Simbamili Game Lodge

Friday, December 21

We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa after an 11 hour flight from Frankfurt feeling somewhat rested but mostly in total excitement for what was to come. After collecting our bags and zipping through customs we waited for the next flight, only one hour, into Hoedespruit and from there we met our transfer guide to Simbambili Game Lodge. Immediately after pulling out of the airport we saw a baboon on the side of the road but no time for pictures as our driver had to drive the hour and a half quickly to get us to the lodge for the 4:00 game drive. We drove through so many small, very poor villages to reach the lodge in Sabi Sands Game Reserve. There were cows, goats, and donkeys all over the roads and small fields of corn growing around the houses. Simbambili is about 5km in from the gate of the reserve (1of the 4 gates) and my first thought was, "whoa, we are way out here amongst all the the big five!" It was absolutely breathtaking, remote, and rustic but elegant. Truly a 5 Star Lodge. We were in love and hadn't even been on the game drive yet. In the lobby, they welcomed us with fresh iced tea and they kindly kept a platter of lunch since we had a late arrival. They showed us to Lodge #5 so that we could shower and change. We had to hurry to meet our ranger but the room was so inviting we didn't want to leave!

We are certainly glad we did though! Our ranger Richard, along with his Tracker who's name was Celebrate, did an excellent job of tracking down animals for us. We joined a family from Kansas as well as a couple from Belgium in our Jeep and we were on our 3 hour drive! Oh my goodness, we had no idea if or what we were going to see! Many Impala were amongst the first of our sightings. They are beautiful, much like the deer back home. Then an elephant, just grazing in the trees! We were in total awe. A short while later we saw a whole herd of elephants, tons of them including two little 3 month olds! It was one of the most awesome things I've ever seen! What beautiful animals, so graceful being as enormous as they are and so happy in their natural environment. Well I was pretty satisfied already! Richard pointed out many different varieties of birds, including parrots and eagles. There were more Impala, Wildebeests, Water Buffalo, Jackals, Zebra, Hippos going for a swim but the next big highlight of the drive was the Leopard. They call him Tingana. Oh.my.goodness.was.he.beautiful. They call him Tingana. He was just out for a leisurely stroll and we followed him right along. He found an Impala leg bone and settled down in the grass to snack on the bone. As we followed behind him we could catch the scent of his spray as he marked his territory - a smell that resembles popcorn believe it or not! The drive was fantastic, just absolutely amazing to have seen all that we saw in a short amount of time. Friday was the Solstice, the longest day and when the sun was finally going down it made for some beautiful pictures of Marula trees against the African sky as we stopped for some drinks out in the bush.

Back at the lodge we showered before dinner and met the other guests in the lobby. Dinner was set up on a deck below, around a fire, beautifully lit with lanterns. There were only the 8 of us until 4 more guests from Russia arrived a little later. It was a lovely dinner as we chatted, ate and drank. The Hyenas howled somewhere in the bush nearby. Their call carries we were told which meant that they were not as close as they sounded! We were escorted by the night watchman back to our lodges and we fell fast asleep in the huge mosquito net covered bed.

Link to first day's PICTURES - NOT captioned because they're pretty self explanatory!



Setting out on our first drive!

Well hello Mr. Elephant!

Baby elephants!

Tons of impala everywhere.

One of the eagles we spotted, there are many varieties.

Having an impala leg snack.

Tingana is such a beautiful animal!

Wildebeest grazing.

Zebras grazing.

Hippos going for a dip.

The sun is setting on solstice.

