The Vuyani Safari Lodge is undoubtedly one of the most exclusive safari lodges in South Africa in one specific, but pivotal, way.

With its 5 suites the lodge can only accomodate up to 10 guests at most at any point in time, and, as it is the only safari lodge on the entire reserve, and the only one with access to quasi the entire 36,000 acre Blue Canyon Conservancy, it offers a kind of safari exclusivity that true safari connoissuers are craving for.

True, true, the suites at the Vuyani Safari Lodge are amongst the most pleasant and well appointed in the Greater Kruger Park area, and the design of the bathrooms is one of the most outstanding for any safari lodge in South Africa, and, yes, also true, the creative quality of the meals is yet another big plus, but what makes this lodge truly unique is the fact that one gets a guaranteed and genuinely intimate and up-close to wildlife safari experience.

With only one game driver on an estate of 36,000 acres it sometimes takes a day or two to find a specific animal, but once it is tracked and found, our guests can stay and observe it for hours if this is desired. No other game driver will turn up. Noone will disturb the sighting in any way.

That sort of experience is truly rare, if not impossible, on any reserve or nature park in South Africa, or wider Africa for that matter.

Whether you are in the Amoseli Park, the Masai Mara, the Kruger Park, or any other reserve, private or public, you as a guest can rest assured that if you have found a rare animal that someone will radio in other game drivers and that they will turn up within 15 minutes at the most, and that you will have to move off as a consequence.

Sometimes this practice is well hidden of course. The trackers and guides will communicate in a non-English language so that the guests cannot understand what they are organising, but more often than not they are letting each other know when they are near, so that your guide can convince you that it is worth continuing rather than staying at a certain sighting, in order to avoid guests seeing another game driver arrive. That is an elegant manner of managing guests and their experience, but still, it reduces the chances and freedom of the entire safari experience.

There are obvious caveats to the way we run things here at the Vuyani Safari Lodge, such as the fact that our rangers cannot rely on other ranger’s information to find animals, but most of our guests stay over 5 nights to compensate for this fact.

For those guests that are tired of the “Formula1”-type safaris and of being quickly showed all Big5 as if that is all that matters, as if one was in a zoo, we are a real, and very rare, alternative.

If one takes enough time. and with the right passion for nature, one will experience nature here up close, in a quiet and serene environnment as it has become very seldom these days in Africa unfortunately.

For more information on our reserve, and our wildlife, please click here: http://www.vuyanilodge.com/reserve

 

A few days ago Frank Copeland, who stayed with us for a few days, sent in a link to his many photos he took while on safari with us.

I believe a good number of them are surreally good, and Frank is an excellent amateur photographer, to say the very least.

The range of photos includes some of South Africa’s prettiest, to most spectacular landscapes, as well as quasi all of Africa’s most famous wildlife that he saw while out on safari with us.

Please see below, without any further adue, a selection of some of his very best shots.

Please click on them for larger views!

Jesse took some photos of an incredibly beautiful sunset while enjoying a sundowner at one of our reserve’s lakes.

Amazing African sunset.

Before long, the guests were joined by some curious giraffes, also keen on a drink.

Enjoy the photos!

Yesterday our rangers were in the “Leadwood” portion of our 36,000 acre conservancy, all in the north, quite far from the Vuyani Safari Lodge, when they struck it lucky with this truly extraordinary sighting: a cheetah in the wild, up close!

The cheetah was looking very relaxed, in the middle of the path, giving our guests plenty of time to take some spectacular photos. Now that’s a safari!

We have been seeing more and more cheetahs as of late, so not only has the release and re-introduction of cheetahs proven to be successful, but our long suspicion is turning out to having been true: there were already cheetahs here before, and their numbers must be growing. That’s great news as this animal is in big danger of extinction and it is nice to see our conservancy having become a safe haven for them. Sightings of lions are quite frequent (at last twice a week), but to spot a cheetah, in the wild, and so close, is indeed a real privilege. Well done Jesse! That’s the third time this month we have seen cheetahs, so that’s a great result.

Photos below! Beautiful animal.

 

Jesse tracked the lions for almost 3 days and his hard work paid off last night! It was a nice sighting as they were in a clearing. The Land Cruizer’s battery went flat due to a malfunction on the spotlight and Justine had to go and “rescue” the guests in the Hilux at around 10h30 last night (very exciting!). The guests loved it and it turned out to be a REAL adventure. Justine went back to get Jesse and they managed to get the car started while one kept an eye on the Lions …. but they were very, very relaxed! It seems that they had made a kill earlier on, and were busy digesting a big meal … and doing what lions love doing most: sleeping. Lions sleep up to 18 hours a day! This is in stark contrast to many other African animals such as giraffes, zebras, elephants and many others that in many cases only sleep up to half an hour a day.

