Timbavati Private Game Reserve
While in Timbavati, you’ll enjoy two exciting guided game drives daily atop custom-built 4x4 vehicles, conducted by your professional ranger and tracker. You may also choose to participate in an optional guided bush walk at no additional expense (if weather conditions permit).
Timbavati, although not as well-known as its Southern counterpart, the Sabi Sand, is by no means inferior. In fact, one would have a strong case if you argued that Timbavati offers a more comprehensive wildlife experience. Like the Sabi Sand, the Timbavati also shares an unfenced boundary with the remote central Kruger National Park, allowing unrestricted movement of wildlife through the region. With fewer lodges, traversing areas in Timbavati are larger than all but five of the 27-odd lodge territories in the Sabi Sand. The Southern extent of Africa’s ‘Mopani Belt’ transects the reserve. Game drives taking place in the northern regions will, therefore, wander through Mopani woodland, a tree favored by African elephants, while if your ranger decides to travel southwards then you’ll find yourself in typical African savanna bushveld. This ecological diversity makes for a greater multiplicity of species, some preferring one habitat biome and some the other, with other species not restricting themselves to either.
Since the 1950s, occasional sightings of white lions have been recorded in the Timbavati. White lions have never been recorded in any other reserve in Africa except in the neighboring Kruger National Park, making the possibility of sighting one of these unique animals a good enough reason on its own to visit. Of course, the remaining Big Five suspects – leopard, buffalo, elephant, and rhino – are also commonly sighted, as are impala, zebra, giraffe, warthog, waterbuck, nyala and wildebeest. African wild dog and cheetah, once uncommon, are now recent additions to the predator hierarchy and are sometimes also spotted. Your daily game drives will take place during periods of peak wildlife activity - during the early morning, late afternoon and evening. The remainder of your day may be spent enjoying the creature comforts of your luxurious accommodations.