Game Drives in Gauteng

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I’ve been reading travel reviews written by people who have taken ‘game drives’ in reserves or parks near Johannesburg, South Africa. I have been forced to the horrified conclusion that many tourists don’t actually appreciate the distant sight of a herd of giraffe or antelope running on rolling veld. It seems that if there isn’t the immediate gratification of close-up photo opportunities to prove that one has been there and done that, then there must be something wrong with the trip. Are there really only five important types of wild animal to be viewed on a game drive? Is a zoomed photo of a pride of lion devouring dead meat really the most sought after momento of a trip to Africa?

In one review of the Lion Park near Lanseria Airport , the writer was thrilled that a giraffe had poked its head into her car and that she had been able to feed a giraffe in an encampment, play with lion cubs and walk with a cheetah. Clearly the writer was fixated on the level of unique edutainment about African animals. I was gratified that another tourist regarded the petting experience as a commercialized excursion, and not as a real safari-type game drive. Unfortunately he also conveyed a sense of disappointment that he had not seen really wild animals in their natural environment. He should actually have gone to a large national game park, not a commercial educational enterprise with herbivores separated from carnivores.

A third reviewer came a little closer to South African locals’ understanding of a game drive. He felt he had experienced the African wild in the nearby Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve. This was apparently because he was able to drive around observing all manner of large and small game more easily than in the Kruger Park and because the lions seemed less tame than in the Lion Park.

The first part of his assessment is correct, but the assumption that any lions in reserves are truly tame has cost many people their lives. A case in point was when the owner of the lions in the Krugersdorp Game Reserve jumped out of his vehicle to fight a veld fire in the lion encampment and was attacked and killed by his own lions. Even a well-fed lion living in the ‘wild’ of a reserve will attack when it feels endangered or sees easy prey. That’s why the open-air game viewing vehicles favoured by commercial game farms are usually accompanied by an armed ranger who will keep a watchful eye on lions or rhinos that might attack at any time.

The top day trip conservation venues visited by many tourists in Gauteng are great for day trips out of Johannesburg. They offer photo opportunities and save a long trip up to Mpumalanga or Limpopo to see the Kruger National Park. However, they serve the purpose of instant tourist gratification and conservation edutainment and they cannot be compared to a game drive on a 2 million hectare game reserve like the Kruger National Park.

‘The Kruger’ as we hear so many tourists calling it, is a completely different experience for true connoisseurs of Africa with time to spend searching for animals to view and photograph. It is not for those who are faint-hearted, travel weary, heat sensitive, allergic to insect bites or demand creature comforts from their accommodation, but the further north one goes, the more the tourist game drive turns into a truly African safari experience.

So, please - before you plan a trip or fill in a travel review, just ask yourself whether you are on a happy snappers’ excursion, a game drive or a camera safari, and then be the judge of that provided for your enjoyment. Thank you. Dankie. Siyabonga

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