Spring Break: First Stop – Garden Route Game Lodge

This place was amazing and came highly recommended from several people in Stellenbosch. Their recommendations were exactly what made the start of our trip amazing! The lodge is situated on a small reserve that supports tons of wildlife including the Big 5. When we arrived in the mid-afternoon the place seemed rather deserted. There were very few people staying on the reserve that night so the lodge upgraded our night to private chalets (luxury cabins)!!!











With every up there swiftly comes a down to knock you off your pedestal. Once I got settled into the cabin I went to grab my sunglasses that were supposed to be in my cup holder on my backpack. Unfortunately, they had fallen out in the trailer and were now headed down the N2 with BazBus! : ( It was mildly upsetting, but was perked up by the natural beauty of the landscape around the lodge. This place was gorgeous and the best part was is we realized the size of the reserve almost immediately. A rhino and baby were standing at the fence just down the hill from our cabins! A small reserve means less space to roam and more visibility among visitors.

We boarded our sunset safari with our guide and set out into the reserve. Our guide asked us what we would like to see which everyone replied with Big 5! Ratief, our guide, took note and let us know some basic safety and ground rules before we set out. Our first animal of the Big 5 we saw were the rhinos, which hadn’t moved much from the fence when we first encountered them. All three were there, mom, dad and baby. Ratief gave us explanations about the rhino’s diet and behavior and moved on.
We drove through a herd of zebra and wildebeest that were grazing together. We were explained that both zebra and wildebeest tend to be found together because of the shear safety in numbers. Although both herds were quite small, consisting of only 10 or 15 individuals. This is due to the reserve not being able to support vast amounts of animals.













Next we came across elephant, which were in a separate part of the park. Apparently the rhinos and elephants couldn’t get along and were competing for territory. This led to some rough scrapes between the two animals and resulted in the separation. The female elephant took fancy to us and came up to the vehicle. I think she just wanted to say “Jumbo” (Swahili for “Hello”) but was called back by her trainer. I never realized how big elephants are until they are only a meter away.











After looking, unsuccessfully, for the cheetah, we made our way to lion’s area. Along the way we saw several different types of antelope, such as kudu, impala, springbok, grey rhebok and eland. The lions were amazing and slightly terrifying. It’s one thing to see the king of the jungle in a zoo, but a whole other thing to be separated from the lion by a few meters of grass. They took little interest in us until the rhino showed up on the other side of the fence. We vacated the premises quickly once the lion’s began to literally hunt the rhino. Obviously, there was no way for them to attack the rhino due to the fence but still they might try for us and we decided against seeing if they enjoyed human steak!









On the way back to the lodge we ran into the rhino again. Wild animals protect their territory by marking it with various excrements and the rhino is no exception. He came upon our vehicle and paused. He seemed confused has to why this other huge animal was on his turf. The rhino was about a meter from the vehicle and due to their poor eyesight could probably barely make us out in the dimness of dusk. That was when one of the genius visitors thought it would be a good idea to take a great close up of the rhino. The flash spooked the animal and as Ratief backed off the rhino took its opportunity to state his dominance. HE CHARGED! Ratief back up further then stopped and revved the engine. The engine roar stopped the rhino and he decided he had had enough of us and lumbered back into the brush.

That night, Dana, Sarah and I had an amazing dinner at the lodge. What made it better was the fact that it was free! It was covered in our fees to the lodge! We went to bed with full stomachs and woke up early the next morning for our morning safari.
The morning drive was equally impressive as the sunset drive. Especially cause we finished up seeing the Big 5 by seeing buffalo and with the help of radar we located the cheetah. We also saw giraffe, blue crane, a secretary bird and more zebra, springbok, eland and kudu. We relaxed that afternoon as we waited for BazBus to pick us up and headed to our second stop in Oudtshoorn.