We ended our time in South Africa with a 3-day safari experience at the Klaserie private Reserve in the Greater Kruger area. Greater Kruger refers to a large, preserved area including the famous Kruger National Park and private game reserves that share unfenced borders with the Park. The Park and the private game reserves provide different safari experiences. At Kruger National Park, you can self-drive your own vehicle on the marked roads (you cannot go off-road) and only drive during Park hours. Private game reserves do not operate under the same rules as the Park. Lodges at private reserves offer daily morning and evening game drives led by a guide and tracker who will use their expertise to drive around and to find animals. Guides from different lodges communicate with each other to share animal sightings. They are also allowed to drive off-road and later at night. Because of this, it is usually more likely that you will see the Kruger “Big 5” — lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard — and the harder to see animals by staying at a private game reserve.
Since we had limited time and wanted to see as many animals as we could, we opted to stay at a private reserve. We chose nThambo Tree Lodge, a beautiful, small lodge with only five “chalets” that are elevated to feel like tree houses (though they’re not on trees). nThambo is an unfenced property that allows wildlife free passage through its grounds providing for a more up-and-close wildlife experience. We had read about elephants coming to the nThambo pool to drink water and guests hearing hyenas and lions through the night. Because the property is unfenced, at night, guests are not allowed to walk the grounds by themselves and must be accompanied by staff. We chose nThambo because we wanted these experiences. And fortunately, we did indeed! nThambo was a wonderful choice all around.
Day 1: Greeted by a Lion and Arriving at Nthambo (6/1/2024)
We stayed at a hotel by the airport on our last night in Cape Town and dropped off our rental car early in the morning. Then we hopped on a short flight to Hoedspruit, where we were picked up by Patrick from nThambo. As soon as we drove out of the airport, we had our first animal sighting. We saw a full-grown male lion walking along the road! We slowed down to watch the lion and slowly drove alongside as Nate and I watched in awe and took too many pictures. The lion was on the other side of a fence, so we were safe. It was quite the greeting for our arrival!
After a 45-minute drive, we arrived at nThambo, our home for the next three nights. We and were about to get our orientation when we noticed a one-tusked elephant walking towards us. Naturally, the orientation was paused while we and the other couple from Minnesota that had just arrived, dashed to the pool area to watch the elephant approach the pool and start gulping water. It was a very hot, sunny afternoon, so the elephant was parched, and she stayed for probably 20 minutes drinking. What luck, to be greeted by a lion and then by an elephant!
We arrived in time to eat lunch then were off on our first evening game drive at 3:30. Our lucky streak continued as we had a fantastic first game drive. We drove until about 6:30pm and saw zebras, springbok, impalas, two rhinos (quite rare), elephants, a pride of lions, and even a leopard (the rarest)! Though we technically saw a leopard, it was very hard to see camouflaged in the bush and it skidded away very quickly. Regardless, in just our first day, we had seen 4 out of the 5 “Big 5”.
Towards the end of the evening drive, we stopped for drinks on a platform and watched the sunset. We were then treated to post-drive drinks and a 3-course dinner when we got back to nThambo. Food at nThambo was excellent and we were very well-fed during our entire stay. After dinner, we returned to our chalet accompanied by staff, and went to bed after some stargazing from our deck. We heard all sorts of animal sounds throughout the night, including hyenas, which was very cool but not great for a good night’s sleep.
Day 2: First Full Day of Safaris, Good Byes, and New Friends
Groggily, we woke up at 5:30am to get ready for our morning game drive starting at 6:30am. It was quite cold and dark, but the early bird catches the worm! The drive was beautiful as we drove as the sun rose and warmed us up. The new sighting this morning was a big herd of buffalo. There were so many flies and fleas around them and it was interesting to see the birds sitting on their backs. We also saw a mom and baby elephant, kudu, and a wart hog. We also had a morning stop for bush coffee and hot chocolate. This is where we discovered our love for hot chocolate and rusk! Rusks are like hard biscuits common in South Africa perfect for dipping in hot chocolate. You could also get coffee or hot chocolate with amaretto but we forewent that.
We were treated to breakfast upon our return and had visitors at breakfast. Our solo elephant friend had brought 3 others along with her this morning to drink from the pool while 9 giraffes hung out in the cleaning in front of the lodge. It was the most amazing breakfast experience. All of us stopped eating and got up to observe for almost an hour before the elephants and giraffes went away. The game drives are great, but my favorite wildlife experiences were seeing the animals at the lodge.
