We flew into Johannesburg on a Tuesday and were picked up at the airport and driven to the Entabeni Game Park which was about a 3 hour drive north, ie 275kms.  Entabeni is a private game park and is just amazing, however, they say that in about 2 years time it will have doubled in size both in relation to the amount of animals and the hectares.  At the moment there are about 35,000 hectares.  It is a beautiful spot with a large flat sandy area at the bottom and then a sandstone cliff which, I think Charles said is about 500m high, and then another plateau type area on the top.  Both areas are separate as far as the animals are concerned.  They are divided by electric fences as they don't want the lions which are on the lower part to go up to the top, or the elephants on the top to join with the ones on the bottom. It is a very fine balance to have the right amount of trees for the elephants and giraffe, and the right amount of grasslands and game to support the lions and cheetahs and all the various kinds of antelope, zebra, wildebeest etc etc.  All of the animals roam freely and are not hand fed in any way.

 

The reserve has about 5 options for accommodation in various parts of the reserve, ranging from tented camp (which we were in) to lodges, to 5 star accommodation.  We chose the tented camp and are so glad we did so.  The "tents" were about a metre off the ground with a timber floor, canvas sides and thatch roof with a little balcony at the front.  They were lovely and comfortable with our own en-suite bathroom.  The giraffe, antelope, baboons would roam freely through the camp which was just amazing.  We never saw lions in the camp, but on the final night we could hear them roaring quite close by.  The roaring of a lion in the wild is just the most amazing thing. We were in the open land-cruiser truck one day and were about 3m away from a pride of lions which were eating a zebra they  had just killed and they all started roaring.  It just hits you in the chest, just incredible.  So, we are so pleased we chose the tent option.  There were about 110+ people there in the marathon tour group and about 30 of them were staying in the tent area.  About 30m away from our tent was the administration area which contained the dining room, bar, office etc.  Also an enclosed corral type area which had logs to sit on and a big open fire which they lit at night. All the tents and buildings had thatch roofs which were lovely and had a lovely smell when inside.

 

We were with a fantastic group of like minded people who all had running in common.  Everyone got on really well and we all really got to know each other quite well.  Every morning we would get up at 5:30 or 6 am and leave at 6:30 for a game drive for 3-3 1/2 hours.  We would do the same in the evening at 4pm.  We would have a lovely breakfast waiting for us when we returned, or in the evening they would meet the trucks with just a half a cup of hot chocolate and a hot face washer.  Then we would go to the open fire in the enclosure before having dinner.  We were not allowed to walk the distance of about 40m between the tents and the dining room without an armed guard.

 

The reserve is crisscrossed with trails that only 4 wheel drives vehicles could go on.  It is very sandy down the bottom.  We would set out and follow the animal's tracks or droppings and stop to listen to see if we could hear anything and eventually track them down.  It sounds incredible but the elephants can be one of the more difficult to find.  They can be deep in among the trees and you just don't see them, so the best way is to listen out for them.  They just push down the trees so that they can eat the leaves.  We saw the elephants twice down the bottom and once up the top section.  During one drive the elephants were pretty much surrounded by 3 vehicles and they only had a small gap to get through which they didn't like much.  The female matriarch was quite agitated and stood there facing us and flapping her ears.  We were ready to make a hasty retreat, but eventually she went off.  The rhino with a tiny baby were very close by and the male came right up to our vehicle.  Charles saw a cheetah in full flight chase down an impala and one of the other groups saw two lions kill a wildebeast.

 

We saw all of the big animals including, hippo, rhino, elephant, zebra, giraffe, lion, cheetah, buffalo, along with many kinds of antelope, wart hogs, jackal, civet, and heaps of other animals.  The only one of the Big 5 that we didn't see was the leopard.  They stay in the rocky areas and are quite shy and elusive.  Spending the whole week there was incredible because we knew we had plenty of time to see everything.

 

The marathon itself was fantastic.  It was a very difficult run.  About 55 ran the marathon and similar for the half.  Charles did the full and I did the half.  We started up on the top plateau.  There was about 5kms or more of uphill, some of it fairly steep on a nice fine gravel road.  After that we went down the escarpment.  The road down is concrete and is 3kms at 45 degree pitch.  If you know what a 45 degree pitch is on a roof, it is extremely steep.  It is virtually impossible to run up and almost impossible to run down for fear of getting out of control and ruining your quads. I actually stepped sideways down some of it and zig zagged some of it to save my knees.  Once on the bottom the marathon had about 10kms of deep, thick, dry sand.  The half only had about 1-2km.  That was hard going.  After that we went back up the 3km steep road and once on top most of the rest of the course was very rocky and stony and hilly.  You had to watch your feet the whole way for fear of turning an ankle.  So in reality, it was sandy, steep, hilly, rocky with  maybe 6kms of nice fine gravel to run on.  I did the half in 3.29 which I was excited about.  It probably took at least well over an hour to the steep section up and down, so my time was pretty good.  Even better, my knees were fantastic and were not sore afterwards.  I have been trying some so called "miracle" cure for my knees and I am reticent to say it is working, but so far so good, as my knees were great.  Charles finished the whole marathon not that long after me.  I can't remember his time but I think it was not much over 4 hours, maybe 4.10 or something.  Anyway, he came 4th which is a fantastic achievement.  During the run we ran through or past herds of wildebeast, zebra, impala and giraffe.  We found out later that the cheetahs were only about 100m away but the rangers weren't concerned about them.  The rangers had done shifts for more than 24 hours before the race, watching the lions to make sure that they kept well away from the runners.  However, all along the rangers were positioned with rifles.  We were told that if we did come across an elephant or rhino or something in our path we just had to stop and wait for it to go.

 

The night after the marathon everyone got together at the lodge at the upper level and had a big celebratory dinner which was fun.

 

The fellow that owns this reserve must be a pretty incredible person. Apparently he was an orphan and grew up in an orphanage.  He has great plans to keep on increasing the reserve.  He also has almost finished putting in tennis courts, running track, soccer field etc etc near the entrance to the reserve which he wants to make available to kids who are orphans.  He has also built a fantastic golf course, each hole designed by a famous golfer. They have made a 19th hole which is up on the top of the cliff, only accessible by helicopter.  They take you up there for a fee and you tee off over the cliff. If you get a hole in one they give you $1million USD.  So far someone has got on the green.  He has also teamed resources with some other people to create a company called "Legend" and they are breeding endangered species and disease free buffalo, which will all be introduced into the park at some point in time.  Right now the buffalo cost about $100,000 each to buy, so they want to get quite a large number before putting them in the reserve for the lions to kill!!!!  They are also breeding white lions which will eventually be introduced into the reserve also.

 

People always talk about Kruger and other large reserves, but I think this is much better.  At the large reserves the roads are paved and anyone can just drive through in their vehicles.  They are good if you want to see large herds of animals, however, to just live among the animals and go out in the open vehicles each morning and evening was just incredible.  It was amazing to just have the animals wander amongst the tents.  No private vehicles are allowed into the reserve.  The rangers are just amazing and well qualified and know so much.  They are also a lot of fun.  It wasn't just the game drive or the marathon that made the whole thing so wonderful, it was the complete experience of being with people for a week who were interesting, fun and great to be with.

 

We just had so much fun.