Doing some research on a "safari" / luxury retreat near Cape Town. Not looking to go to Kruger or Addo or anything.

Anyone been to Sanbona at all? From what i've found it looks rather nice but I haven't been able to find a huge amount of info on it.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

willow332a,

I overnighted at Sanbona about a year ago while doing a recognisance journey. The living conditions were plush de luxe, the price was just as plush :'( . The biggest problem was that the game viewing was absolutely terrible. Sanbona covers a HUGE terrain and after going out on two game drives I kid you not when I tell you we never saw a single animal. Our ranger tried her best to have us see game but all she could come up with was bushman paintings and a great spot to view sunset.

Overall in my opinion Sanbona represents a wonderfully expensive place to have a great rest without being able to see animals even though management claim this to be a game reserve/farm.

May I also add that I have heard a similar view about this establishment from other tour guides and operators who have done similar recognisances to the one that I did.

Hope this helps.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Hey there,

I worked at Sanbona for a month on a ‘student’ placement scheme a little over a year ago. It’s a lovely place, and being part of the Mantis Collection the lodges are far more comfortable the accommodation we and the staff were living in.

The game viewing isn’t ‘great’, but then it wouldn’t be. Sanbona is situated in the Small Karoo, a semi-desert area. - The reserve itself actually covers three distinct ecosystems, the Cape Fynbos, the Karoo and a very fragile lichen-quartz ecosystem that I can’t remember the name of. – Semi-deserts aren’t the best of places to see game, as the game is spread more thinly and, due to the sparse vegetation, are more adapt at hiding even from the trained eye of a ranger.

Sanbona is also a fairly new reserve and was until recently farm land that was heavily over grazed; as a result the management team have been limited by the authorities on the amount of animal that they have been allowed to release. There are multiple impact studies being run to try and determine just how much game can be sustained by the reserves unique ecosystem. Until those results are clear, only (relatively) small numbers of animals are being introduced each year. They face strict controls on the introduction of predators and, unless it’s changed recently, they are having to let the predator population expand naturally to the density that the reserve can sustain.

The major problem with Sanbona is that it’s a large area with fairly small population of game who travel around quite a lot and it can take a couple of days to track them down. Even the non-native species that they’ve been allowed to introduce to the north of the park, to cater for people wanting to see giraffe, white rhino (and white lions), have severely restricted numbers and are on short-term ‘loan’.

If you’re only planning to stay for a night or two, I wouldn’t advise Sanbona for a ‘safari’. But as a conservationist I would advise you to go; the reserve is run for the wildlife rather than the tourist, and in the long term that has to be much better. After all isn’t the point of a game reserve to protect animals and habitat for future generations. If you can go for a week or more you’re bound to see a fair few species; the staff, rangers and the wildlife department, work really hard so you can get in all the animals you want to see. - Even the student program was sent out on a few occasions to track certain animals because the guests were reaching the end of their stay wile I was there.

I took more flim that I would normally use in a year with me, and in a month I was still able to run out (twice!); and we weren’t out game driving every day; we spent most of our time putting up fences, taking down old farm buildings/fences, lugging rocks about to reduce the erosion caused by water run off from roads and all the other manual tasks that comprise of the back bone of conservation that you rarely hear about.

Here are some of the good photos:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=535647

Chris, your white lion pictures are beautiful! I didn't know there was such a thing.

Thanks! They're beautiful subjects.

They're native to the Zulu-Natal region but have been hunted out of existence in the wild. The two adults, Queen and Jabulani, were brought from captivity. They were bread for 'can hunting', where they're kept in small enclosures, fattened up (so you get a bigger skin for your wall!) and shot by rich 'hunters'. Sanbona brought those two as part of a planned reintroduction scheme, originally planned for Sanbona; however the white lion gene was never native to that area of South Africa, so they have only been given permission to keep them in a separate enclosure (which is more than big enough for them) with the long term goal of a reintroduction in their native Zulu-Natal. It’s unlikely that Queen and Jabu will ever be totally wild – Jabu was hand reared – but it’s hoped that their cubs or a future generation will be released into a wild population or normal lions, and our grandchildren may get the chance to see naturally occurring white lions.

<emailed to me, just passing it on>
Greetings,

Please fwd this to "Willow 332a" (my internet connection is too
unreliable and keeps crashing!), or post it as a response.

I read your Fodor's e-mail "Anyone been to Sanbona".
My name is Jason Turner, I am the lion ecologist for the
Global White Lion Protection Trust (WLT).

Sanbona is an exquisitely beautiful reserve and conservation
area. As regards their white lion project, they are an independent,
satellite project, that is assisting the long-term survival of the white lion.
For factual correctness, however:
Chris Thompson (unintentionally no doubt) misinformed you about
the area to which white lions are endemic ('native' to).
They have only ever occurred in one area on the Globe
and that is the Greater Timbavati region in the
Limpopo Province of South Africa. They have never occurred
in KwaZulu Natal - the white rhino was saved from the brink of
extinction and the core conservation area is at the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi
Game Reserve in KwaZulu Natal.

For your information, the organisation with which I am based, the WLT,
is busy with a world 1st, scientific reintroduction of white lions to the wild in their endemic
range. A pride of white lions has been successfully reintroduced to free-roaming conditions
and they are totally surviving on their own. You can find more information on our website:
www.whitelions.org.

P.S I would also suggest looking at travel opportunities with African Conservation Experience (ACE).

Kind regards,
Jason Turner

Lion Ecologist & Scientific Advisor
M.Sc Wildlife Management
Global White Lion Protection Trust
Tsau! Conservancy
(015) 793 0657
082-821 5730
[email protected]