After breakfast, we had a few hours to ourselves before lunch and then the evening drive. We were joined by new friends – a couple from Florida and a woman from Australia – increasing our total number to 9. This second evening drive was quieter and we didn’t see many animals. That’s the thing about game drives – they are very unpredictable since we don’t control where the animals go or what they do. Nevertheless, just sitting in the safari vehicle driving around the bush is itself very calming and pleasant.
Although the evening drive was a bit disappointing, we did have exciting night visitors after dinner. We had several hyenas run by the lodge with their tales up – which means that they are on the move, ready for a fight. We didn’t see the brawl, but it was cool to see them dash across the grounds with their eyes glowing and them howling. We also said our first good-byes as a German couple was leaving very early next morning. Because it’s such an intimate lodge and you do everything with the other guests, you feel like you bond even after a day. With a full day, we were very ready for bed.
Day 3: Elephants, elephants… and more elephants!
We were all hoping for a more exciting morning drive after the previous evening drive and we need not have worried. It was another cold, but beautiful morning where we saw baby hyenas with the mom guarding the nest and three adolescent lion siblings. Hyenas are a lot cuter in real life than I expected, and the baby was adorable. The adolescent lions were two brothers and a sister that had recently broken away from its pack. They were just lying in the middle of the road, completely unbothered by us. The male lions were cute because they were just starting to grow their manes. We also saw baby giraffes with their moms that were too cute. It is incredible how small they look in comparison, but also how big they are even at only 2-weeks old! We also saw a jackal which was cool.
I was disappointed when we didn’t have elephant visitors again at breakfast; but my disappointment was premature because after breakfast was the most incredible experience while at nThambo. And probably one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We were hanging out in the common area when we spotted not just a couple elephants, but an entire herd! I think I counted 24 elephants including the babies (babies are too cute to handle), but there could have been more. They all came to the pool to drink and gathered around while we were all standing on the deck. One big guy even broke part of the deck while trying to scratch himself. Being so close to all of them, close enough to see, hear, and smell them in detail was truly mind-blowing. It was also a bit scary being so close because they are so big and even though they are generally gentle, if they wanted to, they could easily crush me.
When they were done drinking, instead of going back the way they came, which is what they usually do, they proceeded to parade through the lodge grounds in between the buildings. That was also nerve-wracking but majestic. Once they all left, we stood there in wonder and it took quite a while for the exciting and astonishment to wear off. Later in the afternoon, the herd came back marching through the lodge. Truly an incredible experience that I am getting so excited just thinking back to it as a write!
This evening drive was the last of our time at nThambo. We had another amazing elephant experience on this drive. We came across a family of elephants at night in the dark blocking the road. You are supposed to give animals their space and wait for them to move instead of pushing them to move. So we had to wait in the dark for a while. It was so fun and interesting because although the momma elephant was completely unperturbed by us, the child male elephant decided that he needed to act tough and try to scare us away. He flapped his ears to look bigger and then grabbed a tree branch and kept swinging it at us. It was so cute because our guide was explaining that as the older brother (there was a baby elephant), he probably felt like he needed to protect his little brother and therefore was doing everything he could to try to assert dominance over us. And he was still so small. Eventually, they elephants moved and we could continue our way back to nThambo.
Day 4: Goodbye nThambo
This was sadly our last morning at nThambo as we had to fly to Nambia at noon. Luckily, we were able to do one last morning drive. We didn’t see any new exciting animals, but we saw the usual zebras, impala, birds, etc. and it was still wonderful. We said good-bye to our friends and left soon after we got back.
All in all, nThambo was an amazing experience. nThambo itself was beautiful and comfortable with wonderful staff. The game viewing experience was top-notch. And the other guests were all so cool and friendly. We met older couples with so many amazing travel stories (i.e. one woman backpacked the world for 16-months in the 80s) and we even met a rising, famous South African band (RAAF) that was staying for a night after a performance in Hoedspruit.
I wish we had a couple more days there, but the private lodges are quite expensive. So if we were to go back, which we want to, I think the best balance would be 3 nights at a private reserve and a couple days at Kruger National Park to get the best of both worlds. nThambo was another leg of the trip that exceeded expectations!
Leave a Reply