poaching now have higher than normal females, which are becoming naturally tusk-less. Even though the commercial ivory trade was banned in 1989, it hasn’t stopped the desire for the them, putting the elephant still at risk. As a result, many private game reserves (such as Nambiti) will remove the tusks of the elephants so that if poachers somehow manage to make their way in to the reserve, they have no desire for the animal, and are less likely to kill it. These are some immaculate animals, and seeing them so close up will give you a huge appreciation for them, and the elegance that such a large animal can have.

King Mufasa, is that you?

We were able to spot one male lion a couple times around the park throughout our game drives, and he was mobile every time we spotted him. The guides believe that he was out looking for his brother, who they had spotted a few days prior. One night after sunset, on our way back to the lodge, we shut off our engine of the buckie and listened, and got to hear the lions chuffing, or calling out, to try and find one another. Lion roars can be heard from 8 km’s away, so when you hear one, you don’t necessarily know how close it is to you. Lions also have superior vision at night – 6x better than humans, and so they are huge predators at night when much of their unassuming prey may be sleeping.

Saving our best for last - our last game drive was my absolute favorite. We had been looking for lions during the drives, and had only seen one male up until this point. This morning though, the girls came out to play. We came across two female lioness’ — sisters, who had evidently come out to find some breakfast. Within minutes of spotting them, they were giving us more than we could have ever wished for. Before we knew it, one of them had spotted a group of unaware warthogs (poor Pumba) nearby, and was watching them intently before she went for it. Running through the bush with 3 of them scampering away, all you could hear at the end was the little squeal of one of the warthogs, as it had become her latest bamba (kill). I had just witnessed my first kill – something people are lucky to see in 50 game drives, let alone 4. The lioness carried her hog into a bush to munch on, but our show wasn’t done there. Out comes her sister from the bush, and also hungry, decides to pursue her own breakfast. She was a bit more ambitious, and went for a big one. What she, nor did we expect, was that this guy would fight back. After her initial chase, the warthog used its tusks to come after her (also unheard of), before having a standoff for 10 minutes before the lioness actually gave up. She spotted another group of hogs to go after, so this initial one had a bit of luck and was able to sneak away from her and live to see another day. The lioness went for attempt number 2, and to her demise, tripped on her run to get it and missed another one. She wasn’t having a good day, but her sister decided to share some of her food with her, so she at least had something to tide her over until her hunting skills were back up to par. Lions/Lioness typically only eat every few days, and are very lazy animals in between feedings, so being able to see this was an incredible sight, and something I may never get the opportunity to see again.

Though not one of the traditional big 5, this spotted beauty was still high on my list to see while on a safari. It’s spotted panther ‘friend’ the leopard, is the one on the big 5 list, but we never managed to spot one of these — instead getting the opportunity to see a cheetah. On our first sunrise drive, this girl was spotted out near the edge of the park, and we managed to make it there in time to track her for a while.

Cheetahs are the fastest land animals, putting most cars to shame. Cheetahs can go from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds flat. They are incredibly nimble, and are fierce predators. They mainly hunt during the day, and use their outstanding eyesight to watch their prey in long grasses before making their pounce. As they move so quickly, they tire easily, and most chases will be done in less than a minute, so seeing these cats move quickly is extremely rare.

The same morning that we spotted our cheetah, we kept driving in the same area of the reserve and came across a group of over 20 giraffe — an unheard of number to all be in one spot at the same time. Our guide had never seen anything like it. They were all grazing in the same area, near a watering hole, and we were very lucky to come across them and to get as close to some of them as we did.

Giraffe are the world’s tallest animals, reaching up to 6 metres in height. Their long legs (nearly 2 m alone) allow them to run at speeds up to 35 mph. Male giraffes (bulls) will battle one another for dominance using their necks and heads, usually ending when one giraffes submits. Giraffes use their height to eat fruits and leaves that are on high tree tops (acacia trees and their pointy needles are a favourite — shown in a picture below), and they use their extremely long (21”) tongue to grab all the food from the branches to satisfy their hunger. Giraffes eat hundreds of pounds of food every week, so they spend a ton of their time awake eating (can you blame them). Even with their large size, they still have predators, the most common being the big cats.

