SOUTH AFRICA: Family Safari With Wild Wildebeest Safaris

[Hefty Jefe]

2024 South African Family Safari

Outfitter: Wild Wildebeest Safaris, Tony DeBruyn
PH: Dawie Jacobs
Tracker: Rasta

Last year, my wife and I decided to take our family on an African safari. I generally travel alone for hunting, so this would be my first time taking my wife and daughter. My wife is not a hunter and my 15 year old daughter thankfully humors me by doing some occasional local hunting with me. She has been lucky enough to harvest 5 deer on one day deer hunts. She has also done a 3-day New Mexico Pronghorn hunt with me that she still describes as “very long.” Given these unique circumstances, I knew that I had to put together a safari that ensured everyone had experiences that they found fun and exciting.

Since I believe the best references are ones given by trusted colleagues, I contacted several friends that are regulars to the Dark Continent. From these, I spoke with several outstanding outfitters who I am sure would have all done a great job. I finally settled on Wild Wildebeest Safaris (WWS) with outfitter Tony DeBruyn. I was able to speak to Tony at length during a local get together hosted by a friend before the SCI show. He had excellent answers to all my questions and understood that I wanted to combine hunting and non-hunting activities to maximize our family experience.

Although sleeping in a wall tent in Alaska sounds perfectly reasonable to me, my wife believes a Holiday Inn is roughing it. In addition to their home camp, WWS has several different ranches they use for different hunts around South Africa. Tony sent me pictures of several camps and my wife and I agreed the camp in Limpopo would be an excellent choice for both hunting accommodations and proximity to other activities we wanted to do.

Days 1-2

We flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg on Delta mainly because it had the fewest connections from our home airport. My family has done several European and Central American flights previously, but 16 hours is a long flight for anyone no matter how you do it. We upgraded to Comfort+ and the extra room certainly helped my long legs. I am not sure it helped my 5’3” wife and daughter but it gave them more room for their stuff. After we landed and got through passport control, we were met by Dawie our gregarious PH who walked us to City Lodge. After we checked in, we went down to the restaurant, got a great dinner, and went back to the room to sleep.

Day 3

The next morning, we loaded up our luggage and set out for the lodge. The three hour drive to the Limpopo region was easy, pleasant and supported with healthy doses of biltong and Fanta. During the trip we discussed what types of hunting experiences and non-hunting experiences we hoped to have over the next week. Dawie our PH paid close attention and helped us put together a great gameplan. I told him our top animals were a kudu and sable for me and a zebra and wildebeest for my daughter. Additional animals were gametime decisions. I told him that I wanted to spot and stalk as much as feasible and possibly use blinds if needed for specific critters. As we were finishing up the conversation, my lovely daughter told Dawie that getting a zebra was the most important part of our safari and is the main reason she was there. I think he got the hint. When we arrived, the lodge was beautiful with a large central building and smaller buildings for each family. We were the only people in camp at that time. We got our luggage to our rooms, unpacked and went to the lodge for a delicious lunch.

After lunch, we went to the range to shoot the rifle. Because we were going to be traveling to a national park after hunting, I decided to not bring my own rifles and just rent one there. We shot our PH’s rifle which was a suppressed 30-06. When he pulled it out of the case, I initially thought it was a Winchester Model 70. However, upon further inspection it was a Musgrave which is a South African firearm company. The ammo were handloaded 165 g Hornady SST. Both my daughter and I shot groups less than an inch apart at 100 yards. We both agreed that his camo tape used to hide the shine of barrel did not do justice to such a spectacular gun. After shooting it for a week, I wish we could easily get Musgrave rifles in the USA.

After we shot the rifle from the bench, we practice a couple shots off Viper Flex Sticks. My daughter and I had practiced off a Bog-Pod tripod for the last month so this new-fangled contraption looked like a disaster waiting to happen. We were very wrong. If you haven’t shot from these before, you owe it to yourself to try them. The stability that they produce is amazing.

