A typical day at Kwandwe Private Game Reserve goes something like this:
5:30 your Ranger calls your room to wake you up. You get dressed and go to Fish River Lodge for a cup of tea or coffee before heading out on your morning game drive in an open top 4 x 4. It’s still cold, but there are blankets and you’re got a jacket on.
Self-portrait: ready for the morning game drive at dawn
From 6 am until 9:30 or so (depending on what you view) you’re in your out on a game drive. The sun has just risen and your barely awake until something wakes you right up. It could be a lion’s roar or an elephant crossing the dirt road or flock of blue cranes flying over head.
Pictures of Elephant Walking. Guess who gets the right of way?
Then you find yourself fully awake and completely fascinated by the skill of your ranger (in my case, Robin) and tracker (Ernie) who can help track animal movements and tell you all about the dynamics of the animals that live on the land. It’s not really a vacation as much as it is travel and education. You leave far more aware of the ecosystem and amazed by the animals who survive there.
Rangers know all
You return to camp around 9:30 for breakfast and free time. You avoid the mid-day sun in your room or at the lodge (which is rather comfortable) before heading out at around 3:30 for an afternoon game drive. One of the perks of the afternoon game drives is that you get to stop somewhere scenic for a sundowner- a cocktail in the bush and a snack before heading back to the lodge. While gin & tonic is usually my sundowner adult beverage of choice, this trip I learned that Amarula tastes great mixed in hot chocolate if the weather is a bit nippy.
Fish River Lodge- a luxurious home base to come back to. I loved the bathtub in room 6.
As a photographer, shooting on safari can be problematic. It’s extremely challenging attempting to get video while on bumpy dirt roads and with other people in the vehicle, often blocking your shot. If I do it again, I’ll rent a good 400 mm lens because I felt that my 300 mm was not quite as sharp as it could be and I would have appreciated that extra telephoto oomph. There is so much I didn’t capture on video or stills because I just wanted to be in the moment and enjoy seeing the animals in Africa. That’s not to say I came away empty handed, I got some great stuff. Of the so-called Big Five animals I did not see a leopard or a black rhino on this trip, but I met a charming leopard tortoise and the white rhinos are just as adorable. I hope you enjoy this highlights reel of some of the game spotting from my recent trip to Kwandwe.
A Side Note/rant:
Please note that pop lyrics aren’t the best way to get facts. The Song The Lion Sleeps Tonight has had several incarnations. While the Token’s version is most famous, it was actually written in the 1920s by a South African named Solomon Linda and called “Mbube” which means lion in Zulu.
Lions are nocturnal hunters and they sleep primarily during the day, nor are their jungles for them to sleep in at Kwandwe. The terrain is varied, but mostly bush. These pics of lions are screencaps from video I shot.
Male lion in the sun
Other silly misleading lyrics include the line from British new wave artist Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America” which has the lyric “New York to East California.” Only Brits like Kim’s brother Ricky and father, Marty, who were Brits would think there was an “East California.” I’m all for poetic license in music, but Sade’s classic 80s tune Smooth Operator, written by Brits Ray St. John and Sade has the line “Coast to Coast/LA to Chicago” which, as a frequent flyer, I can assure you is not coast to coast. That’s just LAX to O’Hare.