We had arrived in Port Elizabeth and after spending a few days there it was time to go outside the city for a night at a game reserve which I was incredibly excited about. My boyfriend had arranged for us to go to Pumba Private Game Reserve which is around an hour outside of P.E.. As soon as we arrived there I had butterflies, I couldn’t contain my excitement. As my boyfriend is South African, he was very fortunate to grow up with wildlife on his doorstep where I grew up on an island in the Canaries and the closest we had to wild life was the cockroaches so I felt very safe with him by my side. As soon as we arrived the staff were extremely friendly and greeted us with huge smiles and made us feel very welcome. We were taken on a tour around the lodge which was magnificent, and then we got shown to our suite which really took my breath away. I have never stayed in anything as beautiful as that room, it was very private and secluded and had everything we needed . After taking everything in and endless of photos we went to lunch and then we went on our afternoon game drive.
The afternoon game drive was incredible, we managed to see a lot of the wildlife which speaks in volumes with the pictures that I will post below. I am very much against places like zoos unless they are well taken care of and have the space that they require, because it really does open your eyes when you see these incredible animals in the wild and where they were born to be. We saw a beautiful leopard on the game drive which decided he wanted to take a tour around the lodge so we had to wait inside the bar (there are worse places to be) until they had located him. After dinner the rangers escorted us to our room where we had a little night cap and discussed the days events, that night we heard a noise outside our room but we didn’t really think anything of it until the morning.
I woke up to the most incredible view where I could see elephants in the horizon, just past the dam where the hippo family live. In that moment I could have stayed there forever, but I needed to rise and shine for the early morning game drive. When we came out of our room to walk to breakfast, I looked down and noticed leopard paw prints, so the noise in the middle of the night was the leopard having a little walk around. The game drives at Pumba Game Reserve are just incredible, the drivers really know all of their information and they really care about the animals safety. One of my favourite parts is where you can get out of the land-rover and have some snacks and drinks where zebras can be just chilling out behind you.
All in all I couldn’t have wished for a better experience, the only downside is we were only there for one night and really could have gone for longer. I advise anyone to visit this place, you will really not regret it. I felt at home with the staff, the beautiful food, the picturesque views., the amazing wildlife that really touched my heart, our stunning room, I really couldn’t have wished for anything better and I will be returning to this fantastic place.
Pumba Game Reserve, you will always have a special place in my heart. If you loved this post, head on over to see what I got up to in Melville, Johannesburg.
