Big five game

And it's only for guests 16 and older, which surprises some families when they first hear it.

Is there a version that is specifically about seeing the Big Five unfold?

There is, and it's rare.

Specialist guides only, built specifically around viewing Big Five animals safely at a ground level.

Not every camp offers it.

People tend to describe it as something you feel more than something you photograph.

A family with younger kids tend to do better with a guided nature walk.

It's gentler and there's no age cutoff on that one.

Two and a half hours from Johannesburg, no light aircraft, no malaria tablets, and we saw all of the big five in a day.

If you've written off a safari as too hard or too expensive, this is the episode for you.

Hi everybody and welcome to this week's edition of the Global Travel Planning Podcast.

Well, as I've got nothing else to compare it to, for me, it was absolutely fantastic.

Well, the thing I want to say actually, because Kruger's Park is about 30 times bigger than actually Hillandsburg.

But the Big Five, and we saw, so should we actually talk about what the Big Five are?

Go on then.

So the Big Five, which everybody wants to see, are Lion, Leopard.

I mean, I wouldn't have any trouble because I lift, but, I mean, I'd see how it would affect you guys for sure.

Yep, they said Kruger's, Africa's largest game reserve, home of the Big Five.

That's why everybody goes

there.

The Big Five? So, what, LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia Bulldogs? Well, elephants, rhinos,

leopards, lions, and buffalo.

Oh, that big five.

Got it.

We went out in a vehicle on safaris.

We saw all the big five.

You saw

all five?

because from there we actually can decide what's best suited to that person and what they're wanting not just saying okay we'll go here and then it ends up being completely disappointing for that person and because that's the thing there isn't just like one destination that's perfect for everyone

yeah exactly and that's something we we really see is someone might say i want to see the big five but that doesn't necessarily tell you where they can go you can see the big five in a lot of reserves across the country but what about that place um makes it the one for you um so maybe they're traveling with children or want something that's family friendly or malaria free so it's safer if they're traveling with very young children maybe they're wanting a photographic experience you know a destination that's really good for photography um so then that also also changes things or maybe they want a really like exclusive luxury experience or a combination of all three right so that's where we come in because at the end of the day Most safari lodges are going to market themselves as a luxury lodge.

Most of the lodges around are going to say, we cater to children.

And then because they've got a good gallery of photos, now they think it's also really good for photographer.

But sometimes there's destinations that overall can take a lot of boxes and some are more specialized.

um yeah so yeah

and you know that's actually where knowing the different destinations becomes really important for example medicare is really really good for malaria free and as well as like medicare for us is specifically child friendly just because the lodges they are specifically designed that it's child friendly like more younger children you know whereas somewhere like sabi sands mala mala is more suited to like classic luxury big five safari experience with like incredible leopard viewing but it's a little bit less on the child-friendly side yeah some of them are child-friendly yes but maybe not so young children you know and also because of the fact that it's not a malaria-free area

yeah that changes a lot of things like obviously There's areas that aren't malaria-free areas that you can still go to, you just have to consult a doctor, or you just go in a sort of non-mosquito season.

So it was actually bloody good.

So... yeah it was definitely a highlight i think it helped having um guides that were really really passionate about it um and they were really wanting to you know show you the big five we saw what four of the big five

yeah we saw the no i think we saw three because we saw cheetah not leopard and i believe leopard are one of the big five i mean it's there i literally didn't see the buffalo but i think we did yeah we might have spotted a butterfly buffalo buffalo but yeah Yeah,

definitely seen.

We saw some lions, which was pretty impressive, which is pretty cool.