Our First Game Drive

What a journey it was but arriving at Zulu Nyala made it worth it! After our 2.5 hour flight to Boston, we had a 7.5 hour flight to Amsterdam followed by a 2.5 hour layover until our final 10.5 hour leg to Johannesburg. In total our travel time was 23 hours and through it all, LuLu was a trooper as always! As a bonus, I got 2 more KLM houses for my collection!

We spent 2 nights at Peermont D’oreale Grande about 5 minutes from Johannesburg Airport and just lounged around hotel and had massages to get us in vacation mode. On Thursday, we were back at JNB for our flight to Richards Bay (closest airport to Zulu Nyala). From Richards Bay, we had a 1.5 hour drive to the Game Reserve. Richards Bay is a small airport and reminds me of the original Charleston airport…walk down stairs and one baggage hole where your luggage shoots out!

Instead of “wide load” like in the US, the trucks here are labeled “abnormal” 🤣

At long last, we arrived and after a very tasty lunch, we headed to our room (definitely much nicer than expected). They do have luxury tents here but I prefer a nice stone wall between me and nature 😂. The room could comfortably accommodate 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids) as there are 2 twin beds (or couples can get a king) and 2 day beds. The bathroom is very large with a huge shower and giant tub. Their door tag for service or do not disturb is great!

Not going to lie the 5:30am wake up call was a little rough but seeing 3 of the Big 5 on our first game drive was worth it! Zulu Nyala sits next to Phinda Game Reserve which is where today’s elephant spotting was…yesterday 3 of the ladies of Zulu Nyala were out and about so hopefully we will see them at some point. Of the Big 5, we saw an elephant, a buffalo (Cape Buffalo) and a mom and son white rhinoceros.  Fingers crossed we will see a lion and leopard but if we do not, oh well, we are having a good time.  I told our guide, Leigh, I would love to see a lion but if I do not, then it is what it is.  He said it was a good attitude because so many people come with expectations of what they will see and when they do not, they say their trip was not a success.  I mean, seriously, you are in Africa and up close and personal with animals in their natural habitat, so how can it not be a great trip?! When you arrive, you are assigned a ranger who is with you for your entire stay…he also doubles as a concierge so to speak as he helps set up any excursion you may want to take…we got super lucky with Leigh as he is very knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor!  All the trucks do line up before each drive but they all go their separate way once we are in the bush so you do not feel like you are part of some caravan thankfully!

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Wildebeest 

Cape Buffalo (our 1st Big 5 spotting)

Great Kudu

Egyptian Goose

White Rhinoceros

The wildest animal of all…the LuLu 🤣

Warthog 

Black Impala (color is due to a genetic defect)

Impala

While it may have been really cold and really early, we definitely enjoyed our first game drive!  We have a morning and late afternoon drive daily and we cannot wait to see what animals are out and about this afternoon!