South Africa - Tala Game Reserve
After waking up a bit late on Saturday morning, Sandy (our wonderful keeper) of the Gateway County Lodge invited me along with a fellow guest to visit a Natural Game Reserve, called Tala, about an hour out of Durban. I immediately said yes, and off we were, with a packed lunch and some borrowed binoculars. It was absolutely incredible.
Now, keep in mind, this is a game reserve ….
…. out in the country-side, in Pietermaritzburg, only about 6,000 acres (still quite big), but in many of the pictures, you can see that it is indeed surrounded by farm land (even a factory farm off in the distance). That is not to say it wasn’t completely incredible - it indeed was stunning.
This game reserve has lodging for guests, and even Land Rovers that take guests out on tours, but you can take your own vehicle. There were several places we were glad to be in Sandy’s Landcruiser, in 4-wheel high. We were immediately greeted by a herd of antelope (we actually saw several different kinds, including Impala, Nyala, and others). After exploring for a while, encountering wildebeast, some wart-hogs (bush-pigs), an amazing assortment of birds, we veered off into the thornbush in search of some giraffe. Lo and behold, I spotted one in the distance, and as we got closer, we realized it was a herd. We were suddenly very close to the herd, and we didn’t realize it, but since we were in their path, the larger males came meandering up to the front of the vehicle, and stopped, watching us, intently. As they did that, the mothers and babies were ushered off behind us. For a bit, they simply stood their ground, one even stopping to eat a little in front of us, all the while, very intelligently letting the babies head to safer ground. When they were sufficiently behind, the males simply let us pass, and they continued on their way. We must have been no more than 10-15 feet from these magnificent animals.
After our giraffe encounter, and a nice picnic lunch, we went in search of the rhino. After chatting with a local guidesmen, we followed his directions and all of a sudden, there they were: 4 rhinos, sleeping near a watering hole. We stopped to watch them, and they decided it was time to wake up and feed. They were enormous! I could go on and on, describing each encounter here, just as fascinating, but you’ll have to visit the gallery to hear and see them all!
Today was amazing, and I still can’t believe I’m “working” here - it feels like an incredible, fabulous vacation (with a tad bit of work thrown in for the mix)!
