Madikwe and Entabeni Game Reserves, Drakensberg, Golden Gate Highlands NP and Kingdom of Lesotho - September/October 2015

[FlyTraveler]

Introduction

 

It feels kind of weird after reading several excellent reports about walking safaris in Mana Pools to write a report about malaria-free fenced game reserves, but this is what I visited this year.

 

This African trip was different than all others that I have done so far due to the fact that this time I was taking with me my six and a half years old daughter. It was her first safari, if I don’t count a half day in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve in March 2015 where we saw Arabian Oryx and Arabian Gazelles (I should write a TR about this reserve some day), as well as her first visit to Africa. I wasn’t sure how much she will remember about this trip when she grows up, but I thought that it would be great to introduce the nature and the animals of Africa to her at an age when we all form our tastes, understanding and attitude towards the world around us.

 

I didn’t feel like giving her pediatric Malarone, so it was quite clear that I should forget about parks like Ruaha NP or SLNP. The private reserves next to Kruger NP or Etosha NP were taken into consideration, but although the risk for catching malaria there during this time of the year (the end of September and the beginning of October) was considered low, it still existed. From all malaria-free game reserves in South Africa (I have never heard of such reserve in other African safari countries) Madikwe seemed to be the closest to the “real thing”, so it was the logical choice.

 

I booked Tau Game Lodge for six nights for two main reasons:

1. The lodge was on the first ten list of African Geographic for best “house” waterholes.

2. Although a five star lodge with high level of comfort, Tau Game Lodge was at the lowest price range in the reserve. There had also a kid’s club and a nice pool.

 

I felt quite reserved toward Madikwe GR – being completely fenced, all animals reintroduced in 1990-s, malaria-free etc. but I was nicely surprised. Well, it wasn’t Masai Mara or the Okavango Delta, but the reserve turned out to be nicer than I expected and the experience IMHO is comparable to the one in the private reserves next in the Greater Kruger area. No self-drivers, driving off-road for following high value sightings is permitted, as well, as night drives. There aren’t as many leopards, as in Sabi Sand or Timbavati, but the advantage of Madikwe is that the game drives area is not limited by traversing rights, vehicles of all lodges are allowed to go everywhere in the reserve within it’s territory of 750 square kilometres.

 

We had good predator sightings, what I feel really sorry about is that we couldn’t see the wild dogs. Couldn’t see a leopard, either, but great lion and cheetah sightings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I already mentioned about the “house” waterhole of Tau Game Lodge, it was amazing and although I have never been to Etosha NP, it seems to me that the waterhole of Tau Game Lodge is comparable to the one of Okaukuejo Camp (well, didn’t have Black rhinos coming to drink at Tau).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also saw some animals that I have not seen before, such as the Brown hyena. There was also a pup, but it ran inside the den as soon, as we showed up and didn’t come out again while we were there:

 

 

 

I wanted to visit also one more malaria-free reserve except Madikwe and finally chose Entabeni Private Game Reserve in the Waterberg Biosphere in the province of Limpopo. The main reason was the beautiful scenery that I saw on photos and videos on the Internet. Here I booked three nights at Wildside Camp, one step closer to nature – staying in large Meru style tents, but still with toilet inside and shower with running hot water.

 

In general I liked Entabeni for what it was – a small fenced heavily managed private reserve and the scenery was amazing. Animal sighting were not bad at all, the reserve was just too “manicured” for my taste.

I would like to point out as negative points the inability to drive off-road for high value sightings and the fact that guides did not illuminate wildlife sightings after dark, so in fact there wasn’t any real night game drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a Black rhino there (my second after one in Masai Mara in 2013):

 

There were also some good predator sightings – lions and cheetah, including a lioness hunting zebra:

 

 

 

 

After nine nights on safari I wanted to balance the trip with some city breaks. We stayed three nights inside Gold Reef City Theme Park in Johannesburg – a real treat for my daughter:

 

 

While there we did a half day tour to Pretoria:

 

After that we flew to Durban, Kwazulu Natal and stayed four nights with an old friend of mine, who has lived there for the past 23 years:

 

I booked also two nights in Drakensberg, one at a cottage in the Champagne Valley with a direct view to the Dragon Peaks:

 

 

... and one in a chalet next to Royal Natal National Park with direct view to the Amphitheater:

 

 

 

 

We also took a helicopter flight around the Cathedral Peak:

 

From there we drove through the Golden Gate Highlands National Park and stayed two nights in Clarens, Free State, making a day trip to Tsehlanyane National Park in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall we had a well balanced and varied journey which I will try to showcase in images and some text in this thread.

Edited December 6, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[michael-ibk]

Your daughter will really cherish reading this when she is older.

