In my last post, I was enthusing about a nine day fly-in safari which I just sampled in South Africa. It combines bush and beach lodges in an immensely relaxing way, flying from one lodge direct to another by small private plane.

We began the ‘bush’ part of our bush and beach fly-in safari with Rhino Post Safari Lodge and Rhino Post Plains Camp. Here you combine open vehicle game drives into the Kruger with a full-fledged walking safari. Have a look at our Bush and Beach Fly-in Safari with Isibindi to have a better sense of how it all works together.

Rhino Post Safari Lodge is a 16-bed lodge within a 12,000 hectare private concession in the Kruger National Park. The nature of a wilderness area is that there are no permanent structures, so Rhino Post Safari Lodge was built using natural materials of stone, wood, thatch and canvas to create an authentic bush ambience. Approximately 10km north-east of Skukuza, the concession shares a 15km boundary with Mala Mala in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, with game moving freely between the two reserves. Rhino Post focuses solely on game drives whilst its sister lodge, Plains Camp, and the sleep-out camp, focus on walking safaris. Usually clients stay at Safari Lodge before continuing to Plains Camp for walking safaris.

Rhino Post Plains Camp is the only private camp specializing in walking safaris in the Kruger. The concession comprises of environmentally sensitive areas previously unexplored, with huge diversity of both fauna and flora – an ideal setting for wilderness walking safaris. I really liked Plains Camp and would recommend this camp highly. Built in authentic pioneer tradition, Plains Camp has the feel of a 19th century naturalist’s bush camp. Mahogany furniture with brass hinges and leather straps, copper taps in the bathroom and various surveying tools and Africana memorablia complete the Out of Africa ambience. There’s an open sided mess tent with comfy chairs and books, a separate dining tent, open to one side, a small plunge pool for cooling off and four very comfortable en suite tents. After an early morning wake-up and an invigorating cup of fresh coffee in the lounge, you set off on foot. A walking safari affords the ultimate, close-to-the-wild experience, and a chance to focus on the smaller bush inhabitants including birds, insects and butterflies. 

The guiding is excellent. Fritz was our guide and he had a very pleasant manner – quiet, calm and confident. We were exceptionally lucky on our evening walk, encountering a huge herd of about 300 buffalo, and then later on enjoying drinks near a waterhole when a herd of elephant arrived to drink. However, as is usual on a walking safari, we mainly focused on the smaller aspects of the bush: why animals behave as they do, what trees are used for what purpose, which dung belonged to which animal and why, as well as bird-watching aplenty.
The heat of the day was spent at the camp, enjoying their small Africana book collection, our comfortable beds and the plunge pool overlooking the plains. Afternoon walks and sundowners completed a fulfilling bush experience before dinner back at the camp.

The Sleep-Out
You can also elect to sleep one night at The Sleep-Out. You walk from Plains Camp in the afternoon and arrive at the platforms in the early evening carrying a lightweight rucksack containing a change of clothes, a pillowcase, a sheet inner for the sleeping bag and refreshments. Four platforms (with additional guide’s platform) are raised 4 metres above the ground (safe from leopard). Each has a toilet and shower (on a level below the top platform). There is a tent with a mattress, sleeping bag with fresh sheet liner. Sundowners are enjoyed on the dining platform that overlooks a waterhole. The rumble of the elephant passing by or the roar of the lion at the waterhole are the only noises that might disturb guests in this peaceful wilderness. The following morning, you have a light snack before walking back to Plains Camp for a hearty brunch.

Though it is an adventurous option, you are with other people and it is fully guided. The only limitation would be your own attitude and tricky negotiation of the stairs if you need to go to the loo in the middle of the night!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 4:51 am and is filed under General / news, Safari News South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.