Wildlife Capture and Big Cat Safari

13 DAY
WILDLIFE CAPTURE AND BIG CAT SAFARI

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Day 1- Yes, that was a long flight but look where you are; finally on an Adventure in Africa. The Dark Continent Explorer team will meet you upon arrival at OR Tambo International Airport Johannesburg, South Africa. Meet and greet then off to Lesedi Cultural Village for a cultural festive dinner. You'll be treated to a Pan African Buffet in the Nyama Choma Restaurant and then a comfortable bed. As you reflect on the full day of flying, you can only imagine what lies ahead. The Africa of your dreams is probably not as amazing as what is about to unfold on this African wildlife safari.
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Day 2-You awake this morning surrounded by a kaleidoscope of African color. The lodge is themed after the indigenous Zulu people. Southern Africa is home to many native groups and at least 5 are represented here including Zulu, Basotho, Xhosa and Pedi. We are in the heart of the bushveld. An English breakfast will be served with a lyrical background sound of traditional maskande guitar. We will spend a bit of time meeting and exploring the deep culture of this southern sub-continent. After lunch, we are off to our lodge at Thabazimbi. The region we will traverse is the heart of South Africa's gold mining region. Along the way we will see many active mines each extracting a wealth of minerals from the beneath the hot veld. We arrive in Thabazimbi (Iron Mountain) just before dark and move into our beautiful safari lodge. Soon a campfire is lit and our personal chef set out the first of your African cuisine…complete with candles.
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Day 3-Today half of the group will team up with professional wildlife vets and participate in Wildlife Capture. This extreme photo safari adventure will begin before the sun rises. This may include transferring animals between reserves, moving wildlife to a breeding program or inoculating wildlife against disease. You will have the opportunity to be part of the crew. Your level of involvement can range from observing to hands on the horn. We never know if we will be working on rhino, giraffe or kudu. This is a real house call and we will be offering support as part of the capture team. The other half of the group will explore Marakele Predator Park. Marakele is a lion facility where the endangered white Timbavati lions are being brought back from the brink. The owners, Mike and Chrissy, are some of the most interesting African's you'll meet.
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Day 4- This day the other half of the group will team up with the professional wildlife vets and participate in Wildlife Capture. Some days we may travel for two hours to get to the facility where the vet is working. We have captured as many as 35 wildebeest in one long day. We are typically helping with transport trucks or actually carrying tranquilized animals on stretchers to get them from the bush to the wildlife capture trucks. Some wildlife is larger than others. We've moved 4-ton white rhino's and one ton Cape buffalo and on some days we are just darting and inoculating wildlife from diseases. This day offers some of the very best opportunities for unique African photo safari pics. The other half of the group plays with baby lions in the Marakele Predator Park and gets to spend the afternoon with Mike the lion breeder. Mike will teach you about the lions and other predators at the reserve. Breeding the rare and endangered African wild dogs are his latest project. Keep your camera ready.
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Day 5- After an early breakfast we leave our new friends and drive west. Today we will be aboard our air-conditioned wildlife window van. We head onwards, touring through the Northern Province enroute to the Great Escarpment and past the old gold mining towns atop the Drakensberg Mountains. We traverse through the bushveld and drop into the lowveld. Our chef will be riding ahead in a support vehicle and have a brunch Braai sizzling for us as our stomachs begin to growl. After a roadside lunch, we saddle up for an African photo safari into Kruger National Park. We will traverse over 100 kilometers of the wild park watching for the massive Cape Buffalo herds and the lion prides that stalk them. We will stop at busy waterholes that may hold croc's and hippos as well as attract some of the hundred species of warm blooded animals. Our destination is the old ranger camp of Skukuza. Skukuza is the most user friendly gated and fenced compounds in the park. We will take our lodging just before dark at the reserved guest cottages that will be our base camp for the next four nights. A campfire will cap the evening along with true stories from this region. Skukuza is Kruger National Park's history central.
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Day 6- Today we awaken in the thick of your African Photo Safari and in the middle of big cat country. We are at the capital of Kruger National Park. At dawn, after a short breakfast of South African rusk and fruit, we take our coffee and move through the gate into the park. This region is both Wades and Bennies favorite region for lion and leopard. Just north of camp near Tshokwane is a region of open plains where cheetah are often seen speeding after their prey. This will be our brunch stop after slipping along the Sabi River drainage looking for leopard. After brunch with the Vervet Monkeys, we will begin moving toward lower Sabi and then cut across our favorite leopard and lion path as we circle back toward Skukuza. The afternoon is your time to relax and explore the Sabi River overlook and gift shops. This evening you have a choice of relaxing at Skukuza camp or an optional evening wildlife drive that will take us along the Lower Sabi Road into elephant and Chacma baboon country. Dinner will be served with the famous "Bennie Bread" baked in an iron Dutch oven over the embers. Of course, a delightful full spread of Afrikaans cuisine will cover the candle lit tablecloth as well.
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Day 7- We breakfast early again and prepare for those hard-core photogs who are heading out into Big Cat country this morning. If you'd like to sleep in today can be your day to visit Kruger National Park's amazing Stevenson-Hamilton library/museum where relics of the parks past and Harry Wolhutters lion skin and knife resides. We are going in a new direction today looking for leopards and croc's. Bennie has a secret dirt road path he likes for he spotted cats. We've seen as many as three leopards in one morning on this track. Once we encountered a big male leopard a moment after he took down a buck impala. The impala was still kicking when we arrived. Location, location.

