Amakhala Interlude

[Soukous]

I feel a bit of a fraud posting this as a trip report; it is just some brief notes on 3 days spent at Amakhala Game Reserve in Eastern Cape.

We were spending some time in South Africa, mostly Western Cape and were being joined by friends, including Alex ( @xelas)& Zvezda, and wanted to include some game viewing, but without the time and expense of visiting Kruger NP. 

By the way @xelasI'm hoping you will add text and comments to this report as you took way more pictures than I did. 

Amakhala had been recommended to me more than once and it was not too far to drive from our base just outside Oudtshoorn. It is a Big 5 reserve and I hoped that the birding would also be worthwhile.

 

 

"The Amakhala Game Reserve located in the malaria free Eastern Cape of South Africa began in 1999 as a joint conservation venture between the owners of six lodges who are direct descendants of the original Frontier settlers some five generations ago and arrived here with the British settlers of 1820. The families originally settled to farm sheep and cattle on the wild and often hostile Zuurveld.

During 2011 the original members of the Amakhala and the Lion Roars Group created a joint Marketing agreement and brand rejuvenation for the malaria free Amakhala Game Reserve.

The joint marketing agreement now includes 10 properties within the Reserve that fall under a unified marketing umbrella and brand of ‘Amakhala Game Reserve'. This exciting development has allowed the 8,500ha Amakhala to promote and showcase itself as the premier Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape.

Amakhala Game Reserve is a unique conservation initiative that allows animals to be re-introduced to the area where they once roamed freely and so making a contribution to the conservation of our natural heritage. The land was used to ranch sheep and cattle up to the turn of the century. The challenge has been to re-establish the original flora and fauna species to the area and to return the land to nature."

 

Garden Route National Park

We picked up my mate Pat from George airport and then drove to Wilderness where we'd meet up with Alex & Zvezda. In fact we'd booked into the Ebb & Flow rest camp (part of the Garden Route National Park) and would be staying by the Touw river for a couple of nights before driving on to Amakhala. 

To try and accommodate our insatiable need to click shutters, I'd booked a boat trip on the river where we hoped to see some of the special local species. 

The boat trip was good, and we did see some neat species, but I had miscalculated and booked us to start too early. I wanted to avoid the hot part of the day but forgot that the river is in a deep gorge and that the sun does not really hit the river until a few hours after sunrise. Consequently, for most of our boat trip we were in shadow and although we did see birds, the light was really low. 

 

Half-collared Kingfisher

 

 

 

 

 

Narina Trogon

 

In the late afternoons we (those with cameras that is)  wandered the extensive grounds in search of the often heard but elusive Knysna Turaco.

 

Knysna Turaco

(Zvezda has much better photos, which I hope she'll share here)

 

Black-headed Oriole

 

That aside it was a very relaxed couple of days that gave new acquaintances a chance to get to know each other. 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Soukous

[AndrewB]

I shall watch this with interest. I am thinking of Amakhala as an end to a Garden Route trip. I need my animals and bird fix if I have to fly as far as Cape Town from the UK!!

[Alex The Lion]

1 hour ago, AndrewB said:

I shall watch this with interest. I am thinking of Amakhala as an end to a Garden Route trip. I need my animals and bird fix if I have to fly as far as Cape Town from the UK!!

 

I sent friends to Samara Game Reserve, which they loved.

 

@SoukousInterest in the landscape/predator images if you have any

[Atravelynn]

Looking forward to this "fraudulent" report.  Beautiful bird pictures!

 

[Soukous]

Amakhala is sandwiched between Shamwari & Addo NP, just to the north east of the city that used Port Elizabeth but has now been renamed something I cannot pronounce. (Gqeberha)

 

I had chosen one of the two tented camps – Woodbury Tented Camp – partly because I like tented camps and partly because it is the cheapest (along with Quartermain’s 1920’s Safari Camp) in the reserve. As it turned out, I think it was a good choice as the location was very central for the whole reserve.

Whichever lodge/camp you stay at, the game drives are in the same areas and you’ll be seeing the same animals, so why pay almost twice as much?

 

Tucked into a secluded hillside thicket overlooking the ancient floodplain of the Bushman's River, Woodbury Tented Camp is one of the hidden jewels of the Eastern Cape.

Ten comfortable en-suite tents on raised bases, each with its own private deck, allow guests to enjoy a rare intimacy with nature. Each tent has hot running water, the option of king-size or twin beds and electric blankets for those cosy evenings. There are alsotwo family tents which connect via a balcony, allowing families to enjoy the African bush together.

Twice daily game drives with one of our friendly and professional guides offer the chance for exciting Big Five game viewing and unforgettable sundowners in the bush. Camp life is centred around the thatch-and-canvas dining and lounge area, with its expansive deck overlooking the Woodbury plains. A wide variety of game species such as zebra, giraffe, buffalo and elephant can often be seen from the deck, while the haunting cry of fish eagles echoes across the valley.

