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| Lounge at Waterbuck |
Waterbuck Lodge is part of the Thornybush Collection of lodges and was just opened to the public a little over a year ago (prior to that it was used exclusively by private owners). There are four rooms, each in a freestanding thatched hut complete with a private deck. It.was.awesome. Since there were six of us in our party, we took up three of the four rooms and a lucky (unlucky?) young couple from Washington DC rounded out the group.
We received our safety briefing over drinks and snacks on the back porch overlooking the waterhole (the lodge was fenced in, so we were allowed to walk outside by ourselves – no armed escort needed!) and headed off to our rooms to get changed for our first game drive.
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Porch attached to hut at Waterbuck |
After we were sufficiently bundled up, we piled into the open-air land rover and set off with our ranger, Gareth at the wheel and our tracker, Loderick on the front grill.  |
| The gang with Gareth and Loderick ready for game drive |
Not long after we set out from the lodge, we had our first sighting – impala! Everyone in the car was on high alert and excited to see our first animal. Gareth very kindly stopped for us to ooh and ahh and then laughed and told us the impala were affectionately known as “McDonalds” because they were around every corner. Sure enough, by the end of the first drive, the impala were old news and we weren’t even stopping.
During the rest of the first drive, we saw more impala, warthogs, a couple monkeys, waterbuck, a hippo and an elephant. We were off to a pretty good start after the first drive, but none of the sightings seemed to have that “wow factor” that for whatever reason some of us were expecting and we were freezing. I think Keith was a little worried that the rest of the drives would be as cold and the sightings as few and far between, but he did a good job of hiding it.
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| Waterbuck |
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| Nala |
At the end of the game drive we returned to the lodge and were greeted at the door with a glass of sherry before parking ourselves in front of the roaring fire to thaw out. Just before dinner was served, one of the African women announced the menu for the evening in great detail from memory, with a huge smile on her face. You could tell she was trying so hard to remember each dish and also really working on her English. The same woman did this every night – it was really neat.
After a nice dinner, everyone was exhausted so we called it an early night. Back in the room, however, we found what may have been the best surprise of the trip! During dinner, the staff had come to the room to close the blinds, turn down the beds and leave a snuggly little pillow under the covers at the foot of the bed. This snuggly pillow was not just a pillow, though – it held a hot water bottle and was heavenly. It kept my tootsies warm all night and I nearly smuggled it into my suitcase at the end of the trip.
The staff of Waterbuck Lodge got the memo on Favreau family speed and here too, there was no rest for the weary. Day Two started with a 6:00am wake-up knock from Loderick and a 6:30am departure for the game drive. The energy level was high after a taste of the wild the night before and Gareth and Loderick did not disappoint. We were cruising along checking out the impala, buffalo, warthogs, kudu, bushbuck, elephant, and wildebeest when Loderick spotted fresh lion tracks from his perch on the front of the car.
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| Loderick on the lookout |
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| Elephants playing |
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| Warthog |
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| Cape Buffalo |
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| Gareth and Loderick tracking |
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| Lion Tracks |
Gareth stopped the truck and he and Loderick both hopped out to follow the tracks on foot. Once they had an idea of where they were headed, we were off, hot on the trail. On the way, however, we came across our first giraffe! Gareth and Loderick, while they might like giraffes, were clearly on a lion hunt and weren’t thrilled to stop (although they were great sports about it). At this point, Loderick didn’t want to lose the lion trail, so he wandered off on foot while Gareth took us closer to the giraffe.
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| First giraffe sighting - look to the left! |
Quick backstory: as we were planning this trip, I would put in requests to Keith from time to time (read: daily) of animals I wanted to see on the safari. Keith was then supposed to line them up and make sure they were all in position once we got there. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, the #1 animal on my list was the petite lap giraffe. Now I realize these are native to Russia, and by Russia, I mean they exist only in DirecTV commercials, but they are so stinking cute and it was fun to joke around. But back to the giraffe at hand… So while Loderick went after the lions on foot, we went closer to the giraffe by vehicle. What we found, though, was that it wasn’t just one giraffe in the road… just off the road and behind the trees, was a mama giraffe with her two-day old baby (the umbilical cord was still attached!). I mean – come on! Giraffes (in real life, at least) don’t get any smaller than that. It was amazing. Can you believe Keith set that up for me? What a guy…
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| Mother and newborn giraffe |
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| About as 'petite' as they come |
After we were satisfied with our giraffe sighting, we headed back to find the lions, and hopefully Loderick (I was a little worried, he was solo and we had been gone for a while). Up until this point, I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical of Loderick’s role hanging off the front of the truck. We would stop from time-to-time for him to hop off and look at some tracks, but I definitely thought there was a chance he was just there for show. The night before, we had been “tracking” a couple animals for a while and came up with nothing, so when we started on the lion hunt, I did not have high hopes.
A little ways up the road, however, we picked up Loderick and not long after that, he led us straight to the lions. Wow! Loderick, if you’re reading this, I apologize – you’re the real deal. We first spotted a young male lion and after following him for a little while, he led us to his two sisters and finally to his mom. It was awesome.
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| Lion cub |
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| Lion cubs |
The second game drive was much more exciting (and warmer) than the first, and I think Keith was relieved. Everyone was having a fantastic time.
