South Africa
GASTRONOMIE
HERITAGE TOURS & SAFARI
COST half a day safari : 875 ZAR (56€)
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CONTACT : +27 (0) 35 590 1555
57 McKenzie Street, St Lucia
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WEBSITE : hluhluwegamereserve.com
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HLUHLUWE iMFOLOZI PARK
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CONSERVATION FEE : 210 ZAR (14€)
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CONTACT : +27 (0) 33 845 1999
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OPENING HOURS : 5am-7pm Nov-Feb
6am-6pm Mar-Oct
Popular for its different types of landscape, its accessible size and its huge variety of wild animals, Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park is a perfect alternative to Kruger National Park. Hluhluwe iMfolozi covers 96,000 hectares and you can easily spot (if you are lucky) most the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo). The park can be visited all year long, each season bringing its own magic.
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HALF A DAY BIG 5 SAFARI
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For our first safari in South Africa, we didn't really know how it worked so we decided to book a half a day safari tour with Heritage Tours & Safaris St Lucia. The tour cost 875 ZAR /p (55€) and the price includes the conservation fee and a breakfast. At 5am, a "Open Game Drive Safari Vehicule" comes to pick you up in your accomodation in St Lucia. There is one hour drive to the park and it's really really really cold the morning, so pick your clothes accordingly. During the safari, a ranger will be your personal guide and will give you informations about the animal species and their habits. The tour ends at 12am and the safari vehicule will bring you back to St Lucia.
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We had the chance to spot 3 of the Big 5 (rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo) and a cheetah. We saw many zebras, wildebeest, impalas, springbok and few giraffas, We were also lucky to spot a pack of hunting wild dogs, which is apparently pretty rare considering the excited behavior of the ranger !
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This half a day safari totally blew our mind. It was interesting to have a ranger as a guide and we learned many things about the wildlife of the park. The ranger is connected to all the other rangers of the park through whatsapp, so when someone spot an animal the information gets to everybody. That's how we knew about the location of the cheetah and the pack of wild dog. Therefor, by taking a organised tour you will increase your chance to spot wild animals and predators as lion, leapoard or cheetah. Nevertheless, it wont be as spectacular and magical than doing a self-drive safari. We recommand to start with a organised safari to learn about wild animal behaviour. And then to apply your fresh knowledges with a self-drive safari.
