We are planning on staying at 2 game lodges on this trip. Our first lodge is Idube in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, and our second is Kambaku in Timbavati. Both are in the general area of Kruger Park, and are said to have great game viewing. We have not stayed at either lodge before, so I was anxious to see what they were like. They are a more upscale than the usual lodges we chose – in fact we usually chose a tented camp if possible, but we had paid for Kambaku back in 2019 as we were expecting to stay there as an overland tour from Queen Mary 2 in 2020, and Idube had been recommended to Colin who loves the Sabi Sands area.

To say that it was raining when we set off for Idube game reserve is not an accurate description of the weather.

There was thunder and lightening all around us, and it was absolutely pouring with rain. However, Colyn was up for the challenge, and with great caution we headed out of Johannesburg, and drove towards the game reserve.

Luckily by the time we reached Middleburg, although already an hour behind schedule, the rain began to slow down, and by the time we reached Machado, it had subsided to a light drizzle. Yay!

We stopped at Milly’s in Machado for breakfast. The restaurant is on a large pond, which I can only guess is stocked with trout. There is trout everything on the menu. Trout pie, trout quiche, trout sandwiches, and my personal favorite, trout pancakes. Seeing as it was more like lunch time than breakfast time, and I don’t like trout, I opted for a toasted chicken sandwich, and left the trout out completely.

Back on the road again, we still had several hours to go before we reached Nelspruit, and then took the road to Newington Gate in order to get to Idube.

The road to Nelspruit was in great condition, far better than the highways back home. However, after Nelspruit things deteriorated rapidly, the car swallowing potholes started appearing. The situation was compounded by the fact that many of the potholes were filled with water, so estimating their depth when you are going at 40 mph is a real challenge.

Colyn was up for it, and despite a few potentially jaw fracturing episodes, he was able to steer the car well enough to avoid any major damage to the car or its passengers.

If we thought that road was bad, the next road we turned on to was even worse. An excessive amount of rain has done a good job filling the dams, but has played havoc with the minor dirt roads. Still the little car was doing a great job. The navigation directions were not doing a great job. They kept on directing Colyn on to roads he knew were the wrong road, however, it became clear that we didn’t know which was the right road. After negotiating many a seemingly impassable side road, and turning back on ourselves several times, we finally found the correct road, and eventually arrived at our destination.

Well almost. We were nearly at the gate to our lodge when we came to an impasse. A small red car had got stuck trying to traverse a donga. A tractor had failed miserably trying to pull it out, and although there were men frantically trying to dig it out, the car seemed to be permanently stuck there. We were also stuck there. There seemed to be nothing to do other than sit and wait.

Colyn was having none of this. Having made the perilous journey so far, and being seriously late for lunch, he decided to take our little car off roading. So we did a bit of bundu bashing, and successfully negotiated our way around the obstruction. We were soon on our way to our final destination.

It had taken us over 8 hours to get here, but we had arrived. There was time for a quick bite of lunch and to drop our bags in our rooms, take a few photos of the room,

and yay! We were off on our first game drive. The last time we were on a game drive was in 2017. Way, way to long ago. We were introduced to our ranger, Joaz, and our tracker David. I was thrilled that I could still climb into a safari vehicle without too much trouble, and in no time we were off!

Even if we hadn’t seen any game at all it simply would not have mattered. Here I was back in the game reserve, bumping along with the wind in my face, searching for what delights were ahead of us. Total bliss!

Now, we are not here at the best time of the year for game viewing. It has been a particularly good rainy season, and there is still a lot of standing water around playing havoc with the roads. The grass is high, all the better for the animals to hide in, and the bush is flourishing – the abundance of leaves everywhere, makes it almost impossible to see anything. So different to September 2017 where everything was completely dry, visibility was amazing, and the animals were searching for any source of water, so were easy to see at the dams and rivers.

I am happy for the animals, but know that Brian must be frustrated. He loves game photography, but a photo of an impala peeking out through the grass from behind a bush is not going to win him any points.

Because he was on the road we were lucky enough to see a large white rhino with some oxpeckers on his back, as well as a nyala and a water buck, but they weren’t that photogenic.

We then came across 2 male lions having a good afternoon nap on the road and obstructing traffic. We were very impressed with the size of their paws!

We went in search of elephants, but our road was blocked by a very angry rhino who started to charge us. We decided that this was not the best road to be on, and that the elephants  could wait for another day.

 As is traditional with a game drive, we stopped for sundowners; today by the Sand River where we watched an elephant on the other bank. I was one happy camper!

On our way back to the lodge for dinner we came across a lioness and her cubs in the middle of the road. A perfect end to our first game drive.

All too soon we were back at the lodge for dinner in the boma. The boma is an open round area with an open fire burning in the middle, and stars above.

We had a most enjoyable meal, and looking up at the bright stars above us I could see the southern cross. Yes, we are really in Africa.

It had been a totally wonderful day despite the rather difficult beginning. It’s good to be back in the bush.