See below a photo of last night’s lion sighting … the male looks very chilled and happy.

 

The term Big5 originates from the world of professional hunters, and relate to the fact that they deemed these animals the most challenging to hunt.

The safari tourism marketers, and travel agents, were quick to push the simple-to-sell Big5 idea. In fact the term “Big5” is so over-used that most safari guests struggle to name all the constituents. So here they are: Elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, and the rhino.

But they are not called Big5 because they are the “biggest”. A giraffe, or a hippo, are bigger than most of thee Big5 animals, and a crocodile is certainly more dangerous to a human than pretty much any of the Big5.

While the Big5 animals are undoubtedly beautiful and interesting, the obsession, and often true belief that African nature consists just of them and that nothign else is worth travelling, is deeply misleading, and will reduce the spectrum of what one can see in terms of African wildlife.

For xample: zebras, giraffes, impala, crocodiles, hyena, wild dogs, cheetahs, caracals, … these are only some of Africa’s equally fascinating, and beautiful animals, and I would argue that seeing a cheetah is infinitely more a gracious and memorable thing to experience than a buffalo. The same is true for the wild dog. The Moditlo Private game Reserve, is home to a breeding pack of wild dogs, which, with only an estimated surviving bunch of 2000 specimen in the whole of Africa, counts as one of the rarest carnivors in the world, and the second rarest in Africa. That’s why the reserve is not a Big5 reserve, as the buffalo, a TB disease carrier, would threaten the very survival of the wild dog. So the Moditlo Private Game Reserve is, for the moment, a Big 4 reserve.

This is something to keep in mind: Not everything that says “Big5” is best. Far from it. Our Big4 reserve is a good example of an extremely diverse, and, as many experts have found out, a much more diverse place wildlife-wise than most Big 5 places.

Here an example: the more lions a reserve has, the rarer cheetahs will be, and also wild dogs will be pushed out, as well as number of other predators. Lions may maximize the amount of bookings, but the true safari connoisseur will prefer to see a cheetah over a lion any day, and that is true for all rangers and conservationists as well.

So these are some of the animals that call the Moditlo Private Game Reeserve their home: lions, elephants, rhinos (now also black rhino!), hippos, giraffes, crococile, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, zebras, kudus, impala, wildebeest, hyena, and hundreds of other species, one more fascinating than the other.

The pure Big5 obsession is indeed not helpful to a fulfilling and rich safari experience in Africa. All animals are beautiful and equally interesting, and all just as worthy of protection, and of being admired, than any other.

Please click here if you want to see more details about our lodge and reserve: http://www.vuyanilodge.com/lodge.html

An African safari has to be done once in a lifetime there is no doubt about it! To witness up close some ot the earth’s most impressive creatures is very different to seeing them on television, and the overall ambiance of an African safari, the sounds, the smells, the millions of stars in a sky so clear that one can see satellites fly by with the nude eye. Yes, Africa is the homeland of mankind, this is where it all started, millions of years ago, and it feels like a homecoming when visiting Africa. The people with their warmth, their smiles, and their genuine hospitality, and the quirks of ancestral habits and customs of Africans constantly remind us of our own roots, many, many tens of thousands of year ago.

Many agree: if one has to visit one continent in one’s life, then visit Africa twice!

But Africa safaris are also very expensive! Not only are flights not the cheapest, and many African airport quite remote, but once the costs of decent accomodation, the cost of exclusive safari game drives, drinks, food and tips are added up, one realises why for many this is a once in a lifetime experience, and usually in the context of a honeymoon safari as the parents are paying. 😉

But there are exceptions, and doing proper research will turn up the gems where one gets just a lot more for the buck than elsewhere, and that without any compromise whatseover on quality. Quite the contraire!

A good exampe is the Vuyani Safari Lodge, with its 5 suites on a game reserve of over 36,000 acres, right next to the Kruger Park, and at immediate proximity to the famous and elegant Drakensberg mountain range.

This exclusive safari lodge, with its special offer of US$1315 (£830)/person for 5 nights, all-inclusive, beats any other offer in South Africa, or Africa, and we have screened the whole South African market, lodge by lodge. The fact that it is all-inclusive, so it includes drinks (a long list of soft and alcoholic drinks), all meals, as well as all safaris (two each day) and one of the best appointed and most elegant suites to be found in the Greater Kruger Park means that this is the perfect, not so well-hidden, gem of South Africa’s safari lodge industry.

Indeed the lodge is fully booked most of the time, and early booking is much recommended. Bookings can be done on www.booking.com, or, even easier, on the website’s direct and secure booking system. Please click here to book direct: http://www.vuyanilodge.com/booking.html

We are looking forward to welcoming you here at one of South Africa’s most breathtaking locations, right in the heart of the Greater Kruger Park, for a safari adventure and a truly great time away from it all!