Our Most Epic Safari Meet-Up Yet?! White Lions, Cheetah, 7 Leopards, Cubs in a Tree, Barrel Rolling Hippo, and a Pangolin!
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You guys, I have just finished… a MIND BLOWING safari. I mean each safari is unique and special but this one was truly NEXT LEVEL. Possibly… my best one yet?
This trip started as my mom and a couple of her friends and I expanded the invite to the Instaverse. I named it the “Epic Adventure Meet-Up: Fun Seniors Edition” (all ages welcome!) “come join or send your fun parents!” to basically emphasize that we are not Contiki lol. We had SUCH a blast and our sightings were truly UNFATHOMABLE.
Here was our itinerary for the whole group trip:
2 days Ngala Safari Lodge (Ngala Private Game Reserve) — Safari
3 days Umkumbe Bush Lodge (Sabi Sands Game Reserve) — Safari
3 days Winchester Boutique Hotel (Sea Point, Cape Town) — V&A Waterfront, Table Mountain, Lion’s Head hike, Peninsula Tour (penguins, Cape of Good Hope, etc)
2 days Alluvia Boutique Hotel & Winery (Stellenbosch) — Babylonstoren, Boschendal, ebike wine tour, lakeside picnic
2 days Hermanus Guest House (Hermanus) — cliff walks on the Cliff Path, Penthouse Party & Conga Line, exploring & shopping in the quaint town, seaside dining at Bientang’s Cave
2 days Camps Bay Retreat (Camps Bay, Cape Town) — Kalk Bay shopping, Chinchilla rooftop drinks & din, Old Biscuit Mill & Oranjezicht Markets, also my mom and I went wedding dress shopping EEEK!
Honestly it was a fire itinerary if I do say so myself. Message me at kellie@adventurelust.travel to book your trip!!
For this blog post let’s dive into the safari cause it was ABSOLUTELY BONKERS and you know I live in Cape Town so we can talk about those parts anytime 😝
Ngala Safari Lodge
I chose Ngala for one reason: white lions. It’s only of the ONLY places to see white lions in the wild (apparently there are only 4 in the wild — 2 here, 1 (Casper) at Singita Lombombo, 1 at Motswari.
Now if we know anything about wild animals it is that it’s very risky to book a trip for a specific animal, especially over a year in advance. Anything could happen — they could be in a different territory (they crossed over from KNP on our 2nd day), they could be hiding/snoozing in a bush, or worse… they could be… RIP. Which almost happened a couple weeks before we got there but I won’t get into my lion dynamics obsession here because it could be its own soap opera. Let’s just say they are SAVAGE.
Anyway, if we know anything about me and my group tours, it’s that I ALWAYS BRING MY WILDLIFE HORSESHOE so you better believe I brought it here and we had THE MOST MAGICAL ENCOUNTER with those white lions. Here is the reel! I won’t tell you how long it was because I don’t think it was allowed but don’t tell anyone, but it was truly the most magical out-of-body experience that we will all treasure forever.
They are part of the Birmingham Pride which is iconic in itself — 29 lions total, including 15 cubs and 2 adult males. A MEGAPRIDE. It is absolutely INSANE to be in their presence. We had tears, and I don’t just mean like a leak or two, I mean SOBBING, and I don’t just mean me!!! These kinds of special sightings can have this effect on people, you don’t understand how special it is until it hits you IRL.
Other notable sightings at Ngala we were lucky to see a CHEETAH (rare in Kruger ! Only my 3rd cheetah sighting there ever), and a leopard chomping on an impala in a tree before jumping down, graceful as always, as a hyena lurked below to snatch up the scraps. We also saw the usz giraffes, zebras, elephants, rhinos, wildebeest etc!
Ngala Safari Lodge was beautiful, i LOVED the bath, our guests loved the cottages and the all-inclusive package with drinks included, even mimosas at breakfast! A special moment was when the traditional African dancers surprised us after dinner in the fire-lit Boma one evening.
Coffee stop, poncho party, pop-up gin bar!
Umkumbe Bush Lodge
Next up was 3 days in Umkumbe, and if you don’t know why I picked this one, DO YOU EVEN KNOW ME??
Of COURSE I needed my leopard fix you guys!!!
The Sabi Sands is known for having the highest leopard concentration in Africa, and most importantly they are very used to the vehicles and very calm/chill, allowing for incredible close sightings. I have visited Umkumbe before and it is the place I book the MOST for my guests, because it is the most budget-friendly accommodation option in the Sands. If you stay at most of its neighbours you are paying R30 000 per person per night — minimum.
It was incredible coming back to Umkumbe, honestly felt like home, I swear the Sabi Sands is my favourite place in the whole world.
But our 3 days there were extra unprecedented.
For the 4 days before we had arrived, they had zero leopard sightings. But of course we brought our leopard luck — on our first evening there were two leopards that crossed paths 100m away from each other (reel from this evening here). Our first morning brought not one, not two, but THREE leopards including the most insane encounter where a 7-month leopard angel cub ran up to a whole herd of ellies (you gotta watch this reel and read the caption for the whole story). I swear that was the best game drive of my whole life. Then there were the two leopard cubs in the tree and by this point I had just died and gone to leopard heaven.
Aside from that, more leopards, and a LOT of bonding with a very dramatic hippo who we named Hildo. He did a lot of farting, pooping, yawning/showing us his teeth, and barrel rolls. We visited him every day and even got to see him out grazing before it fell dark, which is v rare!! We saw lots of babies — zebra, giraffes, ellies, rhinos!
On a different level of iconic than the leopards and lions, we were BEYOND blessed with a safari sighting that is so rare many guides will only see them once or twice in a lifetime.. a sighting that I didn’t know if I would ever experience, and now I have and my life is changed forever (see the reel here)… a PANGOLIN!!! It was bigger than I expected, just chilling, nestled into a bush, not like an AMAZING sighting but still so cool to check that off the safari bucket list.
With my group of mostly first-timers, I think we all knew how lucky we were, and WE WERE, but let me let you in on a little secret. Most first time safari goers think they are lucky 😂 I’ve been on pretty average safaris where people are like “this is the best trip of my life” “I can’t imagine a safari gets much better than this” — this is because it is obviously an AMAZING experience that always blows you away no matter how many safaris you’ve been on, but also because each safari is different, so you often DO see things that are very rare, whether it’s an animal or a behaviour or an interaction. As I always say, Mama Africa always has surprises in store ✨
Thanks for following along on another amazing safari and Epic Adventure Meet-Up. Email me to book your trip or join one of mine!!
