Sanbona Wildlife Reserve - the best safari in South Africa near Cape Town?

I'd say for most people, certainly first-time visitors

, there are two things they really want to include in a South Africa holiday: Cape Town and safari. And why not Cape Town is one of my favourite cities in the world, with its amazing location, great restaurants, excellent V&A Waterfront development and all of the beauty of the Cape Peninsula right on your doorstep, whilst safari is a thrill I can never get enough of. No matter how many times I do it, or where I do it, or whether it's a whistles-and-bells luxury safari or a super-affordable self-drive safari, I love every second, anticipating the thrill of the next wildlife encounter.

So the obvious question becomes how to combine Cape Town with a bit of safari. Key safari destinations are the Eastern Cape, The Madikwe and the mighty Kruger. But these are all quite a journey from Cape Town: what if you don't have the time or inclination to head that far in search of your big game? Well, I may have the answer, provided in the form of a lovely surprise from my wife.

We were in South Africa last year on a brief holiday, choosing the wines for our wedding; so we were based in and around the Cape Region. Being a brief holiday I knew we didn't have the time for a bit of safari so I was delighted to find Rachel had sneakily booked us a night at Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, about 3 hours' drive from Cape Town.

I'll admit to being slightly sceptical at first. I'd always been a bit sniffy about the various game reserves close to Cape Town: it's not traditional "big game" country. That's not to say it hasn't been in the (distant) past, but being the first area settled by Europeans, all the indigenous big game was shot out many, many years ago. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The first thing that struck me was the size, and isolation of the reserve. I really like to feel like I've got a slice of wilderness to myself, and Sanbona delivered this in spades. It's 54,000 hectares in size. It's difficult to put this into perspective, but I'll try. It's over 200 square miles, which makes it about a third bigger than the Isle of Wight, and it only has three small lodges on it. So you've got a reserve bigger than the Isle of Wight, which you're probably sharing with fewer people than live on your street! If you like wilderness, you can't fail to be blown away as you drive across the reserve, seeing valleys and ridges unfold all the way to the horizon, all of them given over to conservation and reverting to their natural state.

Moving onto the game, it should be pointed out that Sanbona is billed as a wilderness experience as much as a game experience. It's not like a private reserve in the Kruger or somewhere similar, where high game densities and decent numbers of vehicles out on game drive mean you're going to almost be tripping over the Big Five. Sanbona makes you work a bit harder for your game: there's less of it about, and there are less people on the ground looking for it. Still, we saw more than enough game to keep me happy. It started with the Verreaux's Eagle that was soaring above the ridge outside our tented suite (more on the suite later!): a nice sighting. Out on game drive we spent a bit of time with a nice herd of eland. They are an amazing animal that doesn't really get enough attention on regular safaris. The largest antelope in South Africa, they can weigh up to 840kgs as much as a smallish black rhino, and they can vault a 2 metre fence from a standing start. They were venerated by the indigenous San people and feature heavily in their rock art, which dots the reserve.

We spent some time parked on the shores of a dam, watching a couple of hippos grunting, snorting and displaying those fearsome tusks of theirs before continuing on our way. Down in a river bed, thick with scrub we almost drove straight past some giraffe. Five metres high and orange, yet somehow they blend magnificently into the bush! Heading back to the lodge, our ranger pulled over in the fading light and pointed up a stony slope towards a small group of about five impala. I love impala, I think their skin colour is gorgeous and the proud horns of prime males are a wonderful sight; however they are just about the most common thing you see in the bush and I couldn't quite work out why we'd stopped to watch them in the gloaming. Then I saw it, a twitch of tawny fur, the top of an ear tuft: it was a cheetah, stalking the impala. What followed was fifteen minutes of exquisite torture as the cheetah inched closer and closer to the impala, displaying incredible patience, skill and camouflage. Eventually it had worked itself into a small clump of scrub about 5 metres from the closest impala. Excitement in the game drive vehicle rose to fever pitch all of us, ranger included, were certain we were about to witness a dramatic chase, and in all probability a kill (I've never seen one before). However, anyone who owns a cat will tell you they are perverse and occasionally frustrating creatures, and this cheetah was no exception: for some reason he decided not to pounce, but to slink off into the darkness. Who knows why, but the whole build-up was still hugely exciting and a real highlight of the trip.

The following morning whilst out on drive, we were lucky enough to find Sanbona's most mythical animals, the white lions. A recessive gene causes their fur to be much paler than normal lions and caused them to be regarded as divine by indigenous people. Prized by hunters, and very rare anyway, they survive through rebreeding projects such as that at Sanbona. Studies suggest they are just as effective at hunting as their normal cousins, contrary to received wisdom that suggests their colour makes it easier for prey to spot them. Anyhow, the ones we saw looked pretty healthy and we were able to follow them for quite a while as they bimbled along one of the paths.

So all in all we had some pretty good game viewing, especially as we were only there for about 24 hours! The one major animal that eluded us was the elephant. There is a herd on the reserve but despite covering a lot of their usual territory we didn't see them. I'm not entirely surprised by this: although I joked earlier about not being able to spot the giraffes, they are at least slightly camouflaged elephants are the biggest land animal and are a completely different colour to the surrounding bush. Adult elephants have no predators so they have no need to blend in. And yet I can recount numerous occasions where I've been in a stationary game drive vehicle less than 20 metres from an elephant and not spotted it. They can, when the mood takes them, but very quiet and move incredibly gracefully, like grey ghosts. Clearly they were in this sort of mood whilst we were at Sanbona!

As promised, now a little about our tented suite. I loved it all the thrill of being under canvass but with great comfort and luxury as well. Nestled at the base of a cliff home to, as we've seen, Verreaux's Eagles as well as some baboons, and with a dry river bed running under the raised deck (and plunge pool!), it really felt like we were deep in the African bush. Not so deep that the chef wasn't able to rustle up a truly superb evening meal though.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Sanbona, and now when I'm asked if it's possible to combine Cape Town with a convenient safari destination, I know exactly what the answer is: Sanbona!

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve - the best safari in South Africa near Cape Town?

By: damien read

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