After our shooting practice, we decided to drive around the ranch to “see what we could find.” From my understanding, the ranch is traditional bushveld with dense thorny brush and some open high grass areas. That first night, we found three Giraffe, several kinds of Wildebeest, and a group of impala. We got out of the truck to look at the impalas more closely. There were several young rams and one larger one. Dawie sized him up and said the ram was a great one and that I should take it. About that time, the impalas decided to exit stage left. We headed off hiking after them and 20 minutes later we caught back up to them. Viper Sticks went down, the gun went up with the ram quartering to me at 70 yards. I placed the crosshairs halfway up the body on the front of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger the second he gave me the go ahead. I heard the sound of the impact and the ram ran to the left. We walked in his direction and found the blood trail. He laid about 30 yards ahead. The tracker, my wife and daughter arrived several minutes later in the Land Cruiser. If you know the relationship I have with my daughter, we constantly tease each other. When she walked up and saw the exit would at the bottom of the ribs she told me I shot too far back. Dawie rolled the over the impala and showed her an entry wound on the front of the shoulder and told her it was perfect. It was fun having someone else make my daughter eat crow. I have to complement our PH and tracker on the effort they put into great pictures throughout the trip. I admit that my understanding of iPhone pictures was point and shoot. Our PH, showed me that iPhone photos can be modified in all sorts of ways to enhance photo quality.

On the way home, we saw a large blue wildebeest bull. We hopped off the Land Cruiser and set off on the stalk. My wife came with us because she wanted to capture this moment on camera. We caught the wildebeest walking into a water hole. We got my daughter set up on the sticks but a tree was between her and the wildebeest. My wife decided she didn’t have a good angle to capture the moment on her camera decided to walk to our right, fully alerting the Wildebeest of our presence. He stood behind the tree for about 5 minutes before bolting away. Good learning lesson for all of us. That evening we returned to the lodge and ate an incredible dinner. We were introduced to Malva Pudding for dessert which we all thought was incredible.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 4

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed out to hunt about an hour after sunrise. My daughter again reminded Dawie that finding a Zebra was her top priority. He reassured her that it was a priority for him as well. Right out of camp, we found a herd of Sable with one old bull. Dawie said he was a great one to take. We were off on the stalk. The Sable knew our intent and the large bull slid behind a tree and disappeared. We followed for about 15 minutes until his tracks entered the thick brush. Walking back to the Land Cruiser, Dawie spotted a kudu bull not 50 yards from us. While he was an immature bull, I still got to watch him stealthily move through the brush. Even when I could see his horns, I was amazed at how easily his body blended into the landscape. The title of the gray ghost is indeed well earned.

We drove around for a while before we saw a group of zebras. They were skittish, running at first sight of the vehicle. We eventually saw a black impala ram that looked fantastic. My daughter told me that she would like to shoot one of those and I agreed to it. Off we went a 2 hour hike where we would see the impala and just when we would set up they were off again. Finally, we made our way back to one of the roads and found a herd of wildebeest. Dawie said the golden wildebeest on the right was an old bull. My daughter said she was interest so we went ahead and set her up to shoot. The wind was perfect and the wildebeest did not know we were there. The golden wildebeest was standing quartering to her at 100 yards. She set up on the viper sticks, found him, and squeezed the trigger. He immediately fell to the ground. We hurried over and my daughter put in one more shot for insurance and it was done. She had harvested her first animal in Africa, an incredible golden wildebeest bull. She was beaming with excitement and pride. These are moments I live for as a parent.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

