Greetings from the African mainland! Five months and fourteen days into our big adventure we’re finally in South Africa proper, and more specifically in the port city of Gqeberha, which until 2021 was known as Port Elizabeth. Much as with Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the Vietnam War, few locals have thus far adopted the change, and most simply call their city P.E.
It’s a good sized metropolis of almost a million people, and is surely worth exploring, but that’s not where our sights were set today. We’ll have some city time in Cape Town in a couple days, but we wanted to spend our first day in South Africa seeing the country and some of its famous wildlife. To do that we booked a tour that would start with a two hour drive east along the coast, allowing us to do some sightseeing, followed by a game drive at the Sibuya Game Reserve. There were a number of game drive options available to us, but we picked Sibuya because the Kariega River winds through the property, offering us the opportunity to take a boat ride as well as an off-road drive in search of native wildlife.
Sibuya is a private reserve, as opposed to a public park, and the owners have fencing surrounding its 7400 acres of dense bush, grasslands, waterholes, steep hills, and of course the river, which bisects the enormous property. Poaching is a major problem in Africa, and private reserves like Sibuya can play a role in reducing it by maintaining a closer watch over their holdings than might be possible in a public park.
Our long day started at 7:30 am, when the sixteen of us who were going to Sibuya met in the ship’s theater and proceeded to one of the lounges, where South African immigration officials processed us and cleared us to go ashore. By 8:00 we were off the ship, on our bus, and wending our way out of the city and out toward the open road. Our drive took us past mostly open, rolling farmland, and we occasionally spotted cows and cattle—not that different from what we might see in some areas back home. One major difference was that in populated areas it was still possible to see the remnants of apartheid, with dense clusters of tiny homes reminders of the former black-only “townships.” Our guide said that the townships are still pretty much all black, and the white areas are still mostly white, at least in the smaller towns we passed.
As I said, we traveled east until we reached the vacation town of Kenton-on-Sea, where we turned inland, and before long we arrived at the Sibuya Reserve. The Reserve has a small dining facility and also hosts guests for multi-night stays, though we didn’t see the overnight accommodations. After a brief stop at the dining facility to grab a drink, snack, and stretch our legs, our group split in half and climbed aboard two large, open air Land Rovers to begin our game drive. It’s late fall in South Africa, and it was overcast and fairly cool, with temperatures in the low 60s. In other words, very comfortable, and the overcast skies provided flat light that would prove beneficial for photographing wildlife.
Those photos will tell the story better than my words, but I’ll say that the next three and a half hours were magical. We saw African elephants, white rhinos, cape buffaloes, giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, warthogs, and three different species of antelopes. We saw some fascinating birds too, including kori bustards and helmeted guineafowl. About the only animals on the property that we didn’t see were the lions, which tend to be pretty reclusive. When we had covered the near side of the river thoroughly we left our vehicle along the riverbank, crossed the river in a small boat, and picked up a second vehicle on the far bank, allowing us to explore the far side of the property as well.
Part of the fun was negotiating the muddy, rutted, pothole-littered dirt tracks that served as roads through the reserve. The Land Rovers really showed their worth and handled the challenging conditions with ease. I should also mention our incredibly knowledgeable guide, who added a lot of rich detail and often drove directly into the bush to get us better looks at the animals. I can’t imagine how I could have asked for anything more.
The game drive completed, we arrived back at the dining facility, where an excellent hot buffet was laid out for us. I tried some kudu, along with a delicious South African bread, and had no trouble downing a 500 ml (about 17 ounce) can of local beer. There was a table of souvenirs along one wall, and I bought (what else) another ball cap. I won’t tell you how many I’ve purchased on the cruise, but I will say that I’m beginning to wonder how I’m going to get them home.
Then it was back on the bus for the return to P.E. and the ship. I think we rolled in a little after 5:00, tired but exhilarated after a memorable day getting close to many of South Africa’s best known wildlife. As I write this we’re back in the Indian Ocean, heading west towards Mossel Bay and an entirely different experience. I’ll be sure to report back afterwards, so stay tuned.
Heading out into the reserve. I had a good seat.
Imagine the thrill of driving around a corner and see this white rhino standing next to the road.
He’s a big fella too, and I’m not too sure how happy he was to see us.
He had friends across the road, and they seemed a bit more disinterested in us.
And then we spotted our first African elephant.
We were able to get a lot closer and get a good look at how it eats. African elephants are much larger than Asian elephants, and the quick giveaway is the ears. African elephants have much larger ears than Asian elephants.
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This is a female nyala, one of the three species of antelopes we saw at Sibuya.
And this is the male. Males are much larger, and so different in appearance from females that early explorers classified them as separate species.
Cape buffalo. Note the zebras in the background.
Helmeted guineafowl are not native to South Africa, but have flourished since being introduced.
The giraffes were a spectacular sight.
Ever seen giraffes necking?
Halfway through we abandoned our Land Rover and hopped into a small boat which took us down and then across the river, where we boarded an identical Land Rover to explore the other side of the reserve.
Michele spotted some wildlife during the boat ride.
Zebras.
Zebras on the move.
We stopped for a snack break partway through at a little pen in the bush. Not exactly animal proof.
Michele enjoying a drink during the snack break.
Aloe plants grow wild here.
Back out into the bush. This is a wildebeest.
These are bonteboks, another species of antelope found on the reserve.
Warthogs are very skittish and run quickly when vehicles approach. We were lucky to get this close.
We were served a delicious dinner when we returned to Sibuya’s main building. The homemade bread was delicious, and the dark meat is kudu, yet another African antelope.
The local beer was very good too.
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