Back at the lodge, we were welcomed with an enormous breakfast spread from which we stuffed ourselves, and then the staff came out to take our orders for the main breakfast course. A little warning about the two-course breakfast would have helped us not completely stuff ourselves, but like all of the meals we ate at the lodge, the food was delicious and they definitely kept it coming.
After everyone was sufficiently stuffed, we were relaxing on the porch talking about how we should spend the afternoon when a hippo came out of the bush and walked right into the waterhole. It was so cool! With a waterhole sighting under our belt, we all spread out to read and relax for the afternoon, which included an unplanned group nap on the lounge chairs by the pool.
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| Breakfast table |
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| Breakfast spread |
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| Hippo as seen from breakfast |
The afternoon game drive on Sunday was another good one – we saw a bushbaby, three white rhino, giraffe, kudu, buffalo, vultures, waterbuck, a mongoose and a leopard! Just as we had gotten temporarily sidetracked from the lion tracking in the morning when we happened upon the giraffe, the same thing happened that evening when we were on the trail of the leopard.
So Thornybush Reserve has 10 or so lodges which all take their own guests out on drives. To provide the best experience for the guests and maximize sightings, the rangers are constantly talking to each other over the radio and calling in locations of animals as they’re spotted. It was through this ranger communication that Gareth heard about a leopard sighting on the far side of the reserve and we took off in that direction. We didn’t know what we were going after at the time because he wouldn’t say, but he was excited so we had a feeling it was something good. On the way, however, we were speeding along the dirt road when someone in the party spotted a rhino. This being our first rhino sighting, Gareth begrudgingly turned around and headed back toward the rhino for us to have a look and there turned out to be not one, but three (including another baby! yay!) of them hanging out.
After a few minutes with the rhinos, we were back on the chase. The sun was setting quickly so we knew it was going to be a race against the clock to see whatever it was we were going after in the light. On the way there, the truck that was tracking the leopard lost and found him several times so we weren’t sure if he’d still be around when we arrived, but we were sure gonna try!
We arrived at the scene just as another truck had found him again and we watched the beautiful young leopard walk along the road and then into the grass and through the trees. After wandering a bit, he suddenly perked up and was on the hunt. At first we didn’t know what he was after, but then we heard the screeching of a mongoose as the leopard attacked. What should have been an easy kill for the leopard (if he had wanted to kill the mongoose) turned into a game and in the end the mongoose was spared.
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| Loderick on the grill and Gareth driving |
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| Brad on the lookout |
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| Rhino family |
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| Leopard waiting to pounce |
Once back at the lodge we had another wonderful dinner, this time at the bouma outside around a fire, before bed.
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| Haanis, Dad, and I eating fireside |
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| Bouma |
Day 3 was much like the first two as we followed roughly the same schedule every day – 6:00am wake up call with coffee before the morning drive and then halfway through the drive, which usually lasted about four hours, we would stop in the bush for more coffee and snacks. After returning to the lodge, we ate breakfast and had the afternoon to ourselves to relax. Before the afternoon drive, which started around 3:30pm, they had a beautiful spread of cheese, salad and cake. During the drive, just before the sun was setting, we would stop for “sundowner” drinks and more snacks before heading home for dinner around 7:30pm.
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| Brad relaxing during morning coffee break |
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| CP and I taking a break |
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| Sun-downer spread |
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| Crew at sundown |
We rounded out the Big Five on Monday with a black rhino sighting, watched a cheetah sun bathing, and, at long last, we finally found the zebra!Monday afternoon, Gareth and the lodge manager, Haanis, took those that were brave enough (not me) out for a walking safari.
Walking safaris provide a different perspective than a safari in a vehicle, as you become part of the bush and you’re much more aware of your surroundings. Since you are so exposed, walking safaris are required to have two guides, one of whom must be armed. The focus of the walking safari generally not on the large animals, since most of the time they can smell people from hundreds of feet away and leave the area, but on the tracks, droppings, flowers and plants. Although I skipped out on this one, the guys had a great time and even saw buffalo and a giraffe.
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| Me, Dad, and Brad on our bush walk |
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| Returning to the Land Rover after bush walk |
Tuesday was our last day at the lodge and we finished up with another great morning game drive before saying our goodbyes. We found the lion family one more time and they put on quite the show for us, playing with each other and posing in the road.
As we were leaving, everyone was asking about favorite moments or favorite animals, but it’s so hard to pick out just one. The leopard was beautiful and it’s hard to diss the lions, but I think my favorites are still the elephants and the giraffe. They’re just so big and unlike any other animals. One thing I did concede is that I decided the warthog was the most improved animal of the trip. At first I thought they were pretty gross, but by the end, the little pumbas were actually pretty endearing. I think the safari was the perfect way to start off the trip and it truly exceeded my expectations. Being so close to the animals in their natural habitat is an exhilarating feeling and it was really fun to see everyone’s reactions to their first sightings. The lodge itself was the perfect choice for us – it was beautiful and intimate, but not over the top, and the people who worked there were fabulous. I know Keith never thought I would say this, but I can’t wait to go back.
Next stop – Cape Town!