After loading up the wildebeest, we headed back to the lodge for an excellent lunch. We decided to catch a quick nap and headed back out around 3 pm. Dawie had talked to one of the ranch employees and he said the sable liked to come in and water in the early evenings. We exited the truck about one half mile from a watering hole and began our stalk. When we got to about 300 yards, we sat and waited. About an hour later the sable started to walk in. We identified a good mature bull with great horns. We snuck in to about 200 yards. The shooting sticks went up, I found him in the scope. Another quartering to shot, the shot felt great and we heard bullet impact. The bull immediately ran into the thickest brush on the ranch. We walked to where the bull had been standing. Steady blood was leading into the brush. We found him about 10 minutes later about 75 yards into the deep brush. I had no idea how we were going to get him out because the brush was so thick. Little did I know how versatile a winch and rope extension from the Land Cruiser was. Twenty minutes later my trophy was pulled out of the bush. I had never seen a sable up close prior to this point. He was an amazing animal and the mass of his bases was incredible. I am very thankful for this experience that I got to share with my wife and daughter. It was getting dark when we finished pictures, so we headed back to the lodge. That night we had a wonderful dinner of fat wrapped lamb meatballs and the most amazing candied carrots. I was also introduced to Castle Light beer which was excellent.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 5

The next morning, we met extra early for breakfast because Davie wanted to go to a nearby property that had excellent kudu and blue wildebeest. We ate quickly and jumped in the Land Cruiser and drove about 15 minutes to the other property. This one was topographically different with a mountain on one side of the property as well as several deep ravines. We found several groups of blue wildebeests but were not able to get a shot. We decided to drive the road near the base of the “mountains.” As we rounded a corner, we saw two large kudu bulls that Davie immediately said were shooters. Unfortunately, they saw us at the same time and ran into the thick cover. Davie and I jumped out of the Land Cruiser and headed after them. The brush was exceptionally thick on this mountain. We followed the tracks for about a mile down the trail. As someone who has packed heavy critters out of deep valleys, I was abundantly aware that if we got this kudu it was going to be a tough extrication. Then Dawie saw him in the thick brush. Actually, he saw his legs and front shoulder. He was standing perfectly still about 40 yards from us. I got down on the ground for a seated shot and found his left shoulder. Dawie said to hold off until he could look over the horns. It felt like it took forever, but It was probably 5 minutes before he moved enough to see the horns. Davie gave me the go ahead. I put the crosshairs on the point of his shoulder and squeezed. He immediately exploded into a run. The shot felt good so I was hopeful. About 5 minutes later we found him already dead. The bull was incredible, better than I was hoping. Now to the hard part, how do we get him out? Dawie told me stay with the kudu and he would go get my wife, daughter, and our tracker Rasta. When my wife arrived, she was stunned by how beautiful the kudu bull was. She kept saying, “are you kidding me.” I think she thought it was going to be the size of an impala. We knew there was no way we could take the kudu out whole, so we separated him into front and back halves and pulled him out using a large tarp and all three of our belts. By saying we, I am using the royal form of the term. I really mean that I helped guide the kudu while Dawie and Rasta pulled. A couple hours later, both halves of the kudu bull were in the truck.

 

[Pablo]

Great report, keep it going!

 

[Hefty Jefe]

We dropped Rasta and the kudu bull off at the skinning shed and we went off to find something else. After about an hour, we decided to eat lunch at the edge of a small lake. After lunch, we decided we were going to find my daughter a zebra or possibly a blue wildebeest. After driving for about an hour, we found three blue wildebeest bulls sleeping in an open area. Dawie, my daughter and I snuck up on them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a shot before the wind swirled and they started running. We decided to drive in the direction that they ran. About one half mile later we caught up with them standing near the road. My daughter, Dawie and I jumped out. Dawie put up the sticks and I put the rifle on them. My daughter aimed at the wildebeest about 50 yards away and pulled the trigger. Click. My heart sank. Her “seasoned” hunting father had forgotten to chamber a round. Amateur move. She cycled the action but this startled the wildebeest and he took off. We gave chase and caught up to him about 500 yards later. Unfortunately, the shot was about 150 yards this time. We set my daughter up on the sticks, she breathed deep and pulled the trigger. We heard a good impact sound and wildebeest ran off. Dawie thought the shot was a little bit low. This starts the best hunting story of our safari. When we got to the site of the shot, there was very little blood. Dawie and Rasta started tracking, and tracking they did. She shot the wildebeest around 3 pm. Unfortunately, the blood ran out about 300 yards into the tracking. From there, these two guys followed the tracks knowing that he was dragging one of his hooves. My wife and daughter followed as we tracked. After a certain point, I figured they were going to say we have made a good faith effort but could not recover the animal. I was wrong. They ended up tracking this blue wildebeest all afternoon. I also thought my wife and daughter would get frustrated and tired of this tracking, but I was wrong on this as well. Somehow, they thought it was a great adventure tracking an animal through the “everything has thorns region” of the Limpopo province. Just before nightfall, Dawie and Rasta found the bull bedded down in a trail. We put one final shot in him and finished the job. Upon inspection, the initial shot was low in the brisket. According to my watch, we walked 5 miles tracking him. His recovery was a testament to the incredible skill of Dawie and his tracker. After we got him loaded up, we picked up the kudu and headed back to the lodge. On the ride home, my daughter again reminded Dawie, that getting a zebra was a high priority for her. Having to answer to my wife for the importance of the zebra made it a high priority for me as well. Dawie said we would change our approach tomorrow.

