We’ve just spent three nights at another safari lodge in the Sabi Sands Reserve in eastern South Africa. This lodge is Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp. It was definitely the most luxurious of the lodges we’ve stayed in as far as the accommodations, food, and service. We really felt pampered and looked after here in a way that surpassed the first two lodges. That is not to say that the first two places didn’t go all out with their guests. This final safari stop just seemed to know how to really treat their guests right.

Our chalet’s sleeping area at Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp

On the other side of the coin, the safari experience didn’t meet the level of the first two. We saw far fewer animals here, so we often were just taking in the scenery rather than being wowed by animal finds. However, a few new experiences were seeing two male lions that had just made a killing of a young buffalo calf and were side by side going at it to see who could get the most from it. That was until the mourning buffalo herd that had lost the calf to the lions came after them and caused them to run off. Apparently, buffalos are especially intimidating to lions.

Poor image quality due to the spotlights on the lions, but you’ll get the gist of it: two male lions carrying off a buffalo calf together.

Another time we saw a large male leopard up in a tree where it had dragged its fresh kill, a male impala. Surrounding the tree trunk were hungry, but forlorn, hyenas heads-up hoping for anything to fall that they could scavenge. Being safely up the tree, the content leopard was taking its sweet time savoring each tasty bite.

An enormous male leopard balanced up in a marula tree, enjoying his catch.

We were also glad to view a hippopotamus mother and her calf walking on land toward a water hole. Apparently, that is a rare sight in the summer here as the heat keeps them submerged mostly in the water during the day and they only move around at night.

Hippos on parade
Mom is close behind.

Two new experiences for us were going on a bush walk (just the two of us) with two armed rangers. It’s an exciting feeling, and a little unsettling, to be walking around in the open bush out of the safety of your Land Cruiser not knowing if some animal could suddenly pop up that would put us in danger. Obviously, they don’t take you in areas where they expect those kinds of animals to be and they try to do these walks in places that are a bit more open so you can see farther around you giving more time to react if need be. We did see a large elephant bull at a distance at one point and he seemed to be moving in our direction. Elephants have great senses of smell and our ranger said the animal was probably aware of our presence, even at a safe distance. We were glad we were near to where we had left the Land Cruiser at that point, though the rangers didn’t seem worried.

Walking single file behind the armed rangers.
Hello there, elephant. Keep your distance, please!

The other very nice experience this lodge provided for us was a surprise breakfast in the bush. Near the end of our morning drive, our ranger went past the road that would have taken us back to the lodge for our morning meal. He was being coy about it but, before we knew it, we came upon an elevated deck perched above boulders in a dry river bed and surrounded by large trees. Up on the deck were some of the food staff with tables set with white linen table cloths, covered in our favorite breakfast foods and another table with hot trays of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and sauteed tomatoes and mushrooms. It was truly a treat to just be eating out in the wild. To add to the experience, an elephant herd came by while we were eating. One of them, a young male who was rather boisterous, came right up to the deck and acted a bit aggressive. Our ranger said to just be quiet and let him be curious. He eventually tired of us and returned to the herd which was moving on and we soon heard him trumpeting (our first time hearing that sound and quite exhilarating!) in some assertive display of machismo to a fellow male. Wow, breakfast with elephants in the African bush – really something.

A bush breakfast
Who doesn’t come running to the smell of bacon?

Because there was generally less large animal action at this Reserve, we were able to focus more on plants, birds, and smaller animals. That was actually quite nice and gave us an even deeper understanding of what makes Africa the unique place it is. As you’ll see in some photos, it really is an exotic land and we were quite in awe just driving around and soaking up this sense of being more connected to that land, and its flora and fauna than we were to humans and their habitats.

African foxglove, though not of the same family as the foxglove in the PNW of N. America.
African hibiscus, growing low-to-the-ground across the savanna.
The nest woven from savanna grass by the black masked weaver bird.
A vulture warming its wings
European roller
Lilac breasted roller
Watch where you step in the grass …
… the savanna hides some hidden treasure.
So many zebra to be seen and each one’s stripes are unique … just like our fingerprints.
Glorious views in gorgeous afternoon light
Show-off!
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thanks for joining us and following along!