Back to it

Back to work today. That's rubbish. But at least it affords me some time to update the blog on the past weeks activities.

The Aquila game reserve was an inspired choice thanks to Nicky. I pretty smooth 2 hour drive from Cape Town got us out into the sticks and to the pretty well set up reserve. We thought it was initially going to be a Disney land experience but were relieved when it turned out not to be.

The people there were all very friendly and the place was set up perfectly for us tourists.

The first safari drive on the back of a Toyota. This was an afternoon/evening drive and was awesome.

Animals included
Springbok
Wildebeest
Buffalo
Hipo
Rhino
Elan
Zebra
Giraffe
Lions

Although the place certainly wasn’t Kruger national park, it was still pretty well stocked and there was none of the usual hunting rounds to try and find something moving.

Then it was back to the camp for another red meet dinner.

We’d be warned that we should grab one of the rangers when we needed to return to our huts because some of the animals can come up into the compound and meeting them wasn’t likely to be the nicest of moments for either party. Nothing was hanging out though. At about 4 am though I began to hear hoof steps somewhere outside the hut. Slightly delirious we got up and ha d a look out of the little windows and there right under the window was a huge Buffalo helping itself to the shrubs. Pretty awesome to see them this close. Nicky recons she got to stare one out but that’s still to be proven.

We had the option to do another game drive but opted for the quad bikes as something more adventurous. As well as the fun razzing round, we did see more Wildebeest, Ostrich and Neil saw a Black Eagle.

Defiantly recommended for anyone coming out here. We don’t think you get much from doing more than one game drive and the completely static menu means that staying for more than 1 night might get a bit repetitive.

Here’s some facts I garnered from the trip

1. A Rhino coast about £70000


2. The Lions have to be kept in a separate enclosed valley as they’d clean them out of Springbok in about 3 months if let out.


3. A Springbok doesn’t have to drink for it’s whole lifetime


4. Giraffe only have 7 vertebrae, the same as all other mammals including us.