For dinner, our chef made an incredible South African stew with the golden wildebeest meat along with a chocolate mouse dessert. The highlight of the evening was the post kudu drink. Those who know me will tell you that I do not drink much alcohol. I will have an occasional beer, but I have never found a liquor I truly liked. That night I was introduced to South African brandy. Olaf Bergh and Klipdrift Premium have officially changed my mind on liquor.

 

[Pablo]

The trackers are amazing. And so is that brandy. The brandy & Coke is a good drink.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 6

The next morning, we had an early breakfast and Dawie told us we were going to sit in a blind today because the zebra come in for water and that should give us a high chance of success. This sounded like a great plan given the hiking workout we had done the day before. My wife stayed behind because she wanted to rest and the chef had agreed to teach her how to make candied carrots, butternut squash, and chocolate mousse.

We got in the blind and saw an assortment of animals …sable, gemsbuck, and tons of warthogs. Dawie kept asking me if we wanted to shoot a warthog and my daughter and I kept turning them down. The warthog bug hasn’t bit either of us yet. Maybe it will on one of the next trips. Unfortunately, the zebra did not show up in the morning and after 5 hours of exhausting phone games, my daughter was hungry. The chef had made hamburgers which Rasta brought to the blind for us to eat. This was a far cry from my usual cliff bar when I am in a blind in the states.

After lunch, we all grabbed an unplanned siesta in the blind. In one of my moments of lucidity, I saw something moving in from the right side to the water hole in front of us. It was a Nyala which was an animal I told Dawie I was interested in if a great one showed up. He quickly looked at it and told me this was a great old bull. A few second later, the Nyala bull was down. A beautiful specimen with ivory tips. I couldn’t be happier with him.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Rasta picked up the Nyala and we jumped back into the blind for the rest of the afternoon. We saw even more warthogs with two big boars that kept coming in. Eventually, my daughter told me to just shoot one so Dawie would quit telling us how good they were. I laughed and told her maybe next trip. With our hope running out, we heard them. I never imaged a zebra would sound like a yipping dog, but they do. With literal minutes of shooting light left, we saw them looking out from the brush about 50 yards away, and then it happened…the wind switched. All day we had a steady wind in our face and right as the zebra walked in it shifted 180 degrees right towards them. They sprinted into the brush. No zebra tonight. To say my daughter was bummed was an understatement. We headed back to the lodge for dinner and Dawie told us he had a crazy idea for the next day to get my daughter the zebra she wanted. We again had a great dinner. Steaks, butternut squash and peppermint tart for dessert. And of course, a great brandy drink. I am going to gain weight here.

 

[HuntingFreak]

Day 6

The next morning, we had an early breakfast and Dawie told us we were going to sit in a blind today because the zebra come in for water and that should give us a high chance of success. This sounded like a great plan given the hiking workout we had done the day before. My wife stayed behind because she wanted to rest and the chef had agreed to teach her how to make candied carrots, butternut squash, and chocolate mousse.

