Big 5 safari Durban for 2 days
I met my clients in Durban for their “Big 5 Safari Durban” Our route – Durban to Hluhluwe Imfolozi game reserve which is world famous for its Rhino breeding success through the 1950’s.
We are truly blessed to have such an amazing Big 5 game reserve near Durban which in my opinion is just as good if not better than Kruger national park.
Kruger National park may be bigger but it is not as scenic as Hluhluwe Imfolozi game reserve one of the main features all my clients point out!
As usual, I covered the History of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa on route to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi national park as well as anything we saw through Zululand.
As we got further into Zululand we stopped at a Cat rehabilitation center to enjoy some interaction with 4 species of endangered cats, the most exciting being Cheetah!
My client of course loved it being big cat fans.
Big 5 safari Durban; Serval
The Servals are very relaxed and also great to interact with. This beautiful image above shows one of the the Serval we interacted with. All these cats are here for either breeding or interaction due to some issue which prevents them from being released into the wild. The idea is to try and get as many of them back to the wild where they belong. If this is not possible then they are used as an educational tool to highlight there situation.
We then left and arrived in Hluhluwe Imfolozi Big 5 game reserve not 3 hours from Durban and began our 2 day safari tour.
Our first sighting was of Nyala and Warthogs.
Big 5 safari Durban; Warthog
I was a little concerned as it had been a bit quiet in the national park in the past few days but that would not stop us having good sightings!
We spotted Giraffe and Zebra in the distance so I made our way closer and we had the most amazing sighting where we had a troop of Baboons, Zebra, Giraffe and Rhino cross the road in front of us! It was amazing so at this point we had seen the first of the Big 5 animals the Rhino but it seemed like we had seen so much more which we had!
Rhino sighting on our Big 5 safari Durban
What a great start and now it was time to head to Hilltop camp for some lunch, check in and head back out for more animals.
Giraffe on Safari
We enjoyed the Giraffe for a while and moved on to Hilltop camp for some lunch.
Finishing quickly we moved on… My clients also wanted to do the open vehicle safari at 5pm-8pm with the lodge. This meant that I needed to find as many animals as possible in the afternoon.
We had a great first sighting in the afternoon of some Nyala and then some Baboons all over the road grooming themselves.
Baboon
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No luck — after checking all the view points over the Hluhluwe river to see if we could add to our Big 5 list. We did find a few Red Duiker and one new born which was very cute, sadly I missed the photo so got the adult instead.
Big 5 safari Durban; Red Duiker
It was time to begin our way back to Hilltop camp but before we could get there we managed to add lots more Rhino and a herd of Buffalo to our Big 5 safari list.
Heard of Buffalo on safari
We had now seen 2 of the Big 5 on our safari from Durban and the clients got on to the evening game drive before we met again at 8pm for dinner. I was surprised as when they returned they had not been too lucky! So had not added any more of the Big 5 to the list. This meant that I had huge stress to find Cats and Elephants the other 2 major ones of the Big 5 which were were missing. The Leopard which would be the 5th of the Big 5 we try and think of it as a bonus as we see it so rarely.
After a great dinner it was time for bed and we were all exhausted after a long day.
Day 2: Big 5 safari from Durban
We met before 7am and got all luggage in the vehicle before having a quick breakfast and making our way as far down south in Hluhluwe Imfolozi game reserve as the 3.5-4 hours we had would allow us.
This would be a pure crazy day as we just had such luck!
Safari Quest to find Elephant and Big Cats
As we had our way down south we ignored Rhino and Buffalo in the distance and most other things in the quest to find Elephant and Cats.
A must stop for these Giraffe and Zebra!
Big 5 safari Durban; Zebra and Giraffe
We didn’t have to continue much further before we spotted our Elephants. Minutes after we spotted another 2 Elephant and then another 2! Again pretty far away but we now had 3 of the Big 5 on our Durban safari.
Elephants | Big 5 | Durban Safari
As we continued on we headed over the Umfolozi river and saw nothing. But on the other side I bumped into a friend of mine Marumo who is involved in research. She said that 10 minutes before there were Lions in the river bed. I thought we may as well turn back. This was worth checking out from a view point and there they all were. All 14 of these amazing Lions! Excitement galore!
Amazing Safari Sighting of Lion mom and cubs
We now had 4 of the Big 5 on our Durban safari and were very happy with that. I had to put up another picture with a couple of big males in it to share with you all.
Big 5 safari Durban; Lions
We must have spent 15-20 minutes watching them. However we knew we still needed to try and find Elephants!
We battled and found everything else except the Elephants. A good Zebra sighting had to suffice …
Zebra on Safari in Durban
We made our way to the gate to head to St Lucia estuary. Looking forward to our 2 hour boat cruise to see Hippos and Crocodiles as well as some Bird Life. We said farewell to Hluhluwe Imfolozi Big 5 game reserve. And hello to Isimangaliso Wetland park.
We stopped for some lunch in St Lucia town which was lovely before the boat cruise on the St Lucia estuary.
Our cruise went very well we saw Hippos galore, Crocodiles, Birds and even a baby Hippo new born and its mother out the water.
Big 5 safari Durban; Hippo mom and baby
I was really fortunate to have captured this and it was amazing watching the young Hippo head into the water with its mother and have her display by opening her mouth.
We had a great look at couple of Crocodiles which was fantastic and after seeing 4 of the Big 5 on our Durban safari to see Hippos and Crocodiles is always a treat!
Big 5 safari sighting of a Crocodile
We had a great 2 hours at St Lucia on the boat and it was not time to head back to Durban and say goodbye after sharing some great memories.
If you wish to do the same tour as described above please click on this link below:
Durban 2 day Big 5 safari tour
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Lions Eyes