Saturday, December 22
Honestly, 4:45 didn't seem all that terrible of a time to wake up after the amazing sleep in the luxury bed. We hurried up to the lodge for a quick coffee before jumping on the jeep for the morning game drive. We pulled into a riverbed where Richard and Celebrate grabbed the rifle and a slingshot and took off on foot looking for some water buffalo in the area. We were left for dead in the jeep - haha just kidding! We were VERY safe in the jeep, the animals pay no mind to us at all. We watched the guys take off and then hear yelling and them running! Looking through the binoculars we saw them smiling so we knew they were ok. Richard has never had to use his rifle in self defense, he's very experienced and so full of knowledge that we felt we could not have been in better hands.
The morning drive was fun, the sun was up it wasn't too hot yet and starting out with our ranger almost getting attacked by the buffalo was exciting! Richard was on the trail of a white rhino and boy oh boy was that rhino something to see. Enormous and scary is about the best way to describe it. He was running, sniffing the scent of a female and baby that he was searching. We followed behind him quite a while before trailing off. We drove through lots of the bush, Richard all the while identifying more birds and spotting more impala, nyala, zebra and even the big ole water buffalo that scared the guys earlier...he was still in the same spot.

Back at the lodge a wonderful breakfast spread was put out for us. We loved our server, Noks, she was so friendly and helpful and always has a smile on her face. Immediately after we ate, Richard took us out on a bush walk around Simbambili. We are not out to look for animals, but of course we have the chance of an encounter and of course he has his rifle with him. It is a little nerve racking knowing that a scary water buffalo could charge us but the more time we've spent with Richard the safer we feel! He identified so many different plant varieties, flowers, and birds as well as tracks in the sand of all the different animals, including lizards, snakes, mongoose and the list goes on. Richard is a walking encyclopedia, it's awesome! It was fun, but super hot! We got back to the lodge and took a nice cool dip in our plunge pool. It was only 10:30, the sun was blazing and we'd seen so much!
The afternoons were at our leisure, relaxing in our own lodge or in the main lodge. During our 1st free afternoon I stayed on the day bed, under the fan, writing the blog and reading and dozing off to the sounds of birds and monkeys. I know, I have such a rough life. Dave headed up to the main deck, overlooking the waterhole and immediately upon his arrival did he see 2 giraffes, zebras, then an elephant and a whole parade of animals getting a drink on the hot day. Needless to say, I was completely bummed that I was not there! He came back and I quickly got around to make my way back up to the main lodge since lunch was shortly anyway. No more sightings until our next game drive at 4:00. We just enjoyed the peacefulness on the deck of the main lodge and stayed out of the sun.

Dave and I assumed front row jeep seats on the afternoon game drive because we were the only guests! The other jeep mates had checked out so a few of the staff members who were off work joined us for the ride. We nearly got right outside the driveway and came upon two giraffe and zebra relaxing in a shady spot. I was so happy to have seen the giraffe now too! We found a mama warthog with babies, different antelope varieties and another harem of zebra. The male zebra is basically a pimp, lol. We pulled up to a very large waterhole where at least 10 hippos were submerged trying to keep cool. Across from the waterhole was a very large private lodge, very expensive to own! The wildlife around this lodge was amazing. Richard pointed out so many different birds, identifying them both by sight and sound. Two mature female elephants and 3 young approached the waterhole, it was an amazing sight. Next up, we were tracking lion! We drove quite a distance from the lodge but came upon a field with 3 female and 2 young males sleeping in the grass. There were 3 jeeps there and all of us taking turns going around the lions. Only one can start their engine at a time. They had not a care in the world that we were there, they were peacefully resting and were not going to let us bother them. It was really awesome to be so close! We stayed there for quite a while but they didn't budge, they were not that entertaining but hey at least we got to see them! There, cross the big 5 off our list and we were only 3 game drives into our 5.

Dinner was down on the riverbed that lies between the lodge and the waterhole. It was an absolute beautiful set up with lanterns, a fire pit and BBQ. Rangers Pierre and Richard joined the 8 of us guests for dinner and we dined on oxtail, lamb chops and chicken, creamed spinach, squash, pumpkin soup and Greek salad as well as some sort of bread pudding-vanilla-caramel-buttery delicious dessert. We sat under the stars and amazing sky before being escorted back to our lodge. We now know why we are escorted, the night porter held out the flashlight in front of us on the trail to a hyena scurrying up ahead, it was huge! Back safely in our lodge we passed out quickly - 4:45 was just around the corner and we were pooped. It was another exciting day!

