We recently had a nice stay at one of our favourite places in the world for 'getting away from it all'... Riet River just East of Port Alfred. There are a handful of beach houses, a lagoon/sea for fishing, endless sand dunes for climbing, miles of beach for walking etc etc
Incidentally we always seem to find plenty of octopus in the rock pools at low tide!! Here's a video of one we found this time devouring a crab
https://youtu.be/DCNHeQbBLtQ
Anyway... on our way home we decided to head off the beaten track and do something of the 'Poor Mans Safari'. Essentially this is a route that takes you through/next to some of the expensive private game reserves here in the Eastern Cape along public roads, so you don't pay anything to be close to these posh reserves. Some of the route I knew about already, and some we made up as we went along, but it was fun to check out some new territory
We had no idea what to expect in terms of sightings or even if we would see anything. Starting off near Kenton we swung up a dirt road that runs up towards Sibuya Game Reserve. We weren't even next to the reserve and we saw a bushbuck crossing the road
Further along where the reserve borders the road we found a waterhole with kudu, impala and duiker! Our route then turned along another dirt road which led into Sibuya itself
As the signs clearly stated, there were wild animals where we were heading and amazingly the gate was simply on runners which you open/close yourself to go in. I wonder how many people have dared to cycle through despite the warnings
The section through Sibuya was very enjoyable with plenty of general game around including buffalo (some with very impressive horns), wildebeest, blesbok, a steppe buzzard as well as more impala