We got in the blind and saw an assortment of animals …sable, gemsbuck, and tons of warthogs. Dawie kept asking me if we wanted to shoot a warthog and my daughter and I kept turning them down. The warthog bug hasn’t bit either of us yet. Maybe it will on one of the next trips. Unfortunately, the zebra did not show up in the morning and after 5 hours of exhausting phone games, my daughter was hungry. The chef had made hamburgers which Rasta brought to the blind for us to eat. This was a far cry from my usual cliff bar when I am in a blind in the states.

After lunch, we all grabbed an unplanned siesta in the blind. In one of my moments of lucidity, I saw something moving in from the right side to the water hole in front of us. It was a Nyala which was an animal I told Dawie I was interested in if a great one showed up. He quickly looked at it and told me this was a great old bull. A few second later, the Nyala bull was down. A beautiful specimen with ivory tips. I couldn’t be happier with him.

View attachment 624477

Fantastic bull!

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 7

The next morning both my wife and daughter said they wanted to sleep in. I had breakfast with Dawie and we decided to go to the adjacent property. After a short drive, we entered the property that Dawie said had great populations of blesbok and implala. We drove a short distance and found a small herd of blesbok about 500 yards away. We jumped out of the vehicle and started our stalk. This property had significantly more “development” with large areas of cleared grasslands having removed the thousand varieties of thorns this region has to offer. We glassed the herd for a while and I quickly recognized I had no idea what I was doing field judging a blesbok. Then Dawie found what he said was a great ram in the back of the herd. We made our stalk single file trying to keep the lone tree in the field between us and the ram. At 200 yards, the sticks and rifle went up. I found the ram, put the crosshairs midway up the body and started to squeeze. It was at that time that my monkey brain decided to “shoot now” resulting in me slapping the trigger and pulling the muzzle slightly down at the shot. I heard the impact. I knew from my sight picture and the different impact sound that I hadn’t made a good shot. The blesbok took off at full speed looking no worse for the wear. When we got to the site where I shot him we found reasonable blood and we tracked this for the next hour. The next shot was 300 yards, already rattled, I completely missed. Fortunately, he gave me a third chance and I connected at 200 yards with a good shot. Talk about a large dose of humble pie to start the morning. But I was thankful for both the beautiful animal and that I was able to finish the task.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

We then decided to head back to the main camp to see if my wife and daughter were ready to go find a zebra. On the ride home, Dawie told me the zebra were incredibly skittish of vehicles for some reason. He knew how important the zebra was to my daughter so he put together an out of the box plan. His idea was that we should get a tractor and ride in the trailer to try and go search for them. He thought since they see tractors every day, they were less likely to run from them. I thought this sounds like a crazy rodeo…my favorite kind of adventure. When we got home, my wife and daughter were eating breakfast. Dawie explained the plan to them and they were game for it. We hopped in the back of the tractor trailer and started our adventure. Luckily the weather was beautiful because over the next 2 hours we got COVERED in South African dirt. But then we saw them just off of the road walking. We didn’t have any shot opportunities where we were, but they were not running from us using our tractor ruse. Dawie said he knew where they were going, and we were going to set up an ambush. The tractor drove us about a half mile ahead and dropped us off. The wind was perfect from right to left. We sat for about 15 minutes and then we heard the yipping dogs working their way towards us from the right. Finally, an old mare stepped out onto the road about 125 yards ahead of us. Dawie already had my daughter on the sticks the safety off when he told her “shoot her at the top of the triangle.” The gun went off, I saw a great shoulder impact, then she kicked and ran to the left. About that time, 10 more zebra erupted from our right and followed the old mare into the brush. Finally, the thing my daughter has been telling me about for the past 6 months has just happened. Then we get to the impact site…no blood. Dawie says not to worry, he saw a good impact and we will track her though the thornbushes. We start following hoofprints. I can’t make anything of it because there are hoofprints everywhere. Like the pro he is, Dawie figures out which ones belong to the mare and starts tracking. Ten minutes later we find our first blood. About 5 minutes later we start finding lots of blood. Walking with my daughter, we hear Dawie yell “I found your striped donkey.” My daughter starts running with me following behind until we see the zebra she wanted so badly. She was jumping up and down hugging everyone including the tractor driver we barely knew. Seeing her excitement at that moment was one of the greatest moments of joy in my life. This was the reason we came to Africa!

