Fox News features Sanbona Reserve

Fox News & H Texas Magazine fea­ture Sanbona

Dick Dace vis­ited Sanbona recently & was so impressed with his exper­i­ence that he had Fox News in the USA show the foot­age he took on the reserve. Mr Dace also wrote the fol­low­ing art­icle for H Texas magazine on the White Lions at Sanbona.

At 6 a.m. on a brisk, fall day, the SUV bucked over the broken sand­stone road in pur­suit of game in the wild rose­mary hills of Sanbona, South Africa. The Mediterranean blue skies greeted the dawn from last night’s rare rain­storm that promp­ted the March Lily to bloom in a spidery-profusion of white and pink, amid a back­drop of brown and green shrubs. Around the first corner from Tilney Manor, were an Oryx Gazella and her baby. Her large, black, V-shape rack of horns crowned her white face. She watched us with unblink­ing, black eyes as her calf moved behind her. The calf also spor­ted a crown of horns, as the only animal to be born with horns.

Jabulani and his mate, Queen, were spot­ted near a rav­ine, loun­ging in the shade of a Kebad bush. Jabulani’s face, big and white, was a sharp con­trast to his brown envir­on­ment. Queen had recently given birth to three cubs: two males and a female, all white with blue eyes, like their par­ents. One could under­stand why Jabulani and Queen were raised as pets. They looked like store-bought plush toys.

Having been raised by humans, Jabulani and Queen, the dead­li­est of all lions, had lost their nat­ural fear of man. Since they grew up as fam­ily pets, sleep­ing on the fam­ily sofa, play­ing with the kids, they lost touch with their wild side. Now that they are par­ents and back in the wild, their nat­ural instincts had to be rekindled.

Hunting actu­ally is a skill that cubs learn from their par­ents. Because Jabulani and Queen did not learn how to hunt from their par­ents, the rangers at Sanbona Wildlife Reserve have to find a way to teach them. “Hunger is a great motiv­ator,” states our guide, Jan Oosthuizen. “Queen killed an Oryx the other day, and that was a huge begin­ning. She was able to feed her cubs and her mate. When the cubs are about 2 1/2 years old and reach their sexual adoles­cence, they will be kicked out of Jabulani’s pride, and we hope to intro­duce them to the other pride here at Sanbona. It is our hope, wish and dream that the cubs that were born wild, will grow up wild and stay wild.”

When Jabulani became curi­ous about us, Jan pulled the truck away from the pride. “He wants to play with us,” he says. “And that is not a beha­viour we want Jabo to imprint on the cubs.” At sun­set, we wit­nessed the ele­phants head­ing home from a day of feed­ing. The bull lead the way, fol­lowed by his two cows and their two calves each, one of which was just 11 days old.

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve is part of the Mantis Hotel col­lec­tion. Sanbona was cre­ated when 19 sheep farms failed after the water tables were realigned fol­low­ing an earth­quake in 1969. The goal of Sanbona is to rein­tro­duce indi­gen­ous anim­als to the area, includ­ing the "Big 5" – lions, leo­pards, ele­phants, rhi­nos and buf­fa­loes. These anim­als acquired this nick­name because they are Africa’s most dan­ger­ous anim­als (and used to attract hunters from all over the world). They are extremely excit­ing to watch in the wild.

The lodges of Sanbona are some of the most romantic hotel rooms in the world. The spa­cious suites show­case a vast savan­nah that stretches to the hori­zon of rolling hills through the French doors in the bed­rooms. Only anim­als (not humans) are allowed to roam the fields, which give the room and the out­door, double shower the pri­vacy it needs. One even­ing after watch­ing the anim­als have their even­ing drink, the guides served us cham­pagne in the bush. Since this was our last even­ing at Sanbona, the but­ler drew all the guests a bubble bath in their ped­es­tal bathtubs, com­plete with rose petals, more chilled cham­pagne and heated tow­els. The even­ing was the stuff of romance nov­els, and a great update to the “Out of Africa” dream.

The cre­at­ive, world-class meals at Tilney Manor are served on an out­door patio over­look­ing an indi­gen­ous garden and infin­ity pool. Ostrich, ante­lope and wild duck were daily fea­tures, paired with the award-winning wines from Steenberg Winery. All the movies, books and wild­life films had cre­ated a vis­ion of Africa that did not pre­pare me for the real­ity of South Africa today. It is more beau­ti­ful than Hollywood depicts, and its people, along with the anim­als, will make you want to return again and again.

Dick Dace is the Epicurean Publicist. He does lunch for a living.

Article from Sanbona Wildlife Reserve: Visit Sanbona at: http://www.sanbona.com

Useful Links:
Karoo Accommodation
Western Cape Game Reserves
Western Cape Accommodation