We flew into the Hoedspriut airport. Well more like a airstrip. The “Airport” was all outdoors and the baggage claim was a trailer behind a tractor. We got our luggage and met our driver, “GREAT” – yes his name was Great, he even spelled it for us. I told him that was awesome.
We drove for about 30 minutes to the Thornybush main lodge and then our tracker, Celebrate picked us up. Yes, again his name is Celebrate….so now we have met Great and Celebrate. I’m thinking we are going to have to change our names to Awesome and Magnificent by the end of the trip. Thornybush is the name of the Game Reserve and there are about 9 different lodges/luxury tents/mini-hotels to stay at. The one we choose was named “Serdonella.” So, Celebrate drove us to Serondella in a land rover, an open land rover – no doors, no windshield, no roof just the wind in your face (and sometimes branches/trees/thorns!). We drove past a white rhino and her baby and a giraffe just on the way to the lodge.
Upon entering the gates of Serondella we were greeted by the entire staff (about 7 people) all in a semi-circular and banging on the drums. I have to say this part was quite embarrassing, as we felt like King and Queen….but at the same time I would be fine with such a greeting all the time (please note this). Serondella has 3 small houses and 1 main house. So Burr and I shared one of the small houses. And when I say small, I mean bigger than our London flat. The bathroom was huge and the entire wall looked out into the forest, so you can sit in the bath/shower and look at the animals! The rooms were gorgeous, but there are
1. No clocks
2. No television
3. No locks – yes there was a safe, but we didn’t even use it.
They said they never have a problem with stealing and everyone goes in and out of the rooms so no worries without a lock. There was however, a large EMERGENCY button….in case of emergencies (i.e. Lion in bedroom) thankfully there were no lions in our room, but our friends had a baboon get into theirs! AH!
So our first ride out we get into the land rover with our ranger (Ben) and tracker (Celebrate) and the rest of the crew – 1 family of 5 and 1 other couple. *
*Side Note – the Mom of the family was my Aunt Missy to a tee. Literally I could not stop staring at her and giggling, because she was always laughing, just like Missy! She told funny stories and had her kids laughing consistently. Later, we came to find out they were on a Make a Wish trip for her eldest son, who needed a heart transplant. Thank you Make a Wish for sending the family to Serondella!
So we jump in the land rover and we are off, really fast. Ben tells burr and I sorry but we are on mission to find a Leopard! I think really?! I didn’t even know about the leopards. We shortly find this beautiful leopard hiding in bushes, we stare at him for a while and take lots of pictures. Its actually quite terrifying to be so close to those animals without any barrier (i.e. fence) between you….but mind you there is a huge rifle that Ben has in a case on the dashboard and Celebrate has a machete ….but I am thinking this leopard can eat me way faster than we can get that gun out of the case!
After the leopard Ben says he has another surprise for us….and we go through the bushes, bounce around, ducking branches, to find….a mama cheetah and her 4 babies!!! AHHHH I am in heaven they are sooooo cute….playing with each other. They are really furry and super cute, not as “chic” as the leopard, way more huggable…later on in the trip I name the cheetahs (Chester and Lilly – Dad and Mom, and there 4 babies, Cheesy, Nessy, Sneezy, and Wheezy – I decided that poor Sneezy and Wheezy have bad allergies….hey we were in the car for a long time, we had to entertain ourselves!) Then we found a huge male lion that it just like the one on the LION KING!!! We spend the next hour about 10 feet from a male lion and just listen to him roar and follow up down the road (We will post a video of the roar – but heart stops beating every time I heard it, terrifyingly loud, oh and his name was Simba…of course….and a couple days later we found Nala)…..now this was our first safari….sometimes people leave Thornybush without seeing a leopard, cheetah, or a lion…so we had an amazing first trip to say the least. We had another 5 trips after that. We went twice a day. In the morning they woke you at 5:30 for a ride from about 6am to 9am. Then again from 3:30 to 6:30. In the middle of the rides we slept, did yoga, watched animals from the porch, read, chilled by the pool, chatted, etc.
The second night we were staying there Justine (the front of the house or woman in charge) made Burr and I a special candlelight dinner on our balcony! IT was amazing. She brought us each course plated, and had a placemat, champagne, etc. just for the 2 us. The other nights and meals you eat at 1 table with the other guest and just mingle.
We did meet one family of 3 we will be going to visit in Australia!! The O’Day’s they own a winery called Dionysus and we cannot wait to go and try their 9 varieties Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to get it shipped to the states….I already asked.
We will try to post pictures…but right now I am depressed that we left Serondella and all our new friends…it was just so unbelievable and I hope everyone can go. Trip of a lifetime and much much more than we imagined it would be.
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