 

[Hefty Jefe]

After an extensive set of photos were taken, we headed back to the lodge. One last ride in the tractor trailer. We had to take showers to get all the dirt off before we sat down for lunch. With the amount of emotional energy the zebra took, I honestly thought we were done hunting. While we were eating my daughter said to me, I want to shoot a black impala if I can. I looked at Dawie and he said no problem. After lunch, my daughter and I loaded up in the Land Cruiser and we headed to the property I had shot the blesbok earlier in the morning. When we drove in the gate, the place looked like a blesbok and impala Shangri-La with more animals in the first field than I could count. She commented how cool the white blesbok was but I told her lets go find your black impala. After a short drive we found a herd of black impala with a great ram. We got out of the Land Cruiser and snuck around a couple trees to find the ram standing unaware of our presence about 50 yards ahead. My daughter got on the sticks and fired right away. The ram dropped in place, not even a step. The black impala is such a beautiful creature. My daughter told me she couldn’t wait to put it in her room.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

After some pictures, I thought we were going to drive back to the lodge when my daughter said…how about a white blesbok to match my black impala. A reasonable parent would have probably said we have had a great day, let's just enjoy the animals we have. But I am not that parent. I said, you are so right, let’s go find a white blesbok. Dawie laughed at how easily I was manipulated. So we were off again in search of the white blesbok we initially saw when we entered the property. By that time, he had moved on from the large field we initially saw him in. After looking for about an hour, we found him about 500 yards away with a bunch of other blesbok. I thought, there is no way this stalk is going to work with this many eyes. But it worked much better than anticipated. We got to about 150 yard and my daughter got on the stick and pulled the trigger. No impact sound, a clean miss. Looks like she inherited lousy shooting of blesboks from her father. The white blesbok ram ran through a thicket and Dawie said he knew where he would come out, so we jumped back in the vehicle and drove to another field. With the sun starting to set, we started hiking into this field and out stepped the white blesbok at about 70 yards. With a quartering to shot, she got on the sticks and fired. Another ram dropped in its tracks. We congratulate her on such great shooting and head over to get some pictures. As we loaded up the blesbok, she said “Dad, that was a lot of fun today.” My second favorite moment of the trip so far.

That evening we enjoy a meal of South African Boerewors sausage, fire grilled chicken, candied carrots and more chocolate mousse. We of course finished it off with a few South African brandy drinks and headed to bed feeling incredible blessed and thankful.

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Awesome animals you and your daughter have taken. Great to read of your family safari and thanks for sharing your adventure

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 8

The next morning we packed the Land Cruiser trailer and headed off towards Pilanesberg National Park. We elected to have our PH come with us to the national park which was a great choice. If nothing else, having a skilled driver took away much of the stress of traveling. After driving several hours, we saw the high double reinforced game fence around the park. I was struck by the irony of a game fence needing to be erected around a “truly wild” place. I suspect it was more to keep poachers out than to contain the animals. The park is the site of a previous large volcano that has left a caldera with a perimeter of mountains in an onion pattern around it. The land was previously privately held but was “acquired” to make a national park. The park was then populated with animals from other parks/regions. In addition to the fence, I was struck by the sheer number of people that live near the park. I don’t know what I was expecting since high volume ecotourism clearly requires a large footprint of employees and their associated families, but I wasn’t expecting it so close to the park. We drove into the park, paid the park entrance fee and pulled into Bakubung Bush Lodge which is located within the park. The lodge was beautiful with outstanding vistas and an excellent restaurant and bar. The normal customers of the lodge are people or families on photo safaris. The lodge has two game drives per day and we did one the evening of arrival. Seeing elephants and rhinoceros up close was amazing. It is hard to imagine the sheer size of a bull elephant until you get reasonably close to one. Honestly speaking, the drive itself was a dud. A safari vehicle full of people crawling over one another to get a better position for a photo. One of my favorite parts of hunting is the isolation and wildness of a place. The national park experience didn’t provide that. Honestly, besides the elephants and rhinoceros, we saw much more game at our hunting camp than we did in the park. If I was to do it again, I would skip the lodge game drive and just have our PH drive us through the park. He had an incredible knowledge of the flora and fauna of South Africa and he had much better game sense and ability to find interesting animals that the park game scout giving our tour.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 9

