Originally Posted by
onlysuites
My one issue with Kruger and Sabi Sands is the number of lodges in the area. Any decent sighting will have a waiting period and time restriction like you state.
Hi there, not all epic sightings have waiting periods and time queues (at least in MM). It depends where you are in the reserve and who discovers something first. Our first trip to the Klasserie was one queue after another when it came to cats. In 4 days, we saw lions once on 2 different days and the same for leopards MM queues? sometimes yes and sometimes not .
For ALL lodges, one thing that happens is tourists come to spend 2 or 3 days hoping for the big 5 and perhaps multiple times. Guides achieve this with communication, obviously. Inevitably, most reserves try to keep a 3 vehicle limit. If an animal such as a cat, young cubs or pups,or rhino is scarce there will be a lot of people who want to see it.
Something that is helpful for a fulfilling safari is choosing a reserve and lodge with good animal density to provide a plethora of sightings available. Unfortunately the way to find this is labor intensive, reading reviews from multiple sights, checking game reports, following social media sights if various lodges and guides or photographers who visit the lodges. More often than not, there will be some pricing correlation with sighting reputation.
I guess one thing you might want to think about and then communicate with your driver: do you value seeing a higher quantity of animals during the day? Specific animals? Or sightings with no one else around. Answers to these questions will be complicated for sure, and affected by time and budget considerations. (AND keeping your children interested 😊 )