Sunday 14th December 2025
Today we head to Shamwari Game Reserve for our first Safari. We are booked in for 3- nights so hopefully we will get to see the “big five” plus many more, but first the drive to get there. Up ‘till now we have been disappointed with what we’ve seen, especially when in the Cape Reserve Park!!!
We checked out after breakfast at a reasonable time and elected to head along the coastal road as it looked like it was going to be a “hot-un”, not a cloud in the sky. Once clear of Knysna the road opened up and the speed limit went first to 80KPH then to 100KPH and after a few miles the surface changed, and the road got wider and the speed limit went up to 120KPH, wow!!! We soon realised why, it was a toll road and soon came up to a toll booth in the middle of nowhere!! Card to the ready, we stopped to pay the R70 fee only to be told to just drive through, no charge; pardon?? We didn’t get an answer just told “drive on”; ok, and we did!!
This N2 seemed to go on forever with zero service stations, good job I filled up before we left, Incidentally petrol costs 92-pence a litre here😂😂😂. The miles rolled by at a steady 120KPH and we got to the stage we needed a coffee/tea and comfort break, also our fuel gauge was slowly going down so decided at the next turn off that points to a town, we’d stop.
Eventually we came across a signpost Pointing to “somewhere” so came off the N2 and after a couple of miles came into “Somewhere” and the first thing we came across was a bid service station so filled up with fuel. All the places we have filled up have had two guys dropping onto the car; one does the fuel and the second clean “all” the car windows!!! Naturally they expect a tip and we have been advised R10 each should do the trick, and it does, they seem very grateful, it is the Equivalent to 44-pence each!!! Car filled, now our turn to get a drink and a snack. There was a restaurant, but we chose the “food take-out” counter and for minute, thought we had stumbled onto a “Greggs”. There was a counter piled with sausage rolls, meat pies, muffins and doughnuts, “a la Greggs” style, though we had to press the button on their coffee machine!!!! Snacks and drinks paid for headed to some outside tables to eat. Firstly I have to say the sausage roll was nowhere near as good as Greggs one, but it did the job before we headed back to the N2.
The N2 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Cape Town through to Ermelo, north of Durban. It is the main highway along the Indian Ocean coast of the country and Its current length of 2,255 km (1400-miles) makes it the longest numbered route in South Africa. From our point of view it just kept going through very lush vegetation following the coast.
Eventually we arrived at the outskirts of Port Elizabeth, nearly there we thought but no, we had another 40 km or so to go, still on the N2. After what seemed like an eternity we WAZE told us to turn off onto an “R” road, which we did, though we were back on a dirt road for circa 10 km; perhaps the “R” stands for Rubbish!!! Anyway after creating a 10 km dust cloud we turned into the “Shamwari Game Reserve” and reported to reception. Here we “cleared” formalities, parked the car for the duration of our stay and after emptying the car of everything we needed, we were whisked in a rugged 4×4 the 5/6 kms to the “Long Lee Manor” lodge (https://www.shamwari.com/) As we drove up to the big gate we noticed all the electric fencing around the place, now we realised why we left our car, we drove through the animal area!!!
As we walked in they were waiting for us, cold drink and hot towel handed to us, and who they call “the Butler” had our key and started to tell us about the place as he walked us to our lodge, a bespoke building set amongst the trees. When one comes here it is all inclusive and we were told lunch was still available; we declined as we’d had our usual big breakfast and a not-so-nice sausage roll!!! We were also informed that our first Safari will be this afternoon and we muster in the poolside bar at 1600hrs. They do two Safaris a day, a 0500hrs and 1600hrs starts but the rest of the day is up to us to enjoy and relax.
Our room is quite magnificent, overlooking a well kept area of lawn and overlooking the game reserve. Our walk-in Bathroom is huge and then off that, is the walk-in shower with a door into an outside shower!!!, and another door into the “privy”. Our Butler informed us that monkeys are about and they have developed a method to open sliding doors and turn door handles, so please keep everything locked!!!
As requested, we “mustered” and met our “Ranger”, a chap called “Able”, though pronounced as “Ahhhbull!!!! Anyway he is our Ranger for the duration of our time here and the “go-to” person if we need help.
After a brief “getting-to-know-you” chat, we headed off to our Ranger vehicle but fortunately for us, the lodges aren’t full so we will have Able all to ourselves😄.
We set off into the game reserve, an area of circa 25,000 hectares approx 97 sq miles looking for the big five; (lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, buffaloes). To our surprise the “big five” refer to the five beasts that can and will, if provoked, kill a human, not their physical size!!! Anyway Abel explained that he has no control of what animals he can find as they are wild, no interference from humans, they behave just as nature intended. Our hearts sank, bearing in mind our experience back at the nature reserve at the cape.
After our 3-hour drive around the reserve, we can announce we actually saw 4 out of the five; we saw a lion, an elephant, a rhino and a buffalo, wonderful. Naturally we also saw an assortment of others such as zebra, giraffes, wort hogs, spring bocks etc to name a few. Well what in introduction to the game reserve, and we have another 4-safaris planned over the next two days, who knows what we may see.
Back to the lodges and then in for dinner, a 5* restaurant with staff tripping over themselves to please, and the food and wine were excellent.
Back to our cabin and bed, our early morning call is at 0500hrs ready to leave at 0530hrs; what have we let ourselves in for???