Africa Day 1: Zulu Nyala - Morning Game Drive

We'll quickly bypass the 25 hours of flight time and one night at the Safari Club hotel near the airport in Johannesburg and tag our first full day after arriving at Zulu Nyala Game Reserve as the official Day 1 of the vacation. We did meet up with Jim and Jennie for dinner on Day 0 and learned about their adventures in Cape Town as we prepared for the start of our safari activities the next day.

At 6:15am on Day 1, we met up with our guide, the half-white, half-Zulu, all-amazing William. Little did we know at the time how important it was that we got William as our guide. Not only was he personable and kept the mood entertaining, he was also incredibly knowledgeable and also the head ranger which as you'll learn has its perks. At the end of our stay at Zulu Nyala when we compared our experiences with other guests at the game reserve, we realized just how much our experience was impacted by having William as our guide for the week.

Our first game drive began with us first praising our decision to bring layers, knit caps, and gloves as the mornings were quite chilly in our open game vehicle. William told us that we would start big and go smaller later in the week, meaning that we would chase down the bigger, cooler animals first to try to ensure sightings and then our drives would become more leisurely. Zulu Nyala is small, by comparison, to some other game reserves and tiny compared to the national parks like Kruger and Hluhluwe, but although that means fewer animals, it also makes them a bit easier to find. Our first encounter was with a male cheetah, barely before the sun rose into view. William told us that the cat looked hungry, so we kept our distance and followed patiently. Then a small nyala wandered into the cat's view. As William tried to get us ahead of the hunt, we saw the cheetah take off after the antelope up the hillside. By the time we found the cheetah again, we realized his chase had been fruitless as he found a spot in the rising sun and waited for another clueless morsel. William positioned us for some great photos.

We then got word of a rhino sighting so we headed off. Before we covered too much ground, we came across a herd of skittish zebras that took off running upon our arrival. When we found them in a clearing, we noticed that a female (with colt) had a severely broken leg. Several of the zebras came to the front of the group, almost seeming to be protecting the injured female.

After a bit of driving around, we came upon the rhino and a small calf. The young one almost seemed to show off for us, bounding toward our vehicle and then retreating in the same carefree manner. Here's where our morning got interesting. Although we were able to see the rhinos from the path on which we drove, they made a turn and heading further into the bush. Not one to be deterred by some rugged terrain, William pointed the Land Cruiser off our somewhat well-worn path and into the high grass and brush. As he caught up to the rhino pair and tried to position us close for some good views, our whole vehicle lurched forward and then violently down, throwing us around and providing some bumps and bruises to knees, heads, and necks. We had found a warthog hole. As we regained our composure, we heard William ask if everyone was alright and then not wait for an answer as he shushed us. Apparently the mother rhino had not appreciated the ruckus and now stood about 20-30 ft from us, snorting angrily. Luckily, she quickly lost interest and let her baby lead her away (quick educational note: White rhinos will follow their young as they walk, whereas black rhinos lead their children).

After a few more sightings of other animals, including our first of many giraffe and hippo encounters and a sighting of the female and young male cheetah, we made it back to the lodge and finally got our breakfast. Oddly, they schedule the morning game drives before breakfast, so we found ourselves hoarding muffins as a pre-drive snack in the mornings.