Makana, South Africa, Africa
Pumba Private Game Reserve

We woke up today at the lovely Bishops Inn to find that our toilet was absolutely covered in ants. I’ve been in some really nasty places around the world, but this is the worst bug problem I’ve ever seen in an accommodation I was staying in. When we complained to the girl at the front desk, she was very nonchalant when she responded that they have an ant problem, and the ants would be gone in the next 3-4 days. Not that it would help us at all though, as we were only here for the one night, thank god.

We had a surprisingly good breakfast at the hotel, and then headed out for the day. We wanted to check out what was near Port Elizabeth, so we first went down to Cape Receife Nature Reserve. We had to pay a small fee (60 rand, £3) to get in, and then we drove straight down to the end of the road where the lighthouse was. We left the car in the parking lot by the lighthouse, and took a walk down to the beach. It was absolutely stunning. We were a bit nervous about leaving the car where we couldn’t see it, but we figured we just had to let go and enjoy ourselves.

We drove around in the nature reserve and stopped a couple more times to take some pictures and take in the beautiful scenery. I was surprised to see how many cleaners there were in the nature. There were at least 20 people we saw walking around the reserve picking up trash. They were all very friendly and smiled and waved as we drove by.

We stopped at a place called SEMPAC which rehabilitates injured or oil soaked African Penguins. It was pretty low budget, but the ladies who worked there were really nice, and told us a lot about the penguins and the work they do there. We got to go see some of the penguins chilling in their little pool, and it was the first time since I was in Antarctica that I was reminded just how bad penguins smell. It is horrible!

We were ready to head out of Port Elizabeth, but we wanted to grab a bite to eat before we left. We found a place called Charlie’s Pizza and Pasta, and the food was excellent. Melissa had a smoothie and a salad, and I had a pizza, both were awesome. We headed east on route 1 to get to Pumba. It was about an hour and a half to get there, and the scenery wasn’t too impressive on the way. All you see from the highway is a lot of signs for other game reserves, but there were really no animals or anything you could see from the highway.

We finally arrived at Pumba at about 3:30pm and came in through the big gate, that we came into, they closed the gate behind us, and then opened the gate in front of us. I guess this is to make sure that none of the animals can sneak out when they are opening the gate for people to leave. The guard gave us a little scroll with our names on it and then sent us down the very long and very bumpy dirt road to get to the Water Lodge. This drive was unbelievable! As soon as we drove in we saw dozens of impalas, kudu, zebras, giraffes, and countless other animals just walking around. It was like we drove right into a zoo!

When we arrived at the Water Lodge, a porter grabbed our bags and parked our car for us. There was a nice glass of lychee juice waiting for us at reception, and a nice lady to talk us through everything we needed to know about Pumba. We are staying in Lodge 8, and it is like something you’ve seen in a movie. It is stunning! We have a big living room, massive bed, beautiful bathroom, our own deck with a plunge pool, and a great view of the watering hole behind the lodge. I knew it was a five star hotel, but this place is really impressing me.

We just missed the afternoon safari drive by about 15 minutes, which was really annoying, but we have five more ahead of us in the next few days, so it’s not the end of the world. We checked out the main lodge and went for a walk down to the pier in the water where we watched some hippos chilling in the water, and a few other animals coming down to the water to drink.

We went to the main lodge for dinner at about 7pm and since it was already dark, we had to call for a ranger to come get us at the room and walk us up to the main lodge. We were told that there is a leopard in the reserve and sometimes he likes to come and hang out by the lodge. That’s not something we want to run into in the middle of the night. We were a bit surprised to see the ranger show up with nothing but a broomstick as a weapon though. I’m not sure how much that will help if a leopard attacks, but hopefully they know what they’re doing.

Our dinner was phenomenal, along with a few drinks since I have no driving to do tomorrow. I started with Springbok carpaccio, and then had a kudu steak for dinner, and both were excellent. I can tell I’m really going to enjoy staying here! We are heading to bed earlyish tonight because we have an early wake up call tomorrow for our first safari drive. I better make sure my camera battery is charged!!