For the longest time I have wanted to go on Safari in Africa. Hearing about my granda's stories in Kenya and watching Big Cat Diaries on the tv its been high on my to do list. So, whilst our trip to Inverdoorn was a bit of a cheat in the sense that it was a privately owned reserve rather than a National Park, it felt like a safari for me and we all had a great time over the 3 days. When I say we, Mike and Matty joined us on the trip which was great, especially as it meant having our own chaffeurs for the 3hr drive from Cape Town :).

As I say, Inverdoorn is a Privately Owned Game Reserve which is home to 4 of the big 5. Its an old farm, 10,000 acres, surrounded by mountains which are home to leopards (this allows Inverdoorn to state that they are home to all of the big 5). The lions are seperated from the other animals as they were rescued from a circus and whilst they are able to kill their prey, they are not able to associate the killing with food as they have been hand reared for too long. Lions aside however, the rest of the animals are able to roam as they please and so our guide still had to explore the reserves various watering holes/feeding spots in order to find them.

We had booked two nights at the reserve and arrived just in time for an amazing buffet lunch. All the meals were excellent, a meat, chicken, a fish, and then the veggie stuff too. We got ostrich one night as well which was excellently cooked. The villa we stayed in had a shared pool away from the main area and rooftop access which meant you really could chill out inbetween drives, especially at night when we headed to the roof with a bottle of wine and flask of whisky and got bored counting the shooting stars above. There were two drives a day, one at dusk and one at daybreak and each lasted for 2 and half hours. As we were there two nights, we got 4 drives and even though the last 2 were a repeat of the first, the animals we saw differed and we got to see them in different surrounds so for me it was totally worth staying the two nights instead of the one which appears to be what most people were doing. The hippos for example, stayed in the water the first night but were out the second, so got a much better view of them.

I forget the order of the animals we spotted, but alongside the big 4 of lion, elephant, buffalo and rhino, we also got to see the afforementioned hippo, giraffe, ostrich, wildebeast, zebra, oryx and lots and lots of springbok. It was amazing see all of these guys up close and with no barriers between us and them. Seeing these animals was cool, the hippo family and giraffes in particular, but of course its the spotting of the big 4 that creates the most excitement. We saw the lions on two of the drives and they were the laziest animal on both occasions. They are still stunning creatures and we got to hear the males roar at dawn which does make the hairs stand up a bit. The buffalo reminded me a lot of the ones I saw all over India, except they were domesticated. The African buffalo are extremely short tempered and are actually the most dangerous of the big 5 as they have no fear. The elephants were incredible, sooooo much bigger than their Asian cousins. They towered above our jeep. The rhino was a treat for Jordi, she is a big fan of them. There is a large family on the reserve and we got to see all of them on two seperate drives. Very cool.

The best feature of the reserve for me however, is the cheetah rehabilition centre. During the dusk drives, we were taken to a special enclosure to see the cheetahs chase a white cloth down a long pen. The are apparently only going 70% but they are FAST! This is the final piece of their rehab and is used to build up their stamina. The second time we visited the enclosure, we took the jeep inside and picked up one of the cheetah handlers for Q&A. Turns out that even once rehabilitated, the cheetahs are all released to private reserves in SA. There is no longer the space available for them to roam free and the parks in the country are not suited to their needs. Pretty sad when you think a country the size of South Africa has been farmed/urbanised so much that the smallest of the big cats has nowhere to roam freely. We got to get up really close and watch them feed after their sprint and they are beautiful animals.

Spending the 3 days at the reserve was a great time after the excitment of our first week in Cape Town and of course the wedding. It allowed us both time to chill out but also to see amazing wildlife up close. The continued reminders from our guide that most of the animals could attack/ram the jeep at any time kept it feeling like a safari and now Im more eager than ever to do it PROPERLY next time.