Day 1

Depart USA on South African Airways non-stop to Johannesburg

Day 2

Transfer by free hotel shuttle to Metcourt Laurel Hotel at Emperors Palace.  Your hotel is in the huge Emperors Convention Center  with casino, shops, 6 restaurants, nightclubs and more.    A perfect place to unwind after your flight just 5 minutes from the airport.  Check in is at 2pm, but if room is available, you can normally check in sooner.

Day 3

Check out after breakfast and transfer back to Tambo International airport for your flight to Port Elizabeth – flight times to be confirmed.  Arrive at Port Elizabeth airport around midday and transfer to Amakhala Game Reserve – approximately 40 minutes.  Check into Leeuwenbosch/Shearer’s lodge.  Enjoy some leisure time and a late afternoon/evening game drive (depending on arrival time) on Amakhala Game Reserve in an open Land Rover in search of their wildlife – rhino (white and black), elephant, cheetah, buffalo, lion, giraffe, black wildebeest, zebra, tortoise and over 16 antelope species. Watch the sun set while enjoying drinks and snacks, before searching for elusive nocturnal animals such as spotted hyena, lynx, porcupine and spring hare.

Back at the lodge we’ll review the program for the safari, and prepare for tomorrow’s activities.

Overnight in Amakhala Game Reserve at Leeuwenbosch Lodge.

Amakhala Game Reserve began in 1999 as a joint conservation venture and today has six independently oned lodges. All are owner managed by the descendants of the original families who arrived here with the British settlers of 1820. For more information and images, please visit http://www.amakhala.co.za/

Dr William Fowlds and his family own and run Leeuwenbosch which consists of the Country House and Shearers Lodge. Built in 1908 and set in its own lovely garden, the Country House is a large and beautiful home, which offers true country living in every sense. Both spacious and comfortable, it has four en-suite bedrooms and a newly added suite.  Shearers Lodge was originally built in 1930 and used for shearing and classing wool. It has now been beautifully converted into four luxury en-suite bedrooms, one with a private lounge. All the rooms open on to a wide colonial verandah, overlooking indigenous gardens, rolling lawns and the quaintly charming Leeuwenbosch Chapel. Accommodation here is on a full board basis.

Day 4

Early morning tea/coffee followed by a game drive with a local knowledgeable guide on Amakhala Game Reserve. Search for the many and varied species of wildlife while enjoying the wide open spaces and fresh air.  Return to the lodge for breakfast.

Spend the rest of the day after breakfast with Dr Peter Brothers and/or Dr William Fowlds, wildlife veterinarians, learning more about the drugs we use in wildlife immobilization, the specifics of the species we are going to work with, dart gun systems and darts, and safety and protocol.  After lunch guest will hear lectures and load darts with water and fire them at a target….Enjoy some leisure time before a drink in the pub and dinner.

Day 5

Set off early morning, after tea/coffee/a light breakfast, to do some rhino work…..either on Amakhala Game Reserve, or on one of the other reserves in the district – maximum drive time normally one hour each way.

The final venue and work to be done will be finalized nearer the time, but the most likely scenario is that rhino needing to be ear notched and micro-chipped for management reasons and to help combat poaching, will be immobilized. DNA samples are normally also taken for storage/research. We hope to immobilize two animals for the group to experience.

On arrival final preparations are made and then the rhino will be located and darted by either Dr Fowlds or Dr Brothers – either from a helicopter or a vehicle, depending on the terrain, etc. We will endeavor to place guest vehicles so they can witness the darting procedure – terrain permitting.

When the rhino is immobilized and it is safe, guests will be allowed to leave their vehicle and join the vets, hands on! There will be an opportunity to help monitor and treat the rhino/help with procedures. Of course there will be time for those photos of a lifetime too!  Once we are done we’ll reverse the rhino’s immobilizing drugs, and watch him recover. Hopefully he heads off in a direction away from us!

We return to Leeuwenbosch Lodge to rid ourselves of some of the adrenalin that is sure to have flooded our bodies, and to discuss the morning’s adventure….

After lunch, enjoy some leisure time and an afternoon game drive.  Dinner and overnight at Leeuwenbosch Lodge.

Day 6

Today will follow the same format as Day 4, but today we plan to work with predators….

The most likely species are lion or cheetah, and final work will be decided nearer the time to ensure we do the procedures that are most needed at that time – remember, all this veterinary work needs to be done for veterinary/management reasons, and is not staged for your benefit. Your participation funds these procedures, thus contributing to conservation!

