I went on my first ever safari last week and it was pretty amazing. I really didn’t have a clue what to expect, to be honest. I’m probably one of the few people who don’t count seeing the animals as one of my tops things to do in Africa, so I hadn’t really looked into it much. When my friends suggested we spend a day at Hluhluwe game reserve north of Durban, it seemed like a good enough way to fill the day and I was in.

At R950, it was one of the more expensive things I will do in South Africa but I think safaris are known for being pricey and if I plan on doing any more, I should get used to it. We could have driven ourselves in our rental car for a fraction of the cost but we would have missed out on our guide’s crack driving and spotting skills and I’m not sure how we would have fared had we found ourselves face to face with an angry elephant.

We left sharpish at 5:30am. An ungodly hour, yes, but I’m told animal spotting is best done in the early morning and as the sun goes down so an early start and a long day are the best way to see what you want to see. Normally, not a problem. The problem is that nobody told me it would be this cold in South Africa. Winter… yes. But I didn’t expect it to be this cold. Maybe I should have looked at a single weather report and things would have been cleared up but, of course, I didn’t. So there I was at 5:30am freezing my tits off after a feeble attempt at layering warm weather clothes. This was before the open-air safari vehicle got moving so you can imagine how cold it was once the wind started attacking us. It was 30 minutes of near hypothermia. I was super happy that I bought that Bafana Bafana scarf a week before but wishing I had thought to bring my sleeping bag to snuggle up into.

Once we were in the game park I wa happy to be alive and more interested in getting warm than spotting animals. When a zebra crossed our path really close to the vehicle, though, I started to get more into things. I went into this safari thing not knowing or expecting much and I was amazed at how many animals and birds we ended up seeing. We were in the truck with three avid bird-watchers which, at first, was a bit annoying because we were there to see the big five, after all, and didn’t want to stop for every little bird. But it turned out to be a good way to pass the time between the big animals and it was nice to slow down and try to spot the small things as well.

We saw what we wanted to see: lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, a bunch of different things with antlers, a baby crocodile, giraffes, zebras and probably a lot more that I’m forgetting. We were lucky with the lion because, at first, we had a very limited view of it feeding on something behind a bush. Then, as we were leaving, my friend noticed a lioness cross the road right behind our vehicle and jump up into a tree, giving us a perfect view.

The 12 hours went by a lot quicker than I thought it would and I came away having seen a lot more than I thought I would. I didn’t know what to expect and I was pretty impressed. The animals really don’t seem to be bothered by the safari vehicles and you can get a really close look at them in their natural environment which is pretty cool.

But next time, I think I’ll go in the summer.