Our last safari - Kapama Game Reserve
Trip dates: April 3, 2017 - April 6, 2017
Kapama Game Reserve is a private game reserve right next to Kruger National Park in South Africa. It’s served by a tiny airport, that is/used to be part of the Air Force, called Hoedspruit. It’s fun to pronounce!
Right after we arrived at the airport, it was a bit of a cluster. A ton of people had arrived, as this airport serves many of the camps and tourists going to Kruger and the neighboring game reserves, so everyone was milling around as bags were being unloaded. After our previous experience in Botswana with tiny camps and single digit people on an airplane, this was quite overwhelming.
We managed to find the right cars to get into (there were 3 full land cruisers heading to Kapama) and off we went! The reserve entrance was right next to the airport and we were treated to a very fast, bumpy, mini-game drive on the way in to the lodge. Unfortunately, Lishan’s 3rd or 4th pair of sunglasses of the trip took a tumble out of her purse because of how bumpy the ride was, and it was sacrificed to the safari gods. Even more unfortunately for us, the afternoon flight that came in was treated to a brief leopard sighting on their way in! Guess her sacrifice worked, we just weren't able to reap the rewards.
Kapama actually has multiple camps inside the park. We were staying at its biggest camp, the River Lodge. It’s built to house a ton of people - across 64 suites. Just a tad bigger than our previous Botswana experience. There was a pool filled with older folks and lots of bare skin when we first arrived, so we joked that the pool was the meat market for the rest of the trip. There was even a spa that had a private pool and sweet views, but the services were quite $$ and you also had to book in advance since they were pretty much booked out a day. Crazy.
Our room was intense - strong air conditioning, no bugs, spacious bathroom and lots of luxury amenities. Not complaining since it was super hot, but again, a major departure from our previous camps in the middle of nowhere. We also could walk freely around the camp (i.e. to and from our rooms at night) without an escort, since the camp was fenced off from the reserve. Toto, we're not in the bush anymore.
The food was served buffet style - it provided a lot of variety but in general, the food left something to be desired after the previous meals we had. It also was weird because you had dedicated servers for lunch and dinner (so you tipped them once at the end) and only water and some juices were free, so you had to pay for any other drinks. That was a big departure from our previous camps where almost all drinks were included. Kapama did include non-alcoholic drinks when on game drives, but it still felt odd. We also thought water wasn’t included for free when we first arrived, so our server thought we were weird for never ordering anything to drink. Oh well - back to tipping cultures where stuff is weird.
The game drives were also similar but different from our previous experiences. Because all of the guides are communicating on the radio to each other, they can more easily find game and limit the number of cars at a sighting at any given point. But it did mean we crossed paths with other cars frequently. The terrain was also generally similar throughout the reserve - oftentimes, it just felt like we were driving on the same roads over and over.
We also felt that the game drives were heavily focused on the Big 5 and other big sightings and bypassed all the other sights very quickly - which is fine and all, given that we had had experience with a lot more variety and sightings in Botswana, but we did feel like it was a much more ‘catered’ safari experience. The guides also generally offered less information unless you specifically asked for it. Our guide opened up a lot over the few days we had with him, but it was definitely a different experience for us.
If we hadn’t come from our smaller, more concierge-like experiences, I think we would’ve liked Kapama more at the outset. It seems like Kapama would be a great introduction to safari-ing, since the area is smaller so they're able to show you the highlights while still putting you in a relatively familiar and comfortable setting. Since we had already been at tiny, middle of nowhere, definitely in the bush camps, we weren't as excited about the mass catering operation that is Kapama. Others who were on safari for the first time (and others who had returned to Kapama multiple times) all seemed to enjoy themselves though, so we tried to just accept it for what it was and experience all that Kapama had to offer.
And boy, it did have a lot to offer. We saw super close ups of many animals, including rhinos, elephants, giraffes and lions, and we really enjoyed the beautiful scenery here too. Sunsets were gorgeous with the mountain backdrop breaking up the final rays of light.
Even more bonus for us, our friends from home came to meet up with us in Kapama - Ken, Linda (Ken’s wife), and Junia (Linda’s sister)! Lishan used to work with Ken, and funnily enough, so did my sister, so we’ve all known each other for some time. It was great seeing friends as always and especially when we were in such a unique place.
Funny story that happened after our first night - I had worn my flip flops out on the day game drive because I figured that I didn’t need my heavy boots. We would get out once or twice for snacks but generally, we didn’t walk that much in the bush. When I was walking around later that evening, every so often, I kept feeling a stabbing sensation in my toe! I kept looking at my flip flop and my foot and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Finally, I looked at the very bottom of my flip flop and noticed that a bunch of acacia thorns had embedded themselves deep into the rubber and were occasionally stabbing me. Look at how big those are! After this, I wore my boots out on all game drives.
Sharp!
You’ll also notice our pictures have a lot more shots of other people’s cameras, phones, or just stuff in general. What a big difference 2 people vs. a full car makes! It was nice having other eyes, but we did miss some aspects of our private safari experience a bit too.
For the last night on safari, Ken, Linda, and Junia actually spent it at one of the smaller camps because the lodge was full. Turns out, they liked it more (it was more like our experience in Botswana), but it also meant we got swapped out with different folks on our final game drives. On the plus side, Lishan got to sit in the front seat and talk to our guide and get even more info. At one point, our guide needed to fix his earpiece and had Lishan drive! What a pro.
Our last day, our guide tried really hard to find us a leopard since we hadn’t seen one at all and he really wanted to try for us. Unfortunately, we never did get to see one although we were really close a few times, but we really appreciated him trying so hard for us. Oh well, it's just another excuse for Lishan to get us to go out on safari again soon!
By the end of our time in Kapama, I think we had become accustomed to the style and had a good time. We figured out the foods that we liked at the buffet and did appreciate having a nice shower and air conditioning. The staff was a bit hit or miss - we had both really great, personable service, as well as some indifferent attitudes. But that’s what you get with a bigger operation I suppose.
We left out of Hoedspruit but this time, we flew directly to Cape Town. Seafood here we come!