One of the big 5, and the closest thing to a modern day dinosaur (in my opinion), rhinoceros are basically prehistoric, moving rocks. In fact, if you don’t look closely, from a distance, you probably will mistake a rhino for a large rock. There are 2 different kinds of rhinos exclusive to Africa – white, and black, and it has nothing to do with the color of them. Rhino are the second largest land mammal on Earth (second only to the elephant). The black rhino, aka. hook-lipped, is smaller, and is a low-level grazer and prefers to eat shrubs from low bushes and twigs. The white rhino, aka. square lipped, is much larger than the black, and prefers to graze on short grasses.

On another one of our sunset game drives we found black rhinos, a mom and baby only a few months old, with momma teaching her baby how to roll in the mud right in front of us. As we approached, and then backed up to give them space, the mom found a puddle to bathe in, before the baby rhino followed suit shortly after.

Sadly, another huge threat to the species is humans, and poaching of rhinos for their horn. Like elephants, rhinos are some of the most poached animals, so seeing them up close and having them so comfortable to do this only a few meters in front of us was incredible. This goes to show how amazing Nambiti is, and what it is doing to ensure the protection, safety, and comfort of all of its animals. Anti-poaching units are present in the national parks and private reserves, and even though it is still illegal, poachers still slip through some cracks.

Having never seen a Zebra before, I was pretty excited to see one initially, though their excitement wore off fairly quickly – turns out these are EVERYWHERE. On our first drive, our guide didn’t even stop when I first spotted one, as they don’t think anything of them anymore (or maybe it was because I pronounce it ‘Zee-bra’ instead of ‘Ze-bra’ as they do).

On a later drive, we did end up seeing a bunch of Zebra right close by, and one of the moms had a baby with her, so this was a pretty neat sighting. Just like a human with unique fingerprints, or cheetah/leopards with unique spots, every zebra has their own set of stripes unique to them. They are herd animals, and males will chase/battle one another for dominance over their herd.

The river horse, or hippopotamus, spends up to 16 hours of their day submerged in water in order to stay cool in the hot sun. They can hold their breaths for 5 minutes underwater before coming up for air, so they are some impressive free-divers!

When on land, hippos have to be very careful not to get sunburnt. They typically come out in the evenings to graze, when they are less likely to expose their skin to the hot sun for long periods of time. They secrete an oily, red fluid that coats their skin, and acts as a sunscreen to help protect them from getting burnt.

We never came across a hippo out of the water on our game drives, but did manage to see a ‘school’ of them sleeping on top of one another in one of the reserves ponds.

A prize to hunters, but a monster to any of its predators, the African Cape Buffalo are one of the big 5, and roam in huge herds throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Gathering in such large groups help ward off their predators, and when they aren’t fending off big cats, they can usually be found eating huge amounts of grass.

Hunters sometimes refer to the Cape buffalo as ‘black death’, as they have such a dangerous personality — spontaneous, unpredictable, and irritable. They are also surprisingly fast - they can clock in at up to 37mph, so they can sneak away rather unexpectedly.

The sheer amount of wildlife that you will have the opportunity to see on a safari is like nothing you could come to expect, and there is no way that you will remember everything that you see. From the different variety of birds, to dung beetles, kudu, antelope, wildebeest, warthog, ostrich… I could go on for hours. Depending on which reserve you go to may dictate which animals you may get to see (Nambiti for example, doesn’t have wild dogs or meerkat), but you will always get to see an outstanding example of the creativity of mother nature and how varied the animal population is. Keep your eyes, and ears open, and you will have the chance to witness a plethora of spectacular wildlife.