Going on a safari on your own in your thirties is a humbling experience — I’d do it again (Picture: Adam Williamson) Do animals exist? Well, broadly; yes. But the top-rung ones you haven’t seen, specifically? They’re one of the first things you’re taught about as an infant, but what happens if three decades later you’ve never personally laid eyes on the big ones? Before you point it out: I’m not one for zoos. I’ve never felt the urge to see Africa’s greatest specimens behind bars under grey drizzle in the English countryside. Nigel Thornberry wouldn’t stand for it and neither will I. And so, because of my uninspiring trajectory of being born in the immediate county outside of London, and then unimaginatively moving into London where the only wildlife I encounter are mangy foxes and tiny dogs outside coffee shops, I’d need to venture out of my comfort zone and into the South African plains to see if The Lion King is legit. I’m going on a safari, my first, and I already have the clothes for it. Even if the only Bush they’ve ever known is Shepherd’s. @travelwithmetro Have you ever been on an alternative safari? Metro’s Chris Rickett headed to South Africa to see what it was all about… 🦁 #travel #traveltiktok #safari #africa #southafrica #animals #wildanimals ♬ Safari/Wildlife/African Video Background_”Kids in the Jungle”_Animals/Zoo/Rainforest/National Park/Playful/Fun/Cheerful(1327305) – Ney Sibling rivalry South Africa has three capitals (greedy) and my flight destination is none of them. There’s Pretoria (which serves as the executive), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). However I’m assured that Durban, the country’s third most-populous city, is worthy of being a first choice for a budding tourist. Here’s the route to take the same trip ft. one plane, one car, and countless kudu (Map: Vanessa Redmond) I arrive indirectly via Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport to begin my four-stop South African adventure. ‘Durban’s not as windy as Cape Town,’ says David, my tour driver and proud Zulu man, as soon as we meet at King Shaka airport car park. It’s the first insight I get into the playful sibling rivalry between the two cities. The next comes minutes later: ‘Cape Town is Australia’. While Durban, the surfing hotspot that loves BBQ, is ‘true South Africa’, I’m told. Driver David (R) laughing with glee as he prepares to tell me all the reasons Durban is better than Cape Town (Picture: Chris Rickett) As a warm-up, I’m taken by boat on the blueberry-blue Indian Ocean to see the dolphins that the skipper boasts a 75% success rate of spotting. I’m one of the unfortunate 25%. Story of my life. Later, I see a monkey eating bin pizza in the Botanic Gardens before being escorted back to our vehicle. A tale of two cities To address the elephant (which apparently *are* real) in the room: I’m a white British dude. I can recognise the shadow of apartheid that still looms over this city. You can see it everywhere. There are relics, like the rotting apartments on the old Victoria Embankment, a prime postcode where only whites were allowed to reside during that era. But there are enduring injustices, too. In present-day minority white populated Durban, unemployed Black and Indian men line the streets, unserved by a system lambasted nationwide as corrupt, while its wealthier inhabitants emigrate to northern coasts. I’ve been booked to stay in the bougie part of the city called uMhlanga, which puts the White in White Lotus-esque. There’s an American-style mall and noticeably fewer beggars. The beaches are privately cleaned rather than relying on the municipality to rid the sands of litter and plastic spewed up after seasonal rains. Durban’s job is BBQ and beach (Picture: Chris Rickett) Outside of uMhlanga’s gated community, the tourist-popular Golden Mile that trawls Durban’s public beach coastline is heavily patrolled by police. ‘It’s safe’, David says. ‘But one street along…’ It’s a theme. A trip to Victoria Street Market comes with the explicit warning to ‘not leave the inside market area’, and a planned evening to eat in a township – urban outskirt areas previously delegated to Blacks and Indians for segregation that are now reclaimed on their own terms and open to tourists, on invitation – is changed last minute, seemingly due to the potential threat of unrest. I am shown only the cruise stop off-approved attractions before being whisked away on a one-road road trip to Nambiti Game Reserve, the same road where Nelson Mandela was captured by police in 1962 before his 27-year imprisonment. 