Link to second days PICTURES

Big mean and ugly water buffalo!

Zebra and giraffes at the waterhole in front of Simbambili

Mama warthog and babies

Hungry hippos submerged in the water

Elephants at a waterhole

Female lion in the grass

Young male whose mane is starting to develop

The 5 resting lions in the field

Dinner set up on the riverbed

Sunday, December 23
What a better way to start our last day than with our very own private game drive with Richard and Celebrate! Other guests were expected in our jeep but apparently had missed their flight the night before. We set out tracking the female leopard and her cub. The guys could track the cub to only a certain point but couldn't find her exact location. They determined that Salayexe, the mama, left her alone to go in search of food. Then we set off tracking Salayexe. It is just amazing what these guys can do in terms of the search for the animals. They communicate with the other rangers from other lodges for updates in the area so with the help of one another they can accomplish amazing sightings! We found her after some major off road bush driving. She was crouched in a field watching a herd of impala. We were there with another jeep maneuvering around her as she moved in on the impala but the impala must have caught on because they quickly ran off. We spent time with her just waiting to see what she would do. The other jeep took off, but we were glad we stuck around. We couldn't quite tell what she was watching and tried to keep up with her slowly creeping in on the prey. Then we heard the screams and squealing.....she got something but didn't sound like an impala! Richard was ecstatic beyond belief, started up the jeep and pulled around to her up in a tree with a baby warthog. We parked right under her! Oh my god what mixed emotions I had watching this chain of life experience but it was quite amazing and we were really glad to have seen it. On the way back to the lodge Dave spotted a hyena so we turned around and got some great up close pics of her and a younger cub. They actually were quite cute and as Richard said, they've been given a bad reputation, they aren't so bad!
We came back to another wonderful breakfast and then a private bush walk. It was a great, relaxing day. We literally had the place to ourselves! A few more guests checked in, but still the place was certainly not at its 16 guest full capacity. No parade of animals went by the waterhole unfortunately but a group of waterbucks stayed under a tree near it for a majority of the morning and a family of warthogs came to cool off. We had a nice light lunch on the deck again as the day heated up, went back to our lodge to pack up and head back up to the lobby for our last game drive.

Salayexe - she is beautiful!

Watching Salayexe watch her prey

Salayexe caught a baby warthog!

It was a little scary being so close!

Hyena just relaxing in the grass

On the bush walk - Richard told us to wait while he checked for buffalo

The last game drive did not provide as many big game sightings but we did manage to see a very large group of baboons, 2 very up close water buffalo, wildebeest, a yawning hippo, a crocodile, a really cool chameleon, a bunch more zebra - OK so maybe we still did get to see a lot more! It was such a bummer to be our last drive, we just didn't want it to end. We enjoyed a very lovely dinner out on the main deck, just the 2 of us (the 4 Russians were at their own table and the other couples had private dinners in their lodges). It was a great chance to digress about the past three days and talk about how much we loved it at Simbambili. The last morning we could sleep in till 5:30 but unfortunately the baboon and bird activity outside out lodge didn't allow us! The baboons were very active in the riverbed behind our lodge, I was afraid one of the was going to tap on the door as I was showering (since the shower opened up to the deck outside). Checking it was sad, we really didn't want to leave. We had a 3 hour drive to Nelspruit for our 2 hour flight to Livingstone where were going to stay by one the the worlds natural wonders, Victoria Falls!

Link to last day's PICTURES

Baboons play behind our lodge

Baboons on the trail ahead of us

The Chameleon was trying to climb on top of Richards head

We didn't really set too many expectations about this trip, we knew we were going to Africa and it was going to be super cool but didn't really know what to expect. It was an absolute amazing experience out in the bush of Sabi Sands. We can both truly say that we've fallen in love with a new part of the world and I'm pretty confident we will find a way back in the future.

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Location:Sabi Sands, South Africa