Our first tour out of Durban was three-pronged. The first stop—and the reason we booked the tour—was a game drive in the Tala Preserve.

Up close with a journey of giraffe! This was our favorite moment of the day. Because we had a private tour, we were able to slowly exit the vehicle and walk a few feet out for a few photos. Pretty sure this is very much not allowed, but…well…

Reminds me of an African version of that famous The Beatles Abbey Road photo.

Up close with an elephant. More on this encounter below.

The giraffes as we first encountered them. This felt like such a quintessential setting for them!

This zebra was giving his younger brother the business for several minutes.

Our own private tour! Our guide proactively arranged this after we had arrived at the game reserve when he noticed that a number of kids were also going to be on our originally scheduled game drive. A pro move that really improved our experience—we were very grateful.

When we first discussed how to approach cameras for this trip, I told Jen that we needed long lenses so we could get a shot of a giraffe licking its own nostril, and well, mission accomplished!

Love the dried mud flaking off this white rhino.

Impala making a wild run for it.

Enjoyed seeing these two hippos, especially the youngin.

You spend a lot of time looking at animal butts during safaris, so here’s one of a zebra.

A silhouette of an impala

A flock of ostrich

We really enjoyed watching this browsing giraffe. Just chomped away for many minutes while we quietly snapped countless photos.

We very quickly got the attention of this group of water bucks.

It was brutally hot out, so most of our encounters were finding wildlife in the shade. This gorgeous tree spilled the shade out over the road, so that’s where this herd of impala spent their day.

A full body shot of a giraffe browsing an acacia tree.

A blesbok (heard of these before!) sporting some cool horns.

Natal Lion Park

The last two photos here, as well as the elephant one above, are from a tourist-trap called the Natal Lion Park. This was included in our tour, but…we wish it hadn’t been. Basically, it’s a zoo of sorts to ensure that tourists get their lion and elephant photos. The lions were in a very large (200+ acre) enclosure and you can drive your own vehicle around the roads looking for them. These were under the shade of a tree less than 50 meters from the entrance. They’re fed by park staff, and apparently get shifted between this park and various zoos.

The experience with this elephant felt especially tragic. You arrive on a hilltop elsewhere in the park, then a guy goes off over a hill and returns 15-20 minutes later leading an elephant over to you. Behind a wire fence, you hand a few carrots to the elephant and take some photos. Oy, no bueno. I can see why this place exists—tourists with just the day to explore off the cruise ship want to see a lion and elephant—but boy does it feel exploitative.

PheZulu Safari Park

The last stop on the tour was a visit to PheZulu for a “cultural experience” to watch some Zulu dancing. We weren’t especially interested in this—again, geared towards tourists—but sat through it anyway.