We lunch at base camp take a power-nap. As the sun begins to cast long shadows we board the wildlife vehicle and drive southwest, along the Napi Road to Transport Dam. The lions begin their hunt as the sun dips low. Transport Dam is the site of the famous Battle of Kruger where a pride of lions attacked a herd of Cape buffalo and the unfortunate young buff jumped into the water only to be attacked by a Nile Croc. This site is a great spot to see action.
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Day 8- Although our focus is on big cats to day after breakfast, we will be looking for water related critters near the Lower Sabie Dam. It is common to see giant hippos battling over waterholes and harems of females. In addition, this is a toothy place where Crocs abound. Kruger hosts a colorful tapestry of birds and many of them favor water habitats. We will be on the lookout for the Fish Eagles and the small insect eaters. Lions often favor the wet habitats along the rivers because their favorite prey, Cape buffalo are heavy drinkers. All eyes are peeled for giraffe sightings plus wildebeest, zebra and kudu. We will trace the old Selati Rail route back to our safari camp at Skukuza for an afternoon of rest.

Before dark we are circling the busiest route in the park as we trace the Sabi and Sand Rivers with an eye out for leopard. After a campfire and beautiful dinner under the southern sky Wade will take everyone with a flashlight wildlife safari hike to see an unusual resident of Kruger Park who resides at Skukuza. We are in search of Bush Babys. Spend your last hour in Skukuza's great gift shop because tomorrow morning we head to the Big Cat Reserve.
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Day 9- Our destination is the Big Cat Reserve. To get there we pack up after breakfast and drive the tar roads and back roads on our way to Phalaborwa gate. We will detour to the west just north of Satara and visit the Timbavati River region where the endangered white lions originated. By afternoon, we arrive at the Big Cat Reserve and your safari camp for the next five nights. You will move into your beautiful bush lodging and enjoy another candle light dinner followed by a campfire. Tonight you will hear lions roaring from your thatched roof cottage. The facility we are guests at will be among your favorite destinations of your traveling career. Africa's big cats are in trouble and the Big Cat Reserve has responded. Recently bovine TB infected Kruger National Park's Cape buffalo herds. Because lions prey on the buff they contracted the disease. The result was a loss of hundreds of the big cats. While some reserves are now breeding disease free Buffalo for reintroduction into Kruger there are also wildlife breeders who are working to insure that the disease resistant lions are saved for reintroduction. The reserve we are visiting is working to save all of the big and small cats.
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Day 10- This morning after a hearty breakfast by the waterhole overlook, we will put on safari hats and tie on your walking shoes because an armed ranger will be taking us on a walk in the preserve. There may be friendly cheetah or lion cubs that join us on the bush walk. This is among the most unique of all African experiences. The naturalist will paint the landscape with colorful facts that make it more beautiful. The more you know of Africa, the more you love. Our walk will trace wildlife trails where the predators recently trod. Bring your camera as elephant and rhino frequent the waterhole as well as plains animals. A bit if R&R will be on the menu after the walk and before we dine in the covered boma. Now you will have some time to journal your memories or just rest while watching the waterhole with binoculars and a telephoto. This afternoon we will board the covered Land Rover and expand our African tour to the bushveld and elephant and rhino country. This is an eat or be eaten reserve so we will be watching for leopard and lions as the shadows get long. Dinner is prepared over a wood fire with Dutch ovens and cast iron pots. Meat is broiled over coals (A Braai). Evening is a time to reflect.
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Day 11- After tea, coffee, rusks and fruit you are escorted by a naturalist ranger to the waterhole to watch for Hippo and crocodile. This morning's bush walk will take us afield in the cool of the morning when the 270 varieties of bird life are crowding the morning stillness with their optimistic calls. Near the water unique Yellowbilled Hornbill's are searching the sand for ants and the gorgeous rainbow colored bee-eaters are busy controlling the stinger populations. The colorful lilac-breasted roller and long-tailed flycatchers compete for attention from your camera. Above we see Cape vultures spiraling up in the thermals watching for their spotter eagle, the Bateleur above a lion kill. The fabric of Africa is woven with many colorful natural threads. After a hot Afrikaans brunch we board the Rover for a tour of the lion breeding facility. The ranger will paint a portrait of proactive conservation for you as he unfolds the complexity of free-ranging big cats in southern Africa. We will then move into the thousands of acres of African wilderness that make up the reserve for a photo safari. Dinner is under the starry South African sky. If you understand time-lapse photography you'll want to point your lens heavenward for the best star gazing in the world.
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Day 12- This morning after we eat a full breakfast you can choose to stay at the Big Cat Reserve and go on a morning ranger walk then relax poolside or journal. After lunch, you may take a Land Rover wildlife drive with the staff this afternoon or you can join Bennie and Wade as they explore the northern reaches of Kruger. This tour leaves after breakfast and drives into a part of Kruger you have not visited. We will be visiting the Elephant Museum at Letaba. After a visit, we move north to the famous Letaba River Bridge where we set up tripods and can walk across the mile long bridge filming and snapping pics of Elephant, Hippos and Crocs. We once saw a herd of 54 elephants crossed, just feet below us. We move north to Pioneer Dam at Mopani for lunch. Our trip back to the Big Cat Reserve is Mopani-Phalaborwa road where we again stop and do some wildlife photography at the upper Letaba River bridge.

While we circle back to safari camp and realize that your African photo safari is drawing to a close. The Big Cat Reserve is where we eat the final fabulous open fire dinner prepared by your private chef. Tonight the campfire is reflective of all the adventure in Africa that you have experienced. We have made new friends and shared wildlife experiences that won't be equaled. Although you haven't come to grip with this yet…this was just your first trip to Africa. You'll be back.
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Day 13- After breakfast get one final pet in with the loin cubs and wipe the tear from your eye, while no one is watching. Then it's to Jo-berg and the OR Tambo airport. Tomorrow you're back to the real jungle….with great stories from your African photo safari.

*We reserve the right to adjust the schedule to maximize wildlife viewing opportunities.
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Watch a video overview of this 13 day African Safari