 

Great introduction post. Very jealous about the Brown Hyena, super sighting. Also love that Cheetah photo with the Giraffes in the background. What really is blowing me away are the Drakensberg photos - wow, what an incredibly beautiful place, with the mountains almost knocking on heaven´s door. Wonderful.

 

And the Croissant picture would be a very cool Nikon ad.

[Alexander33]

@@FlyTraveler

 

Wow! Brown hyena -- very special. I've always wanted to spend time in the Drakensburg, and your report is only increasing that desire. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[PCNW]

Geeze you did it all. What a great trip for anyone but particularly for your daughter. You made some great choices based on your criteria. Excellent photos, thank you for sharing....brown hyena.... On my list.....

[xelas]

@@FlyTraveler

 

To my experiences kids do remember every little detail years later. Our was 10 years old when we did our first mega trip (Europe only) and she is the "call centre" of the family when we needed to ask info about a specific place or location !

 

A very balanced introduction to Africa, and to travels in general for your daughter. One more personal experience: the Gold Reef City Theme Park will not be the last one you will have to "enjoy"!

[TonyQ]

@@FlyTraveler

A great introduction - a well thought out itinerary that yout daughter and you can enjoy

And we can enjoy reading about it and looking at your excellent photos

I love the hyena - and I have never read anything about Lesotho

[FlyTraveler]

Thank you all (@@michael-ibk, @@Alexander33, @@PCNW, @@xelas and @@TonyQ) for the good words.

@@TonyQ, Lesotho was only a day trip and although we visited a national park and a lodge, we didn't see any wildlife, it's not exactly a safari destination. The Maluti (Maloti) Mountains and photographing local people were the main points of the visit.

[Big_Dog]

"brown hyaena"

Those two words are more than enough to convince me the trip was as good as any Mana Pools one. Great intro and awesome pics!

[optig]

I was fortunate enough to see a brown hyena at Madikwe on only my second safari in 2007. The only place that I may see one again is in Tswalu Kalahari. They aren't see very often.

[Marks]

I felt quite reserved toward Madikwe GR – being completely fenced, all animals reintroduced in 1990-s, malaria-free etc. but I was nicely surprised. Well, it wasn’t Masai Mara or the Okavango Delta, but the reserve turned out to be nicer than I expected and the experience IMHO is comparable to the one in the private reserves next in the Greater Kruger area.

I think it is still good to support places that have reintroduced wildlife to encourage that type of activity in the future, even if they feel less wild. But then looking at your brown hyena, cheetah, ele, etc., it looks quite enticing to me, too. How was the waterhole at Tau?

 

I wasn’t sure how much she will remember about this trip when she grows up, but I thought that it would be great to introduce the nature and the animals of Africa to her at an age when we all form our tastes, understanding and attitude towards the world around us.

This is very well said.

[FlyTraveler]

 

 

How was the waterhole at Tau?

 

 

 

Hi @@Marks,

 

The waterhole at Tau Game Lodge was out of this world, at least at this time of the year (end of September). It was difficult to finish a meal at the restaurant - there will almost constantly by some wild animals coming for a drink. At certain point I decided not to bring my camera when going for breakfast or lunch, but then it became worse - I would run to the chalet to get the camera. We would seat on the veranda of the chalet and have perhaps 50-60 elephants in very close proximity - drinking, playing, bathing... Zebras, Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest. Greater kudus. One night there were lions at the waterhole, but the light wasn't strong enough for photos.

[FlyTraveler]

I was fortunate enough to see a brown hyena at Madikwe on only my second safari in 2007. The only place that I may see one again is in Tswalu Kalahari. They aren't see very often.

 

I think that the probability of seeing a Brown hyena is quite high in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. We actually saw Brown hyena twice in Madikwe, first time I were out of the vehicle - during sundowners.

[FlyTraveler]

"brown hyaena"

 

Those two words are more than enough to convince me the trip was as good as any Mana Pools one. Great intro and awesome pics!

 

Well, honestly I'd rather prefer that we had seen the pack of wild dogs that they have in the park. The guide kept saying that they didn't know where the dogs were at the moment, which I doubted for some reason...

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015 British Airways flight from London Heathrow to O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg.

 

Before landing at LHR, ATC placed us on a holding pattern over central London, so despite of having taken quite a few aerials there over the years, I was quite tempted to take a few more shots (not going to mention sights, there are many British members of this forum):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some "exotics" taking off from LHR, like this Royal Jordanian A330:

 

 

... and this Royal Brunei Boeing 787-800:

 

 

 

We were about to board this BA A380 for our flight to JNB:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The young Miss FlyTraveler posing in front of the plane. This was her second trans-continental and her first African flight:

Edited December 8, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015 British Airways flight from London Heathrow to O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg.

