Around the World- Thorneybush Game Reserve- Waterside Lodge South Africa- the review

There are a couple of parts to any safari, game drives and accommodations. Let’s talk accommodations first, then game drives. For those that may not know, a game drive is the safari part, get in the car/open top vehicles, drive around and look for animals and take pictures. There is no hunting on these drives, that takes place in other reserves and parts of the national parks.

(As I wrote this I realized I was making comparison to other lodges, reserves, safaris. I have removed those and have reviewed only based on Thorneybush itself, not compared to others, but keep in mind that I have been on other safaris before so that has certainly shaped my opinions)

Our room was one half of a little thatch-roof hut. The only time we ever heard our housemates was as we (the whole group) did things at or around the same time, such as up for the first of the morning game drives. It was more than fine, we had a great view. We could have used an instruction guide for the remote for the air conditioner. The lodge area itself was nice and open. We never knew if we’d be met by a warthog or an nyala (sounds like in-yall-a) on our walks to meals. Also, because of this (animals roaming around) we had guards that would walk us to/from our rooms when it was dark. Everything in our room was clean, we had a handful of creepy-crawlies show up, but nothing major. All meals were included in the cost of the lodge and the food was fine. I have been traveling for almost a month now and am a bit tired of restaurant food, but it was good.

Each day started with a wakeup call at 5am wakeup call. From here we had 30 minutes to get dressed and meet up for coffee/tea and biscuits (cookies/biscotti). We loaded the vehicles and left. One of the things I didn’t like so much was how full the vehicles were packed. They held 10 guests and by the end we were full. We started with just three couples, our ranger and our spotter. The next morning we had another pair join us and the next day another couple. We met some great people but were a bit crowded in the vehicle.

The vehicles are modified open-top Toyota Land Cruisers, three rows of bench seats, set-up stadium like so each row was higher than the one in front of it. The front seat had two bucket seats, one for driver and one for a passenger and then there was the tracker’s seat, a foldable jump seat positioned just in front of the hood. And as I said, by the end of our short time here, all seats were taken.

Thorneybush certainly earns its name, there were thorny bushes everywhere; my head even got stuck in one on our last game drive, I was rescued by other guests near me in the vehicle. We stayed on the roads for most everything (roads being predominantly packed dirt, nothing paved). For big five (or something spectacular or out of the ordinary, like a pair of cheetahs), we’d go off road. And by off road, I mean OFF ROAD. Pull out the cutters and remove the branches in your way, drive over small trees if you need to. Drives were great, it was a fairly low number of game sightings (look, there’s a lion!), but the quality was awesome (look there’s TWO lions 15 feet away and they’re getting’ it on!).

We had twice daily game drives and that was just fine, plenty of time out with the animals. We’d have the morning one just as the sun came up and also an afternoon one that stretched past sunset. The plan was to stop partway thru each for drinks and snacks somewhere out in the bush. The ranger and tracker would scout a place for us that was safe to get out of the vehicle and we’d spend maybe up to 30 minutes stretching our legs and chatting. More on the drives in another blog post, plenty to talk about there. Upon or return from each drive, we were greeted by fresh towels (warm or cold, depending on the need) and in the evening we also had a nightcap waiting for us, one night it was sherry, the next amarula (quite tasty, go look it up).

(My apologies for no photos, but still sitting here in rural Africa where internet is sketchy at best, getting words posted will be challenge enough, let alone if I try to add photos, more later I promise!)

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Comments

Fabian

Hi Julie
This is Fabian we were on the Thornybush Safari with you and Dave. Your writing brings back memories, all good. Sita and I returned home and are back to work . We have been invited to Abu Dhabi so we will fly there at the end of November. I will read more of your Blogs. Tell Dave hello.
Be safe out there.

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