We went on every game drive available during our time at Zulu Nyala – typically one in the morning and another in the afternoon. By the end of the week, some of our safari companions skipped excursions since after multiple game drives, we’d explored the entire 4500 acres of the Zulu Nyala preserve. But, that…
A Mother’s Love
You can’t help but be enchanted by the ‘cuteness’ of baby wildlife. An advantage of safariing in South Africa in early March before the cooler, drier winter begins is seeing the little ones that were born during the prior wet season. Everywhere we turned, we saw babies – nyala, buffalo, wildebeest, monkey, lion, warthog, zebra…
St. Lucia Hippo Cruise
Fifty miles east of Zulu Nyala on the coastline of KwaZulu-Natal, is South Africa’s largest wetland conservation area. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park protects just under a million acres of a diverse natural ecosystem that includes sandy beaches, subtropical dune forests, savannas and wetlands. Rich in biodiversity, the…
Looking for Lions
Since the Zulu Nyala reserve was too small for lions, Mark arranged an excursion to another larger game park for us to hopefully view these magnificent cats. So late one afternoon, midway into our trip, eight of our ten safari companions (the ‘kids’ declined), piled into a van for the half hour drive to Manyoni…
Zulu Village
Each night during dinner, the local Zulu tribe entertained us with rousing traditional dance performances accompanied by the rhythmic beating of drums. This piqued our interest to learn more about Zulu culture, so when Chief Majuda approached us selling tickets to the Zulu Village down the road, we bought some. The Zulu are the largest…
On Safari – Zulu Nyala Game Reserve
We met our ranger and companions at the jeep loop in the late afternoon for our first safari. Mark was to be our ranger and excursion guide for the week. Eight other people were our ‘assigned team’ – we would safari, dine and possibly even take off property day trips together for the week. Mark…
Zulu Nyala
How fortunate that we were able to take this journey in mid-March before the world shut down with COVID! We had become the proud owners of a South African safari the year before as the result of a well-intentioned whim – we thought we were starting the bidding on a 6 day trip to Zulu…
Exploring Colima
As seductive as Villa Aves de Paraiso, the Santiago Pennisula and its surrounding bays were, I wanted to see more of the state of Colima. Despite the State Department warnings of armed drug lords running rampart throughout the state, our villa owner assured us we would be safe exploring the surrounding countryside and the ‘white…
From Mountain to Sea
The terrain surrounding the Santiago peninsula is mountainous and begged for exploration, so we planned an afternoon ATV excursion into the mountains. Marteen drove us to an outfitter on the outskirts of Manzanillo. After donning helmets, goggles and kerchiefs, we had a brief orientation on how to operate the ATVs, and I mean brief, since…
Beaches and Outdoor Activities – check
The pristine beach at the private club on the Santiago Peninsula did not disappoint – check for this attribute of paradise! We spent several afternoons here enjoying the sun, surf and sand. Marteen would pack a cooler of cold beverages and snacks and drive us the short distance to the club. From the parking lot,…