British Airways do have economy seats on the upper deck of their A380 in 2-4-2 in a raw configuration (3-4-3 on the lower deck), so if two of you are traveling, a window seat and the one next to it on the upper deck will guarantee that no stranger will sit next to you. BA charge for seat pre-selection, so I spent over 200 dollars to pre-select two seats in each direction. I could have selected seats for free during the online check-in, but choosing from whatever is left, so I didn't take chances for these 10+ hours flights.

 

Here is Miss FlyTraveler infatuated with the IES (in-flight entertainment system):

 

 

Photo of another BA A380, taken from our plane:

 

 

 

I like the storage space next to the seat (ideal for cameras, one just has to remember to take them when disembarking the plane), exactly like the upper deck seats of Boeing 747:

 

 

Nice uneventful flight, some movies, some sleep, when I woke up, noticed on the individual screen that we were already flying over favorite and "on the list" places:

 

 

Sunrise somewhere over Botswana:

 

 

 

 

Final approach before landing at O.R. Tambo airport. The huge piles of earth dug out from the golden mines are visible on the first photo, as well as the Central Business District (CBD) of Joburg:

 

 

 

 

The first SAA aircraft (A340) that we saw after landing reassured me that there wasn't any mistake, I was back in Africa:

Edited December 8, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[xelas]

The A380 is truly a comfortable plane even for us that are always flying in the economy class. Was it using the BA more cost efficient than flying with Turkish, @@FlyTraveler?

[FlyTraveler]

The A380 is truly a comfortable plane even for us that are always flying in the economy class. Was it using the BA more cost efficient than flying with Turkish, @@FlyTraveler?

 

Hi @@xelas, yes A380 is comfortable, as far as you do not feel like flying together with a full stadium of people On the BA configuration, the last four rows on the upper deck are in an almost separate compartment, so it doesn't feel overcrowded. I personally prefer Boeing 747, but very few airlines are operating them now days (last year flew BA 747-s from London to Cape Town and the from Joburg to London). I also always fly economy unless upgraded for free to business class. I don't even bother buying premium economy seats (I'd rather pay for seat selection).

 

BA had some specials at the time I booked and their tickets were about 250-280 EUR cheaper than Turkish (per ticket). These were actually the cheapest fares that I have ever seen from Europe to Joburg.

[Big_Dog]

Some nice ariel shots of London...this is one of few trip reports that has the whole thing including the flight, very immersive.
Sorry to hear no dogs, but have you seen them before?

[FlyTraveler]

Some nice ariel shots of London...this is one of few trip reports that has the whole thing including the flight, very immersive.

Sorry to hear no dogs, but have you seen them before?

 

I think that other safaritalkers also include pre-post-in-between safaris images in their reports. @@Tom Kelly and @@michael-ibk are on the tip of my fingers at the moment.

 

Regarding the dogs - I have seen wild dogs in Khwai Community Concession in Botswana, but from quite far away. They were in a marsh, so we could not approach closer, then they crossed into Moremi GR and that was it... Post # 203 in my Botswana trip report.

 

Here in Madikwe the guy who drove as from Joburg to the reserve and who knew more about wildlife than many licensed safari guides, said that he knew where the wild dogs' den was in the southern part of Madikwe. When I asked our guide about that, he said that the dogs have moved the den and no one has seen ever since. I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not, but in any case couldn't do anything to push him further about the dogs.

Edited December 8, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[Peter Connan]

I like the young lady's new safari boots!

 

Lovely introduction @@FlyTraveler

[Atravelynn]

Nice job on the brown hyena. Your airplane series is great. What an adorable daughter! The Tau Game Lodge waterhole does indeed look rather Okaukeujo-like. The scenery is a gorgeous setting for the wildlife.

 

Touching shot of the young men in the blankets.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Atravelynn

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015. Land transfer from O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg to Madikwe Game Reserve.

Now I realized that I have made a mistake and have place the date Sept. 23 on the previous posts, the flights departed actually on Sept. 22 and we landed in Johannesburg on Sept. 23. Our driver Eric from Africa on Route was already waiting for us at the arrivals hall. Soon we were on the highway to Sun City/ Pilanesberg NP which we passed on our way north. Eric was a very interesting person - his parents used to own a small private reserve and he grew up with lions coming inside their house. His parents have given him a male cheetah cub when he's been 12 years old and he's been taken care of the cheetah for five years, going fishing together etc. Not quite the regular chat with a cab driver while traveling from or to the airport.

