We’ve recorded so many magnificent memories trundling through the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve in our open-top Land Rovers, offering our guests front row seats to the Kruger’s most phenomenal wildlife sightings. The original Ross Pride at 20+ lions, old dominant males Tyson and Fabio, the Good and the Bad, the Trilogy, and now the Mapoza. Hundreds and thousands of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, kudu, warthog, zebra, and can you imagine how many impala? Epic leopards, honey badgers, porcupines, hyenas – the list goes on! And now, we retire our Land Rovers and welcome the shiny and new. A pair of Toyota’s tried and test, comfortable, classic, and brand spanking new Land Cruiser game viewers! Let the new adventures begin in these state of the art off-road machines!
The teams at Africa on Foot and nThambo are like family. Out in the bush, the guides spend weeks on end with one another, saying hello to new guests, and goodbye to those who have become friends by the end of their days in the Klaserie. Personal jokes and banter, and maybe a bit of healthy competition get the guides through their cycles, and there is certainly no doubt that practical jokes are pulled! Boss Man, Courteney Blunden, maintains a close relationship with the guides he appoints, and wouldn’t hesitate to pull a fast one on any one of them. The delivery of the new Cruisers seemed the perfect opportunity to catch out Africa on Foot guides Greg, Mike, and Enoch. When nThambo received the surprise delivery of their new vehicle last week, news spread to the neighbouring camp, where the guys were left wondering where their shiny, new game viewer was…
What must have been an agonising 24 hours went by, as Greg and Mike could only watch as nThambo’s sleek new game viewing machine purred passed them in the bush, until finally Courteney deemed it ‘time’. We secretly delivered the Africa on Foot Land Cruiser to nThambo Tree Camp where Courteney called for a ranger meeting. This was of course all part of the joke, and Kevin was on the scene, rolling camera, to capture the reactions of Greg, Mike, and Enoch as it was revealed that they too had been given a brand new Cruiser!
Being accountable for lodge property, and certainly the vehicles, is high up on the list of responsibilities as a guide, and when Luan, Ryan, and Issack at nThambo were bestowed the responsibility of these epic new Cruisers, it must have stung a little over at Africa on Foot! Now that the joke is over, both our teams are over the moon with the comfort and quality that comes with driving a Toyota Land Cruiser through the bush. Both vehicles have detachable canopies, which come in handy when summer’s temperatures soar into the 40s, while the individual bucket seats, cup-holders, a camera mount, and beanbag offer guests even more convenience when they are sailing through the Kruger, making memories to last a lifetime.
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