My wife has always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride so we decided to do a Pilanesberg park tour by hot air balloon. This is something that has to be booked in advance due to high demand. Luckily, I didn’t screw that part up. The hot air balloon took off right at sunrise which meant that we left the lodge about an hour beforehand. They warned us that it was going to be cold as the balloon was blown up and they were right. Luckily once you get in the basket it gets warm fast due to the hot air generation. Overall, it was a great two-hour flight. We saw some plains game and hippos on the flight, but the best part was watching the beautiful sunrise ascend over the mountains in the crisp air.

After the hot air balloon, we took a nap, got lunch, worked out in the gym, and photographed two bull elephants that came up close to the park fence near the resort. In the afternoon, we decided to go to Sun City which is large resort next to the park. Sun City has a water park (open in the summer), casino, golf courses, large food court and some modest shopping. We ended up visiting the shops to buy some gifts and eating at a restaurant before heading home.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 10

The next morning, we decided to go to the Bakubung spa to get a couples massages. This was a good experience. After lunch, we went back to Sun City for a Zip Line experience. We wanted to do this the previous day, but I didn’t make reservations in time. This is a single line zipline that is 1.25 miles long and reaches speeds near 100 mph. Per their report, this is the longest zip line in the world. There was a great deal of emphasis on safety. We all had a great time and I would highly recommend this experience kids or no kids. This produced some of the best pictures of our safari.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 11

Our final day was the busiest one of our safari. After loading up the Land Cruiser again and checking out, we headed off on our adventures. Our PH Dawie had set up a bunch of great experiences for us on this last day. Our first stop was at the Ukutula Lion Lodge for an 8 AM tour. This is a large cat sanctuary and lion genetics research facility. We were able to walk with three male lions, pet two lion cubs, and pet an adult cheetah. The facility also has leopards, but per report of the tour guide, leopards are cranky and untrainable. Overall, this was a tremendous experience that my wife and daughter loved.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

After this we drove to a large Curios (AKA junk) Market near Hartbeespoort Dam. If you like buying trinkets this is your place. We ended up buying a bunch of items for friends and family here. Be forewarned that nothing has prices marked and negotiating is a must. My daughter learned a valuable life lesson that walking away from the best offer frequently results in an even better offer.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you buy a skin, skull, or horn from any vendor, you will need a taxidermist certification that it is approved for export.

The final experience of the day was a stop at the “Elephant Sanctuary” near Hartbeespoort Dam. We fed elephants, walked with the elephants, and get our pictures taken next to the elephants. This was another great experience that my wife and daughter loved.

Dawie then drove us to the Johannesburg for our evening flight back to the US. At this point, my wife still wanted to bring back a zebra skin. Through a few professional connections, Dawie contacted a local taxidermist who had several zebra skins and all the appropriate documentation. We ended up meeting him a local gas station, looking over three different skins and buying one. With the appropriate documents, we got through customs with no issues. Of note, zebra skins are sold in the airport, but they are approximately twice the price we paid from the taxidermist.

After we said goodbye to Dawie, we headed into Tambo airport. I made sure to buy a couple bottles of Klipdrift Premium brandy from the duty free store and we sat down and waited for our fight.

As I sat in the airport, I reminisced about the previous week. We couldn’t have been more satisfied with the quality of our adventure, Wild Wildebeest Safaris, or our PH Dawie. We will definitely safari with them again. Before we left, my wife and daughter were worried that they would be bored during the trip. They ended up having a phenomenal time. I was also reminded of the joy my daughter showed when she saw her zebra for the first time or the smile of my wife during her long-awaited hot air balloon ride. We had an amazing family safari, but seeing this joy was the icing on the cake. We can’t wait to go back.