 

Woodbury is a very nicely laid out camp, with gravel walkways leading through dense vegetation to large secluded tents, each with its own private deck overlooking the crater/basin.

 

 

 

 

The view from the dining deck out over the basin was magnificent and we could see that there were some rhino down there and a herd of buffalo.

 

 

There was also a reasonable amount of bird life in the bushes surrounding the deck.

 

Speckled Mousebird

 

Bar-throated Apalis

 

 

Cape Glossy Starling

 

There are 2 swimming pools, one overlooking the basin and another more secluded. I didn't use either of them.

 

Our guide was OK, young and inexperienced but personable.

Because we were photographers and keen to photograph birds as well as mammals I spoke to the management and suggested that other guests might not enjoy being in the same vehicle as us.

I was assured that we had a vehicle to ourselves so no problem. Then, just before our first drive I was told that we’d be joined by a travel agent doing a site inspection, but not to worry about it.

Said travel agent was young – travelling with her boyfriend - and on her first visit to a game reserve, so naturally she wanted to see the iconic species and quickly became a bit tetchy (literally within the first 30 minutes) when we (Alex ) constantly asked the guide to stop for birds.

The game drive vehicles were comfortable and had a shade canopy. 

 

It was nice to see that the rhino had not been de-horned. Although I understand why it is done, I cannot bring myself to photograph a rhino without its horn. We were told that here, in Eastern Cape, the risk from poaching was well controlled. They were also very relaxed with the game vehicles.

 

 

 

 

 

In a perverse way we were lucky that our first drive found us caught in a downpour making photography fairly pointless, so what was becoming a point of friction was – for now – calmed down.

Apparently it can rain at any time in this part of Eastern Cape, so a waterproof jacket is advisable.

The camp did provide 'rain' ponchos, but they were not waterproof. 

 

We managed to get through the next morning’s drive without too much disharmony but when we got back I made a point of speaking to the guide – nicely – to suggest that life would be better for all concerned, including him, if we had the vehicle to ourselves.

Fortunately new guests had arrived and they were more in tune – in both age and interests – with the travel agent and her partner so it was arranged that they would switch vehicles. Our drives became much more relaxed.

 

The communal areas of the camp were comfortable and never seemed crowded. The lounge/bar and reception were the two areas where we could pick up a weak wi-fi signal.

The camp has 11 tents, a max capacity of 22 guests.

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Soukous

[AfricIan]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:37 AM, Soukous said:

 

I feel a bit of a fraud posting this as a trip report; it is just some brief notes on 3 days spent at Amakhala Game Reserve in Eastern Cape.

 

No need to feel fraudulent Martin, we’ve spent a great 3 days at Amakhala in the past, en-route from Cape Town to East London & it’s an ideal way/place to get an inexpensive “wildlife fix”. We stayed at Quatermains, which is a very nice little (3 tent) camp, it’s only downside being that you have to cross the N2 from the “soft game” area that the camp is in, over to the main reserve. On the plus side, it adjoins Shamwari & at that time Quatermains could take some of their drives in the Shamwari reserve. 

[Soukous]

17 minutes ago, AfricIan said:

On the plus side, it adjoins Shamwari & at that time Quatermains could take some of their drives in the Shamwari reserve. 

Really? That's worth remembering.

[TonyQ]

@Soukousvery interesting, I had not heard of it

[Dave Williams]

Looks like an excellent place to stay , nice pool too Claire!! 

[Soukous]

Over our next 4 game drives we saw most of the key species.

 

Morning 1

We set out in search of cheetah. This meant crossing the N2 and entering the smaller north western section of the reserve. 

Again we were struck by the diversity of landscape. So far we had not seen many animals but did get a couple of birds.

 

 

Ludwig's Bustard

 

European Honey Buzzard

 

A good spot by our guide Greg picked out a small bump in deep shadow under a bush.

It was the female cheetah and her 4 cubs.

 

 

 

 

Amakhala’s female cheetah, has 4 cubs, but there are no male cheetahs in her territory. Immaculate conception?

No. She squirmed under a fence into the adjoining Shamwari reserve and by the time she was located and recovered she had managed to mate with one of the Shamwari males. This only became apparent a while later when it was noticed that she was pregnant.

They didn’t do much, but cheetah cubs are always cute. Being wild animals they didn't pose as well as I would have liked, but it was still a neat sighting.

 

 

 

Afternoon

A lovely drive that showed us the magnificent landscapes of Amakhala, which I did not photograph because I could not do them justice.

 

 

 

Neddicky (or as Merlin calls it, a Piping Cisticola) I'll stick with Neddicky as that is what it is known as in SA.

 

A flash of bright green drew our attention to a Klaas's Cuckoo which hung around for several minutes, but I could not get a clear shot. 

 

 

On the smaller side, we did see quite a few Yellow Mongoose that posed nicely, but too far away for the lens I was using.

