I am often in South Africa, in the Eastern Cape province more especially. 6 km from where I live is a very special place call Intsomi. It is a lodge and a private game reserve which is not very often open to public. I have been, luckily, three times here and have absolute wonderful memories of each times (and quite special experiences).
Discover
The first time my boyfriend brought me there for a surprise. I knew somebody who could let us join him in a task he had to do in this place.
We drove by car and arrive in a peaceful valley where a bench of red hartebeest were grazing.They didn't heard us arrive and when they discover the car they start to run away in a beautiful gallop.
In South Africa most animals in the reserves are used to cars. It depend the parks of course but sometimes you can drive around them and they won’t even look at you. Intsomi is very preserved and wild, nobody really go there, so the animals are truly wild. That’s what make the all scene so special.
We carried on our route and the some zebra on our left were also galloping to join an other area.
We drove on the top of the hill, and then discovered one of the most pristine view of the Alexandria Dunesfield. We could even see Bird Island, an island where lives the bigger colony of penguins of the area, closed to visitors.
We were late afternoon, the sun was slowly going down in the sky and we spotted a hard of Eland. They are the bigger antelope of Southern Africa and can be as big as a horse. IT was amazing.
Shared freedom
The second I have been there was during a horse riding journey. I was joining my friend Jono from Beachcomber Horsetrails for 3 days horse riding along the coast. For the last day we went through this place. Our guide warmed us about the buffaloes present in the park, that they often have to avoid because they sometimes charge. Especially at the entrance of the park there is a narrow path with no really way to escape and bushes all around with possibly some buffaloes hiding. So it was just a little stressful, we were ready to gallop in case we met one. It didn't happen. Later on we had a long counter and many zebras were running with us. That was absolutely magical and I remember after the gallop I said to my friend it was probably one of my best experience of horse riding. At least the most uncommon. I had the sensation to share a moment with this zebras ...
Buffalo Soldier
The last time I have been there was also for a pretty original experience. The ranger of the closer parks were catching buffaloes to move them to an other place. We were invited to give a hand for that mission and other volunteers where there to help. Buffaloes are heavy and how to say…. kind of dangerous. A veterinary went before hand by helicopter to give them a sedative. Then we had to put the buffaloes in a good position and put their tongue out of the mouse (being asleep they could swallow it).
For sure that the only time in my life I will be so close to this animal. We blind them because it soothe them and the we had to put them in trucks. That was a real mission, there was something like 20 buffaloes… the big female and males were difficult to move and we had to be almost ten people per animal. Anyway, we managed to take all of them and were all exhausted and happy after that…
Upper, that’s me with “my” buffalo that I personally took care off. It doesn't look like but they are quite heavy and all the weight is pushing against you when you have to hold them into that position.