Dinokeng: The only Big Five game reserve in Gauteng

I still maintain that the best way to spot a lion in the Kruger National Park is to look for brake lights. And that you will always be guaranteed a sighting of the Big Five – the Toyota Hilux, the Toyota Fortuner, the Ford Ranger, the Land Rover Discovery and the Isuzu KB.

Given that the Women’s Day weekend was the first real opportunity for Gautengers to escape lockdown pressures and visit places in their own backyard, I should not have been surprised that the only Big Five reserve in the province, Dinokeng, should have looked like a Sandton Saturday, pre-Covid.

On a self-drive day excursion (which sets you back R250), which lasted around five hours and covered less than half the 21,000-hectare reserve, I counted 93 cars on the game drive roads. The automotive species far outnumbered anything wild we saw the entire morning and part of the afternoon.

The highlight of the safari was lunch at the restaurant at Tshikwalo Lodge. The food was good and was reasonably priced … and two adult elephants provided a midday floor show.

Tshikwalo Lodge restaurant. Picture: Facebook / tshikwalogamelodge

Social distancing was chucked right out over the electrified fence as people jostled to get a better view of the jumbos at ground level, while those on the top level of the restaurant – including my wife and others in our group – enjoyed their ringside seat.

Me? Meh. I’ve seen plenty of elephants in my time and this was a bit of an outing to a zoo, frankly.

Dinokeng is about an hour and a half from Joburg and its northern reaches touch the border with Limpopo. Apart from its comparatively small size (less than half the size of Pilanesberg), I found the area – which was a group of farms and game lodges who dropped their fences more than a decade ago – to be too packed with lodges.

There seemed to be one – with attached caravan and campsite – around every corner. And some of those corners, on narrow gravel game drive roads, became a bit hairy when your average Gautenger would come charging at you in his Audi Q5 after being hidden by the long, dry grass…

On the other hand, if you’re desperate to see animals – and are happy to drive long hours or wait patiently, Dinokeng is close enough to Joburg to make a day of it.

Koedoesrus Boskamp. Picture: Dinokeng Game Reserve

We ventured slightly further to stay, taking a self-catering lodge which is part of the Brian Joffe Leisure Collection. Reasonably priced, at R450 per person per night, Riverside Lodge is situated on the Pienaars River amid the massive trees of the riverine forest.

It was simply blissful to enjoy the sunsets and sunrises – with that particular aroma of African bushveld and river. And, on a two-hour game drive with lodge manager Suzanne, we saw more in 10 minutes on the Joffe game ranch than we did in a whole day in Dinokeng.

The highlight was watching an irascible hippo male bellowing repeatedly at us then, as we drove away, making a mock charge right across the dam to make sure we didn’t return.

Don’t get me wrong. Dinokeng might be just your sort of place. And, to be honest, if you say I’ve been spoiled over the years by my travel experiences in the bush, you’d also be right.  But, I am at the stage in my life where I won’t knock myself out to put ticks on a Big Five (animal) list.

After the oppressive confinement of lockdown, it is more than enough to be out in a place where your soul can breathe in again. And where you don’t have to listen to, or avoid, cars…

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.