Ingrid's Safaris

15/03/2024

Had a lovely 12 day holiday in Umhlanga Rocks where we stayed at Cabana Beach Resort . I love the sun rises over the sea and if the time is right a moon rise is special. Lots of time to relax at the pool with a lovely view of the sea or pool.

30/09/2023

Another amazing trip to the Kruger Park. Because of it being a long weekend I had to change the route and tried different places, which turned out extremely well. Pilgrims Rest was interesting in that the dry river bed was a hive of miners digging for gold, unlike the old days where they would be panning for gold in the river. The lovely panoramic route with Berlin Falls, Bourke's Luck Potholes, Blyde River Canyon 3 Rondavels and then driving through the beautiful Abel Erasmus Pass towards Hoedspruit.
After staying overnight at a lovely lodge near Hoedspruit we spent a night at a great tented camp in Timbavati Game Reserve, which is in the Greater Kruger. Our 2 open game drives were fantastic with wonderful sightings.
Our last night was at Skukuza in the Kruger Park and in our first hour after entering the park we saw elephant, rhino and a leopard in a tree.

14/09/2023

Enjoying spending a week in the beautiful Drakensberg mountains.
Just done my favorite walk to the Blue Grotto from Drakensberg Sun. 2 days ago it got suddenly cold and there was snow on the mountains. Today beautiful, warm day.

08/09/2023

A wonderful 3 days in Pilanesberg, staying at lovely Bakubung Lodge. We had special sightings. Lioness and cubs on dead giraffe, leopard dragging large warthog uphill, young elephant mock charging the big open game vehicle and our usual beautiful animals.

13/07/2023

13/07/2023

A fantastic 15 day road trip in Namibia sadly soon coming to an end.

12/06/2023

I love Umhlanga Sands and being able to spend special times with family♥️
We had several beautiful sunrises and great times on the beach.

23/04/2023

A beautiful warm autumn day in the suburbs of Johannesburg

14/02/2023

Another great trip to the Kruger recently. Seeing the beautiful birds in addition to all the lovely animals is just as special. Recently the park experienced very bad flooding after heavy rains and certain camps had to be evacuated.

08/01/2023

Just come back from doing a lovely safari to the Kruger Park. Had a special leopard sighting. The leopard was stalking some zebra and gave chase but he was not fast enough.

11/11/2022

Today is a grey rainy day.....we have had a fair amount of rain in the past few weeks, but thankfully it cleared for my visits to Pilanesberg and we have had some good sightings. Close encounter of rhino and baby with cheetah and her big babies.

15/03/2022

19/12/2021

The stork has been very busy in Pilanesberg Game Reserve. 🙂
We have just had a lovely week at Bakubung in Pilanesberg. After lovely rains, everything is looking green and fresh and the park is full of babies.

05/06/2021

Gosh! So much has happened the past year and yet it feels like nothing is happening. Needless to say, there have been no visitors to show our beautiful parks. This is a good time for us to spend more time in our beautiful country. Towards the end of last year a visit to the Kruger Park and in December a week in Pilanesberg.

19/07/2020

Brrrrr. We are having our coldest winter in a decade.
It is now 115 days since we started lockdown to keep infection rates of Covid-19 as low as possible but as we are opening up more our rates are increasing exponentially.

I miss being able to travel and going to Pilanesberg Game reserve as well as the Kruger National Park and being able to share these special parks with lovely people.

It is with dismay that I have just watched an investigative journalism program 'Carte Blanche' Episode 13. This program brought home the lengths to which we have to go to in order to save our precious rhinos from being poached.
When we went into lockdown, an organization 'Rhino 911' which works on saving our rhinos, started the biggest de-horning operation in the world…to de-horn the entire population of rhinos in Pilanesberg (3rd largest wild population of rhinos in the world) within 9 days. They had to use 2 helicopters and 2 vets. The time taken to dart the rhino and trim the horn is less than 10 minutes. They would need to do this quickly as the hornless rhino would be at a disadvantage when having to fight another rhino that still has its horn (inter species threat).
The park lost 150 rhinos in 10 years and in March to April this year alone they lost 4 rhinos to poachers, leaving orphan calves.
If poachers get wind of de-horning they move in and take what they can. On day 2 of the operation a poached rhino was found in the park. 
De-horning is still the most effective way to protect the rhino, although they will still kill them for the little bit that is left, it greatly decreases the incentive to do so.
WE HAVE TO SAVE OUR RHINOS so future generations can see them in the wild and not just as a picture in a book of an animal that has become extinct.

20/04/2020

Wow! How life has changed! The world has turned upside down. We are in week 4 of our 5 week lock down.
At the end of December I moved house (after 44 years in the old house) and am still sorting through things....in fact, I still have enough work to keep me busy for several months :)
I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms as I have not been to Pilanesberg or the Kruger for a long time. The parks/game reserves are also on lockdown. I am missing being able to share our special animals and beautiful nature with lovely people.
The only wildlife I see is our resident Spotted Eagle Owl. He/she lives in our garden and does not feel threatened by our presence even when I mow the lawn close to him/her. I just wish that he/she will find a partner. At the end of each day, just before it is time for the owl to become active, the birds start trying to chase the owl and the Grey Go Away birds become very raucous.
I hope everyone is staying safe and keeping well.

15/12/2019

Amazing! Another 'Once in a lifetime' sighting of Jackal vs snake. I hope they both live to tell the 'tail' :)

13/11/2019

Pilanesberg. What an amazing sighting at Tilodi dam a week ago. It was late afternoon when the wild dogs chased the young kudus who jumped into the dam to escape. The brown hyena arrived on the other side of the dam shortly after the excitement. If you look carefully you can see that the young male kudu had one of the wild dogs on his back. Unfortunately the light was fading.