 

 

With just us 5 in the vehicle, our game drives had become much more relaxed as we were content to enjoy whatever crossed our path.

[Soukous]

Morning 2

We set off in search of either lions or elephants, whichever we happened to find first.

We could hear that others had found the lions but they were in an awkward position on a steep road, which prevented any vehicles passing them so we opted to look for elephants instead.

We spotted them and moved around for a better position.

 

Somehow, while manoeuvring through the bush we lost them. How do you lose a herd of elephants? No idea, but we managed.

Then they were sighted on an access road that runs through the reserve; they were highly mobile. Guide-speak for moving fast.

Apparently a delivery van had come up behind them on the road and spooked them, so they headed into deep cover.

 

We eventually found them again, still moving at quite a pace, and after looking at their back ends for some time we were fortunate to get into a position where we were alongside and slightly above them.

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

It's actually not hard to lose a herd of Ellies that want to be lost...

[Soukous]

Afternoon

The only species left for us to locate now was lions, so off we went, hoping they had not moved too far from where they’d been sighted in the morning.

Once again we had a lucky spot as they were lying in shadow under a bush. If one of them had not shifted position we would probably have driven straight past.

We hoped that they might do something other than lying in the shade and we got lucky. The lioness became active and emerged from cover, walking with purpose.

 

 

She was coming pretty much straight towards us and calling out in a low growl.

 

 

(Indulge me here. I know many of you get irritated by endless photos of the same thing in trip reports, but there is a sequence here.)

 

Ignoring us completely, she walked within a few metres of our vehicle focussed on something much more important.

 

We soon discovered why when 2 of her cubs appeared about 80 metres away and bounded across the grass towards her.

 

 

 

 

From a distance they looked quite small, but once they reached Mum it was clear they were almost as big as she was.

 

 

 

It was lovely to watch the reunion.

 

A most enjoyable drive. We also saw a couple of rhinos 

 

 

 

and some young Jackals

 

 

We had one more game drive scheduled on our last morning, but we decided to skip it as we had a long drive back to Oudtshoorn – 7+ hours. Alex & Zvezda had a shorter drive up to Mountain Zebra NP and so they stayed for the game drive.

 

 

So what is the verdict on Amakhala?

Well, they do have a good selection of wildlife; elephant, rhino (white & black), buffalo, lion & cheetah & giraffe, but none of them in large numbers. The reserve is very carefully managed to maintain a balance between the predators and the prey species. Only 1 pride of lions is present to avoid conflict between prides and also to avoid excessive predation.

 

Over the course of our game drives we did manage to see all the iconic species, except the Black Rhino which were still being kept in isolation to allow them to acclimatise to their new home.

 

As with other private reserves the time we were able to spend at each sighting was limited in order that no more than 3 vehicles at a time were on the location and everyone who wanted got a chance for a sighting.

This was frustrating at times, particularly if we were first to a sighting. Instead of being able to just sit and watch the guide was obliged to tell others what he had found and more vehicles arrived pretty soon, putting pressure on us to leave and allow someone else in.

The other irritating thing about this, and most other private reserves I’ve visited, was the constant radio chatter between vehicles.

 

Overall though, there’s a lot to like about Amakhala and it exceeded our expectations with the varied terrain providing a magnificent backdrop to some nice sightings.

 

Apart from one or two people who had come from nearby, most of the guests while we were there were using Amakhala as a game viewing experience added on to their Garden Route trip and indeed this does work very well.

 

 

As far as equipment goes I took just 1 camera/lens combination with me on this trip. Nikon Z8 + 100-400mm Z lens.

 

My favourite combo for birding is still the D500 + 500pf lens, because I am so familiar with it, but I figured that I needed to force myself to get more familiar with my mirrorless Z8.

I still much prefer the ‘through the lens’ view of the DSLR to the EVF on the mirrorless and I find it much easier for focussing, especially when the subject is not clearly visible and subject detection becomes more of a hindrance than a help.

 

 

That said, it actually worked out pretty well. It was great not even having to think about changing lenses or even choosing which body/lens to pick up.

For mammals the 100-400mm is a brilliant lens, however it is a bit short for birds; even though in crop mode it becomes 150-600mm.

 

If only the 180-600mm lens had been available a year ago.

 

[xelas]

Perfect short TR, Martin! That makes my life easier as for this section of the trip, I will just put a link to it (with your permission, of course). Our thoughts? It was our first African private reserve, and we (= Zvezda) liked it very much! It gave her plenty to shoot at, and plenty time to relax between game drives. I have lacked the opportunity to drive around, but finding the major "targets" was much easier with a guide (and his radio).

 

Thank you (all) very much for your kind invitation! 

Edited December 21, 2023 by xelas

[Atravelynn]

Great array of sightings that were upgraded by the promiscuous cheetah who had four charming young cubs.  Thanks for the Game and Garden recommendation.