Thula Thula Game Reserve

One of the great things about stopping in Richards Bay is that you are close to many game reserves, both private and national park. The locals often say Oh, its only a bit more than an hour drive away. That would be true if you are willing to take your life into your hands passing trucks every 10 minutes on a two lane highway that the trucks and locals have decided is a four lanes including the shoulders. Along with the innovative four lanes, there seems to be some special communication that goes on between drivers that intermittently turns the four lanes into three in one direction and one in the other, as the passing cars and trucks force the other direction drivers onto the shoulder in a death defying act.
 

Thula Thula is famous for the 2009 book The Elephant Whisper, written by the reserve's founder Lawrence Anthony. His wife, Francoise, wrote a follow on book, An Elephant in my Kitchen. Both the elephants and the food were remarkable.

Needless to say we were up close to a lot of elephants. This is two young males showing off who is tougher.

Chris getting a drive-by from a young elephant.

The accommodations at Thula Thula are pretty nice and the pricing in Covid season was not cheap, but reasonable.

The food was excellent, as it was three French-style freshly prepared meals a day--- as long as you ate it before the monkeys got involved.

There was no shortage of giraffes here either,  looking for food in the wild.

Mom and some young ones.

Like all parks that have Rhinoceros, they have 24 hour security at Thula Thula. These guys were OK with me taking their picture once they put their face masks on. Don't want to be identified in the local towns, too risky. Our guide asked us not to post any Rhino pictures from their park on social media. The Rhinos are hunted by poachers who shoot them and then cut off their horn. The horns go for more than gold in Asia, mainly to men wanting to increase their performance. Why not just stick with the reliable little blue pill?

Iridescent starlings

On each drive in the Land Cruiser, Chris insisted the guide go find elephants.

A vulture waiting for some carrion to clean up.

The older elephants are respectful of the truck. The young ones sometimes get too close. The bottom picture is Bill jumping back from a few tons of nosey elephant.

Cape Buffalo. These guys are considered the most dangerous animals in the reserve because of their unpredictability and tendency to use the herd to attack.

Leopard Tortoise

Hippopotamus relaxing in the pond

Nyala, much like Impala but with racing stripes.

The male Nyalas look just like the females when they are young. As they mature they get much bigger and their coat changes so that look like they are wearing short pants.

A male Nyala hanging by the bungalows.

There were a lot of crosswalks in the reserve.

 

Kingfisher with his snack

Baby Zebra

I got my eye on you!

Hippo action

After a hard day safariing

Your smiling host for this safari 

Did I mention we saw a lot of elephants?

Finish this safari off with some majestic Giraffes on the hillside

Paul