 

Eric on the way to Madikwe GR:

 

 

The landscape close to Pilanesberg NP:

 

 

At certain point the highway turned into a two-way tarred road:

 

 

 

 

Here we crossed Marico River which flows along the southern border of Madikwe GR:

 

 

Then the tarred road turned into a dirt road:

 

 

...and soon we reached Molatedi Gate:

 

 

Eric dealing with paperwork formalities while we were stretching our legs:

 

 

We were actually taking a short cut through the reserve just to exit and re-enter through Tau Gate on the northern side of Madikwe.

Edited December 11, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015. Land transfer from O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg to Madikwe Game Reserve.

Once in the reserve we started seeing wild animals, these elephants at a waterhole were the first sighting for this trip and the very first wildlife sighting in Africa for my daughter:

 

 

Next we saw a group of zebras:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southern yellow-billed hornbill:

 

 

I asked Eric about the wildlife in the reserve and particularly about the wild dogs. He said that he knew where their den was in the southern part of the reserve, but our guide at the lodge must be familiar with the location of the den, as well. Later on when I asked our guide Murray about the wild dogs' den, he said that they have moved it somewhere and since then no one has seen them.

 

 

The reserve HQ are right next to the ruins of a catholic mission built here during the 19-th century, where the monks from Bulawayo region (now days in Zimbabawe) would come, rest and recover from malaria:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young and curious female Southern giraffe:

 

 

We exited the reserve and drove on the road leading to Gabarone, Botswana. We reached a line of heavy trucks waiting to cross to Botswana and turned to the right just about a kilometer before the border post:

 

 

Then we re-entered Madikwe Game Reserve through Tau Gate and soon reached our destination - Tau Game Lodge.

Edited December 11, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015. Tau Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve.

After our arrival at Tau Game Lodge we checked in at the reception desk, left our luggage at our chalet and even had time for lunch before the afternoon game drive at 16:00 h.

 

I am posting here the meals and activities schedule in the lodge (as I remember it):

05:30 h - wake up call by the guide

 

05:45 h - meeting with the guides before the morning game drive for tea and snacks on the balcony next to the bar and on top of the restaurant

 

06:00-10:00 h - morning game drive

 

09:30-11:00 h - breakfast (always buffet style).

 

12.:30-14:30 - lunch (always buffet style)

15:45 - meeting with the guides on the balcony next to the bar before the afternoon game drive

 

16:00-19:00 - afternoon game drive (which after dark becomes a night drive - the guide is using a spot light, there is no tracker in the vehicle)

19:30 - dinner (if there aren't many guests dinner is a la carte, if there are many guests, dinner is a buffet style)

The food and the service were great and despite of the fact that it was a big commercial type of lodge, most of the days there were just a few chalets booked and the atmosphere was very nice. My daughter enjoyed very much the presence of a swimming pool, I enjoyed the presence of the kids club.

 

As I mentioned before, the house waterholes (there are actually two of them) are out of this world. I believe that in general the concentration of wildlife is perhaps higher in the southern parts of the park since there are more trees there, we hardly saw any giraffes close to Tau Game Lodge. Price was a lot lower than what I would have to pay for other 5* lodges. Drinks at the lodge and during sundowners on game drives were not included in the price.

 

Game drives were in standard for the S. African private resorts open Land Cruisers (just with canvas roof). We had to share a row with another guest only once (for 12 game drives). Once we were just two of us in the vehicle - a private drive. The lack of a tracker was not a big issue, it was not comfortable for the guide to drive and search for animals with the spot light at the same time during night drives, though.

I will post photos from the lodge later on, when I get them processed.

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 23, 2015. Madikwe Game Reserve, afternoon game drive.

 

Our guide at Tau Game Lodge was Murray, an easygoing guy and a good professional. Like the the guides at the other two lodges that I have visited in South Africa (Motswari in Timbavati and Elephant Plains in Sabi Sand), Murray always had a rifle with him on game drives, but unlike those two lodges there weren't any trackers at Tau. Murray was doing well with reading the tracks, but it wasn't very comfortable for him to drive and at the same time searching for animals and birds with the spotlight during night drives.

 

As I mentioned above, vehicles were open Land Cruisers with canvas roofs with standard for the South African lodges seat configuration - three rows X 3 seats plus one seat next to the guide.

For this first for us game drive we shared the vehicle just with an young couple from the UK (the girl was originally South African).

Here is our guide Murray on this game drive:

 

The drive was kind of slow, but the elephants are always mandatory during a game drive in Madikwe and almost mandatory while resting on the veranda of our chalet:

 

 

 

Male Steenbok:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A male Elephant with the hilly scenery as a background:

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the dry season the Elephants in Madikwe could eat only dry branches or the bark of the trees.