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Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 1:51 pm
by Lisbeth
I have one of the tracker:

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The truck and the ranger:

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Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:09 pm
by Mel
Lis, what were your experiences with this type of guided drive?

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:25 pm
by Toko
Ja, Lis give us a tiny bit of info O** pleeeeaaase

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:37 pm
by Lisbeth
It is difficult to say.... We had an all inclusive "package" so I do not know the price of a drive.

- First of all, you cannot choose the schedule.

- The continuous noise of the radio bothered me, but we did get very close to a group of lions driving right through the bush outside the road. (you know how much I love lions O** ) On some drives we saw almost nothing. I do not remember that ever stopped for a bird :twisted:

- Both of us agreed that we preferred the self drive.

- There was too much eating too, but that has nothing to do with the drive ;-) The sighting that I loved the most, was a group of dwarf mongooses playing outside our safari tent =O: =O:

- Sundowner (which you paid for at the end). Fa was not feeling well and was cold even if it was quite hot and they had some great big raincoats :-0

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Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:39 pm
by Toko
So from where did you do the drives? -O-

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:50 pm
by Lisbeth
It was a private Lodge in the Thornybush reserve...I think. It was in 2007/08 and our first trip to SA. I don't remember the name of the Lodge. We stayed for three nights.

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:53 pm
by Mel
So, staying at a private game reserve AND not having particularly good drives... 0*\
And that despite the fact that you must have had 6 of them during your stay.

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:58 pm
by Lisbeth
Yep! Fa was in bed for the first two days and I skipped a couple of the afternoon drives, because you saw very little. It is not worth the price in my opinion....any of it 0*\

We did three days of self driving in Kruger on the same trip and enjoyed it much more \O

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:20 pm
by Mel
I agree that private game reserves are not worth the money. But not because of the game drives.
We have had good experiences with that.

Going on a guided drive, it all depends on the luck of who is in your group, as in:
Do they want to see the same stuff as me or are they just after the Big 5.

And also on the luck of having passionate and skilled rangers / trackers.

If I had a week in Kruger, I'd do such a drive. Even for about R1100 per person.
I'd take my luck and I'd still have enough time to do self-drives for the rest of the week.

Re: Sabi Sand early AM safari from Protea Hotel Kruger Gate

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:40 pm
by Lisbeth
\O