Once we have finished our procedure we again give an antidote, and when our patient is alert enough to safely be left alone, we quietly leave…..Once the job is done, we head back to Amakhala game reserve to assess the day’s work and enjoy some leisure time….Enjoy a late afternoon game drive on Amakhala Game Reserve.

Dinner and overnight at Leeuwenbosch Lodge.

Day 7

After early breakfast we transfer to Port Elizabeth Yacht Club for a marine excursion into Algoa Bay (weather permitting) – about 40 minutes. This ocean safari will give us a chance to possibly see dolphins, whales, sharks, seals and the island home of half the world’s population of African penguins. This part of the bay incorporates the marine component of the Addo National Park.  After our ocean safari we enjoy lunch (for your own expense).

Afternoon visit to St. Francis Penguin Sanctuary in East Cape.  This rehabilitation center provides the best medical and captive care of affected marine birds.  They deal mostly with oiled, sick or injured African penguins.  Also care for other visitors from far away places for rest and recovery.  Their aim is to return these animals to the wild in order to maintain population figures.  (In 2008, 37,000 penguin pairs were counted.  This number dropped to 28,000 in 2009.)  You will see the housing, nutrition and captive management of birds.  For visual overview, see “Penguin Diaries” for its current resident at PENGUIN RESCUE AND REHABILITATION

Day 8

Leave Amakhala early morning and head for nearby Addo National Park! (guided in an open game viewing vehicle). Spend a few hours exploring this park and its wildlife before having “brunch” at the camp restaurant (for your own expense) and browsing the souvenir shop.  Addo Elephant National Park lies deep within the shadows of the dense valley bushveld of the Sundays River region of the Eastern Cape. The original Elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained in the area - today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 420 elephants, 450 Cape buffalo, black rhino, a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. For the first time in over 100 years, lion and spotted hyena were reintroduced to the park in 2005.  For more information on Addo visit http://www.addoelephantpark.com/

Leave Addo National Park late morning/midday, and visit a local Aids Orphanage on the way back to Amakhala. This orphanage, run by a local couple, is situated in the small village of Patterson and is supported by Amakhala Game Reserve on an ongoing basis. Your safari cost includes a ZAR200  ($25) per person donation to the orphanage which will be used to purchase items they need. 

Return to Amakhala for lunch/early afternoon and enjoy some leisure time before an afternoon/evening game drive or a boat cruise in the reserve.  If we have not been successful or have had inclement weather on any of the two previous days, we will again try to complete our veterinary work today.

Day 9

Enjoy your last morning game drive on Amakhala, or simply enjoy a lie in.  Check out late morning after breakfast and transfer back to Port Elizabeth airport.  Fly to Johannesburg to meet with your flight back to the USA.

Day 10

Arrive USA in morning

ü  Board and accommodation as laid out above

ü  All land transfers in a comfortable air-conditioned mini-bus/4x4 when doing veterinary work

ü  Guides (Veterinarians Dr Peter Brothers &/or Dr William Fowlds for all specialist and veterinary work/activities, and various local guides)

ü  All practical work, tours, presentations and activities as laid out above

ü  All veterinary costs related to the rhino & predator work, thus sponsoring these procedures

ü  Entrance fees, VAT and Government Tourism levies

Not included:

§  International airfares - Call us to help arrange it.

§  Select drinks

§  Items of a personal nature

§  Gratuities

§  Medical travel insurance (compulsory)

Please note that due to the nature of this experience, times and plans may need to be adjusted slightly as we proceed – wildlife do not read itineraries very well! Please bear with us should this become necessary. Inclement weather can also ground the helicopter and operations!

Please note the following regarding the darting/other procedure/s:

While every endeavor is made to locate and dart the animal in question, factors such as severe weather conditions or illness involving the animal, which are unpredictable, may prevent the darting from going ahead. Every effort will be made to ensure that the client participates in the darting procedure, or similar, as laid out in the itinerary, but the animal's welfare will not be compromised at any stage, and a procedure may have to be aborted and the animal revived in certain circumstances. This may shorten the procedure/down time and hence the close up experience for the client. Brothers Safaris, its staff, and appointed agents will not be held liable for any losses incurred by a client as a result of such situations, and accept no responsibility whatsoever. Every endeavor is made to ensure the health and safety of all our clients, but any procedure with a potentially dangerous wild animal is of such a nature that certain circumstances may be beyond our control. Should any such situation arise which leads to death or injury due to any reason whatsoever, Brothers Safaris, its staff, and appointed agents, will not be held liable for any losses incurred as a direct, or indirect, result of such a situation, or our actions in such a situation.