Big Five in South Africa!

Let´s go back in time to year 2010. I had a chance to do a work trip to South Africa with the current employer.

Wish I was there right now as well. All of this corona time has made me to want to travel even more than before. Watching all of those travel sites or photos etc are killing me at the moment but I have to believe, “We´ll make travel great again”!

All my expectations about that country fulfilled! And in a good way.

1. people
2. nature
3. animals
4. food & wine

Although that 2-week trip was working time for me, it didn´t felt that way.

People are extremely nice and helpful. They are genuinely interested about you and your life. Nature gives you the best all over the country, whether you are in southern part of South Africa or for example in Kruger National Park. And what about the animals then? WOW, more of them in next paragraph.

Although the country is more known for its nature and wild animals, it also offers wonderful wine experiences. The most important wine areas are located in southwestern part of the country.

Here´s a glance to beautiful Stellenbosch vineyards:

Wild animals

I bet you have heard of saying “Big Five”, the must-see-list? Term was originally referred to the difficulty in hunting those animals. “Big Five” consists of: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo.

Nowadays the term is more an expression of seeing those animals in wildlife safaris, not shooting them.

I had a chance to see four of them…Leopard was not on that list because it´s quite hard to find or see in nature. Unfortunately.
But there are also other animals to see and one of my guides knew everything about birds. So I had an excellent lession about them too and that country is full of beautiful birds.

Or what about penguins then? Near Cape Town is a Boulders Beach where you can watch penguins living in nature. Those funny guys, you could watch them hours and they don´t care about you at all. And by watching them you´ll start to see your friend or Mom, or colleague or a your boyfriend in their behavior!

Wild moments

I also had a funny and at first a bit dangerous encounter with the wild boar. Locals think those are a bit annoying animals but for me it was amusing moment. When we arrived with my colleague to a safari lodge we met this wild boar first on the road we were walking. He didn´t mind us at all but neither was he/she to evade us. So we were the ones to give him/her a space on the road.

Before dinner we drank a wine class at our terrace as an aperitif and I heard that something or someone was running towards our cottage. And there he/she was again! Wild boar came near to our terrace but still remained the distance. He/she just stayed there for a while and watched us. You can imagine what kind of thoughts we went through…where to run, should I just stay here, do not say anything…etc.

If you ever ever ever have a chance to visit South Africa, don´t hesitate to travel! There are many travel sites to South Africa but you can start from here.

And if you have any comments or similar stories, just share them!