SOUTH AFRICA SAFARI

NOTHING like a safari trip in South Africa.

DURBAN : St Lucia is about two hours north of Durban and you could spend a happy few days here with the hippos, crocs and birds, especially the African Fish Eagles.

River safari companies in this part of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park tell punters, ''Refund guaranteed if you don't see hippos!'' Of course you'll see a hippo.

There are some 800 of them bobbing up and down in the muddy water. From time to time they open their mouths to reveal 12-inch  main gnashers - and the man with mic tells us ''they can snap a croc in two with one snap.''

That must be why the crocs keep their distance. There are even more of them in this stretch of water  - some 1,000 

But at at last he crocs, unlike the hippos, don't go walkabout  down the High Street at night, drinking from swimming pools.

''Just keep 50 meters or so from,'' says the mic man.

St Lucia about two hours north of Durban and you could spend a  happy few days here with the hippos, crocs and birds, especially the Afrixan Fish Eagles..

But we move on to the Thanda private game reserve in the north of KwaZulu Natal, where we are soon introduced to herds of buffalo and impala as well as many giraffes and zebra.

Thanda is owned by the Swedish entrepreneur Dan Olof Olofssaon, who in early 2000s started buying up farms and combining them to create a 35,000 acre game reserve.

If you are a part of a group than you can stay in what used Mt. Olofsson's house.

Otherwise there are plenty rooms at the main lodge. Our wildlife expert, Christian, is a highly respected photographer and happy to give tips on shutter speeds as well as answering silly animal questions from urbanites like me.

This is  Zululand and so we are entertained one night by a troupe of female Zulu dancers.

There is a comical element to safari, especially when it comes to 'sundowners'.

Christians sets up a bar in the middle of the bush, complete with a cocktail menu and canapes. In fact. the sun went down almost an hour ago and there is no moon.

Which means Christian uses his laser beam and summons the spirit of the late Patric Moore as he points out Jupiter, Mars and the Milky Way.

'Beats arguing over Brexit,' says Christian. Beats most things actually.
[Courtesy Daily Mail]