50 steel poles, representing 50 years since capture, make up Marco Cianfanelli’s world-renowned sculpture that conjures Nelson Mandela’s portrait when viewed at the right angle at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site (Picture: Chris Rickett) ‘Mandela and his successor was the last time the government was good’, David says forlornly. ‘It’s been downhill ever since. I’ve been waiting 30 years for things to get better.’ A treasure hunt Nambiti gets you into over 10,000 hectares of private land that is the entire world for 60+ mammal species; it feels like a sovereign state in itself, following Nambiti laws and regulations. It is Big Five accredited (aka it offers the opportunity to see lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino), but, unlike more famous parks such as Kruger, does not require anti-malaria medication or personal tracking skills. Guests are driven by trained experts in 4×4 mega-jeeps, which prevent you getting stuck in the mud or lost. And with multiple lodge options on-site, it’s easy to find something to suit most budgets. Yours truly saying ‘No, it’ll look cooler shot on film. Trust me. Just take the photo in 3, 2, oh’ (Picture: Ewelina Turek) At the gates, I’m collected by Ryan, an early 20-something Robert Irwin-type. We drive to Cheetah Ridge for check-in and full board replenishments before my very first expedition. Sitting in the back of the Toyota is a near-constant fluctuation between breaking the fourth wall of your favourite nature docu-series and doing an optometrist test on a bucking bronco. Once stationary, binoculars come into play and then what was once lurking softly in the magnifying peepholes is soon face-to-face with you at an exhilaratingly close distance. I heard the guides tell a guest that you should *not* try to ride a zebra as if it were a horse like in 2005 family favourite film Racing Stripes (Picture: Chris Rickett) The priority species wear GPS collars to track migration patterns and breakouts, mainly. This data is not fed back to the guides, so every outing is a genuine treasure hunt using their seasoned eyes, footprint intuition, and radio dialogue with other guides to solve each day’s unfolding mystery of ‘where are they?’ Man, they’re good at it. In my first couple of hours I see lions, a rhino, hippos, zebras and impala, as well as countless kudu and wildebeest. A 6pm sunset means that by 7pm, natural light has dialled down to 0 while ambient creepy-crawly noise has amped up to 11. Thus begins a whole new genre of drive and a chance to see a stock change of nocturnal animals like brown hyena and snakes entering the field. I’m loving every second. Oh, it’s just another kudu (Picture: Chris Rickett) As soon as I don a wide-brimmed hat I’m completely absorbed into that world like Jumanji. My previous zoo gripes are irrelevant here. It’s not seeing segregated animals in human-enforced zones. You’re seeing five wildly different species interacting together, friendly and not-so-friendly, on the same territory like a beastly Graham Norton couch cast. Natural prey are killed by natural predators. It’s real and the danger is alluring. That smudge of tan right in front of the game drive jeep is a sleeping lion, while 75% of the vehicle’s inhabitants look the other way… (Picture: Chris Rickett) Warning: The climate can be just as wild as the clientele South African summer months are November through February, but this period also sees heavy rains, thunderstorms and punishing humidity. To complicate things, November regularly brings snow and hailstorms and the park has ranged from extreme temperatures of 54C and -9C but can offer their experience all year round. Even on a balmy 29C peaking March day where I’m practically marinated in Factor 50, I’m still provided with a poncho, umbrella, hot water bottle and blanket to see me through three hours that begins with shorts and Birks. Badge of honour In the safari world, the Big Five is the sacred checklist to complete and wear like a badge of honour. After two nights that saw an assortment of sunrise, daytime and sunset drives, I’ve completed four out of the Big Five, save for a lesser-spotted leopard that short-term visitors or the park’s goats rarely get eyes on before it’s too late. You could argue it’s really 3.5, because we arrived just in time to see an elephant’s bum turn the corner of our line of vision. But let’s not split hairs. It’s a savanna heaven on Earth and it’s under constant threat every day. Nambiti’s Lisa (L) and Ryan (R) trying to convince me that the ‘rock’ I saw was, in fact, an elephant (Picture: Chris Rickett) Lisa Armstrong, who has worked on the reserve for nine years, stresses that ‘poaching is the biggest problem we face’. ‘We’re hearing from Kenya about a rise in giraffe poaching for their tails,’ she says. ‘The best thing we can do is fundraise and invest in our anti-poaching unit and make sure they have the best equipment and education programmes.’ This is echoed by Brett Deetlefs, Nambiti General Manager who has been here, initially as a guide, since the beginnings of the reserve 20 years ago. But he knows the staff are doing something right. More valuable than gold In 2024 alone, the province of KwaZulu-Natal’s public state parks lost 279 rhino, whereas the private game reserves only lost nine. This is because Nambiti, along with a wider collective, dehorn their rhino at 1.5 to 2-years-old to deincentivise poachers from taking the shot. A rhino’s chance at life improves drastically when de-horned (Picture: Chris Rickett) ‘We don’t want to dehorn rhino. It’s not nice. But it’s for the greater good of the species,’ says Brett. ‘An ounce of ivory is more lucrative here than an ounce of gold but if you looked at it, you wouldn’t understand it. ‘It looks bad and smells like burnt hair. ‘We share knowledge with other game reserves and have discussed selling the discarded horns to Asia and reinvesting in conservation, but if it were up to me I would throw them down the waterfall.’ It’s not only keeping poachers out that concerns Brett — it’s also keeping dangerous animals in. ‘Fences are so important because we are surrounded by communities like Ladysmith who we can’t release a cheetah into,’ he tells me. ‘A crocodile came into our reserve through the natural river system and that’s scary because of where that’s travelled through to get here.’ Like the croc, we push on. Who says you can’t be a cowboy in South Africa? (Picture: Chris Rickett) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page Fizzing with the high of my virgin safari, I stop by the interactive Basotho Cultural Village on the Phuthaditjhaba side of the R712, a living museum with an authentic chief and bone-throwing witch doctor that showcases how Dutch and British settlers changed the tribe over time. Then we settle on the small town of Clarens in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in the Free State, a breathtaking place of natural beauty that largely presents itself as unchanged and timeless apart from the inescapable golf course, B&B accommodation and shopping district. Riding horseback through Golden Gate National Park is instantly a Top Five life experience for this Indiana Jones fanboy. I hike through difficult terrain to infiltrate the park’s Cathedral Cave, wearing the same trainers I use to fetch oat milk from the corner shop back home. A drive back to Johannesburg closes the loop of this trip that encompasses the Four Bs: Bush, Burg, Beach, Battlefields. As I’m dropped off at the airport without the chance to explore surrounding Jo’burg, I’m reminded of something our Nambiti guide Ryan said shortly after he had not raised an eyebrow at us parallel parking beside sleeping lions. ‘I wouldn’t walk around in Joburg city’, alluding to safety concerns. The Rainbow Nation is one big safari and it can feel like the best place in the world — when you’re not prey. Durban at a glance: Everything you need to know It’s recommended to hire a vehicle and self-drive between provinces, but if you feel more at ease using a travel group within cities, do that. We made our very own road trip route (map below) across three provinces. Being a multi-stop trip means multiple accommodation is needed and the ones I can personally recommend are: Hilton Garden Inn Umhlanga Arch (Durban) – B&B for two people from £92 per night Cheetah Ridge Lodge (Nambiti) – full board (and never-ending drinks) and game drives for two people from £387 per night Mont d’Or hotel (Clarens) – B&B for two people from £80 per night British Airways fly daily to Johannesburg (JNB) from London Heathrow (LHR) from around £769pp for a return trip in Economy with Standard checked luggage. South African Rand goes a long way, £1 is close to R25, and I was out there enjoying a three-course meal and a glass of wine for as little as £11, dependant on the order and the restaurant of course.