Durban Day Safari Tour with Tim Brown Tours 30 October 2014
We began our Durban Day Safari Tour in Durban North where I collected my clients and we headed up to the game reserve. As usual I cover the History of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa as well as the origins of the population groups we have in South Africa.
When people visit South Africa some tend to forget that if they go it alone they are losing out on local Knowledge and a Tour guide who is qualified in the areas History, Nature and Culture would definitely improve there experience. One needs to remember you may only be in South Africa once in your life so find a local guide to maximize your experience.
It was not long an we were at the Nyalazi gate and before we could even get to the official gate we saw Baboons and a massive herd of Buffalo cross the road in front of us!
Large herd of Buffalo crossing the road on our Durban Safari Tour
Large herd of Buffalo crossing the road on our Durban Safari Tour
We didn’t have to continue much further before we found more animals near the gate including, Zebra, Giraffe and Rhino.
This was turning out to be a great day safari from Durban.
Giraffe male on our Durban safari tour
Giraffe male on our Durban safari tour
This was a beautiful male Giraffe and close to the road as well. While we were still watching this guy and some Buffalo a White Rhino male appeared on our right, I noticed he wanted to cross the road so I reversed back and let him cross which ended up giving us a great shot of him crossing in front of our vehicle.
White Rhino crossing the road on our Durban Day Safari Tour
White Rhino crossing the road on our Durban Day Safari Tour
It was again a few hundred meters after this that we spotted some Wildebeest and Warthogs with Tiny new borns! They were very cute as they suckled from there mother 5 meters off the road.
New Born baby Warthogs suckling from there mother seen on our Durban Safari Tour
New Born baby Warthogs suckling from there mother seen on our Durban Safari Tour
It was again a matter of time before we saw an amazing bird flying above us, the Secretary Bird! We had also spotted White Backed Vultures on a nest and in flight.
Secretary Bird in Flight during our Durban Safari Tour
Secretary Bird in Flight during our Durban Safari Tour
We continued on and enjoyed some lovely scenery in the Umfolozi section of the game reserve. The client were desperate to see Elephants and it was our luck day as we saw them on 4 or 5 different occasions.
Our first sighting was quite far about 100 meters from the road but if was enough to get the juices going!
Elephant Zebra and Wildebeest all in one picture on our Safari from Durban
Elephant Zebra and Wildebeest all in one picture on our Safari from Durban
There were two Bull Elephant only one visible in the above picture but what was so nice about this was the Wildebeest and Zebra in the foreground. The Elephant was flapping his ears to cool down the blood in the ears as it was already 30 odd degrees. As the day went on it got up to 38 degrees Celsius. A real stinker of a day.
We continued over the Black Umfolozi river where we found more Buffalo and as we got away from the tar road onto dirt we found a Giraffe male hiding in the shade away from the baking sun!
We were also lucky to spot a beautiful male Kudu.
Kudu Bull seen during our Day Safari from Durban
Kudu Bull seen during our Day Safari from Durban
After leaving this Kudu in the shade and spotting more Impala than we could count we finally got more elephants down in the White Umfolozi river playing around to cool off. It was amazing as once we left them we had an amazing close encounter with a Bull Elephant which approached us in a non threatening way. I allowed him close to us before moving as he wanted to also cross the road.
Elephants playing in the Imfolozi river during our Day Safari from Durban
Elephants playing in the Umfolozi river during our Day Safari from Durban
We continued on to stretch the legs at a picnic sight further down the road. This picnic spot has a great view over the river so we looked to see what we could find. There was a Black Rhino resting in the river it wasn’t long and he got up, it was amazing. Black Rhino are very rare and we were very luck to see one! Some South Africans we chatted to said it was the first Black Rhino they have seen in 15 years of coming to the National parks!
Black Rhino in the umfolozi river on our Durban day Safari Tour
Black Rhino in the umfolozi river on our Durban day Safari Tour
After this amazing sighting we began our hour long drive back to the Centenary center for lunch. When we got there we all enjoyed some food before heading back out on safari to see what else we could find. Our time was a bit limited and we only had just over an hour left of safari time before we would need to head back to Durban.
This was not the end of our spectacular day as we had another 2 sightings of Elephants.
Bull Elephant next to the road on our Durban day Safari Tour
Bull Elephant next to the road on our Durban day Safari Tour
This sighting was of two Bull Elephants which we let walk onto the road and we watched them walk down and away from us. Amazing day Safari from Durban.
We still had time for a few more Rhino and Zebra but then we needed to turn back and head back to the big city of Durban. It had however been an great Durban day safari tour.
On Route to Durban we had time for final questions or sleep before arriving after dark to a little rain! Not surprising with the Temperature being so hot during the day.
