Durban day tour to Tala game reserve and valley of 1000 Hills Zulu Cultural village 10 January 2015
We began our Durban day tour at the harbour in Durban where I collected my clients off the Seabourn Sorjourn which is one of the smallest cruise ships carrying about 400 passengers. Some of these monster ships carry as many as 6000 passengers!
Once the clients were safely off we began with a briefing and headed up to Tala game reserve to see what animals we could find. It is actually a pretty easy game reserve to find animals as it is small and densely populated with animals.
We arrived to the high security of the reserve due to high levels of Rhino poaching and we lucky to find Zebra as our first animal, apart from those we saw in the distance!
Durban day tour, Zebra in Tala game reserve
Durban day tour, Zebra in Tala game reserve
It was a matter of meters and we spotted some Rhino on a ridge behind a Wildebeest which made for a lovely photo. After spending some time telling my clients about the Zebras, interesting facts and social structure etc we moved on to get to see the Rhinos closer.
Durban day tour, Wildebeest with Rhino on the ridge
Durban day tour, Wildebeest with Rhino on the ridge
Before we could get their to the Rhinos we had more luck and saw ostriches and Wildebeest. We stopped at the Wildebeest before moving on where I chatted about this amazing creatures with speeds of up to 55 Km per hour and travelling vast distances in East Africa for water and food. It is always interesting as most clients can not believe how green everything his in South African and that it is not flat land!
Durban day tour, Wildebeest resting on a ridge
Durban day tour, Wildebeest resting on a ridge
It was finally time to view the Rhino which today had a Anti-poaching vehicle watching over them. This is a good thing as poaching last year killed around about 1200 Rhinos in South Africa and most of the horn is headed for China for their traditional medicine market to cure cancer.
The Rhinos were beautiful and we watched them knowing that some people believe in 5 years they will be gone! All the more a good reason to visit Africa and do a tour before they are extinct!
Durban day tour, Rhinos grazing with a security vehicle near by
Durban day tour, Rhinos grazing with a security vehicle near by
While we chatted about these amazing prehistoric animals 2 Blue crane which are endangered birds which also happen to be South Africas National bird walked into shot! This was amazing!
Durban day tour, Blue cranes walk in the grasslands
Durban day tour, Blue cranes walk in the grasslands
We moved on to find some Kudu near to the road on area we found a herd of females and in another these majestic males with beautiful curly horns! They really are a lovely animal to see on a Durban day tour.
Durban day tour, Kudu Bulls together in a field
Durban day tour, Kudu Bulls together in a field
We planned now to get to the reception to stretch our legs and have a look around the curio shop. Before we could get their there was a male Ostrich grazing away. So we spotted to enjoy him before moving on to the restroom break.
Durban day tour, Ostrich grazing
Durban day tour, Ostrich grazing
We made it round to the curio shop where some of the client bought things and others wondered around enjoying the lovely manicured gardens at Tala game reserve.
We not had two things on our minds one being Giraffe and the other Hippos.
I made my way down to where the Giraffe were and we had a cracking sighting with the crossing the road in front of us it was amazing and great fun! Just talking about the adaptations of these amazing creatures is something that you can hardly imagine!
Durban day tour, Giraffe in Tala game reserve
Durban day tour, Giraffe in Tala game reserve
We then headed down to the dam were we spotted the Hippos far away so we had to drive around to get a better look. Sadly they were not keen to show much of themselves and with the sunlight on them the photo was not good to put up here.
We then decided it was time to head out to the Valley of 1000 Hills 30 minutes away and get some lunch before the 2pm Zulu Cultural village tour. It was a great lunch and the views were amazing!
We rushed off to the show and enjoyed the singing and dancing. I stupidly left my camera in the car to the old phone had to do the job which was not great! But here is one photo.
Durban day tour, Zulu dancing
Durban day tour, Zulu dancing
We then entered the Zulu hut to learn more about this great worrier nation and then one last look at a curio shop before departing for the Moses Mabida Studium where a couple of the clients took the Sky car to the roof of the stadium and the others enjoyed the views of this amazing structure.
After a drive along the golden mile as far as we could go in the traffic we made our way back around to the dock and harbour area to get the clients back on their ship for departure.
Overall a great Durban day tour.
