Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), South Africa - More Safaris!

Hello Everyone!

We arrived in the port of Gqeberha, South Africa early this morning, 1 Apr 2026. We were supposed to dock at 6:00am, but pea soup fog forced us to delay until about 7:30 or 8:00, when it finally lifted enough that we could bring a pilot onboard and proceed into the harbor.

Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, is a coastal city in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, sitting along Algoa Bay on the Indian Ocean. It’s known for its long sandy beaches, laid-back vibe, and as a gateway to nearby wildlife areas.

In 2021, the city was officially renamed from Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha to reflect local heritage and indigenous languages. The new name comes from the Xhosa name for the Baakens River that runs through the city. While the spelling and pronunciation (with a distinctive Xhosa click) can take a little getting used to, the change is part of a broader effort in South Africa to recognize pre-colonial place names and cultural identity.

Today's port call was all about safaris. There are numerous public and private game reserves, elephant parks and other wildlife-related activities within a reasonable driving distance. Viking had about a dozen shore excursions available today and all but two involved some form of safari.

I chose to go to the Kwantu Private Game Reserve about 50 miles north of Gqeberha. The Reserve is a roughly 6,000-hectare (nearly 15,000 acre) Big Five safari reserve located on the Sidbury Plains in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. It’s known for offering a relatively accessible, family-friendly safari experience with a mix of savanna, bushveld, and rehabilitated farmland, along with animals like elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, and leopard.

The area has a long past tied to early farming and frontier settlement, but as a wildlife reserve, Kwantu traces its origins to the early 19th century, when the land was set aside to support wildlife populations.

The name “Kwantu” comes from an old Xhosa word meaning “place of gathering”, reflecting both the landscape and its cultural roots.

Starting in about 1990, the land was restored from agricultural use into a conservation-focused private reserve, with wildlife reintroduced and managed for tourism and ecological sustainability. Today, Kwantu combines conservation, tourism, and community initiatives. It's a smaller, more accessible alternative to some of South Africa’s larger safari parks while still offering a classic “Big Five” experience.

We began our three-hour game drive by visiting the rehabilitation section of the reserve. Here they keep animals (mostly big cats) that either can no longer be released into the wild, or those that can be rehabilitated and released.

They had several white lions there. African white lions aren’t a separate species or subspecies. Rather, they’re ordinary African lions with a rare genetic trait that affects coat color. They're not albino (total absence of pigment leading to a white coat and red eyes). It comes from a condition called leucism, or  reduced pigmentation. Their fur ranges from pale blond to almost white, and the eyes are usually blue, gray, or amber (not red). They're quite striking.

Female White Lion

The white lions were in the rehab center because they don't survive very long in the wild. Their light color makes camouflage harder, especially in dry grass, and that reduces both hunting success and survival rates.

Male White Lion

There were several "normal" African lions in the rehab center as well. I don't recall this male's story, but they told us he was due to be released in the near future.

Male African Lion

This female had been out in the reserve on her own, but developed the unusual habit of killing just for sport. She'd stalk and kill animals like zebras and wildebeest, but then eat only a portion of a leg before abandoning the kill. a couple days later, she'd do it again. When it began to be a problem within the reserve, they moved her to her own large enclosure within the rehab center. 

Sport-Hunting Lioness

This female Bengal tiger, a non-native species in Africa, was formerly a cub owned illegally by a Chinese couple living in Port Elizabeth. As she grew and became too much to handle, they surrendered her to the authorities and she was subsequently moved here. 

Female Bengal Tiger

The park itself was huge, with a combination of gently rolling hills, grasslands, acacia forests, thickets, and shrubs. It reminded me of West Texas.

Wide-Open Park Land

Unfortunately, the timing of our visit was poor from a wildlife-viewing standpoint. Although it coincided with a nice (relatively) cool early fall day (mid-80s), our game drive was from 11:30 until 2:30, the hottest part of the day. That's the time when most of the animals are taking it easy and cooling off in the thick brush. Consequently, we saw no lions, leopards, or cheetahs. 

But there were herd animals in abundance. We came across a large and diverse "community" of animals in the vicinity of a watering hole. This is a common practice among zebras, warthogs, wildebeest, antelope, etc. There is safety in numbers, and they're all herbivores, so there's no temptation to eat each other.

Wildebeest

Mixed Herd

Watering Hole

Blesbok

Termite Mound

Springbok

There was a pair (male & female) of gigantic white rhinos. They were about as big as I've seen them. We learned that, like the last park we were in, they cut the horns off the rhinos periodically here to discourage poaching. Their horns are made of keratin and grow back like our fingernails would. These two are about ready for another trim.

Female White Rhino

Male White Rhino

The big cats were all napping for their siesta, but we did get to see a LEOPARD (tortoise...).

Leopard Tortoise

Impalas

We thought we were going to miss the elephants because we'd been driving all over the park for about two hours and hadn't seen any. But finally we spotted a clan on a nearby ridgeline and were able to make our way over to them and get a close up view. It amazes me how softly they can walk. They don't make a sound.

Cow Elephant

After the safari, the staff of the game reserve fed us a very nice buffet lunch, then put on a short but energetic African dance and drumming show for us. They made part of it "audience participation", and somehow I got pulled up to the stage to try my hand(s) at one of the drums. It was actually quite fun. Here's a video of my debut as a (non) native drummer.

Xhosa Dance Performance

What's Next?

Tomorrow (2 April) we'll have a day at sea as we make our way to Cape Town, South Africa. We're continuing our slow journey westward and are due to enter the Atlantic Ocean at about 8pm tomorrow night. We'll round the Cape of Good Hope at about 2:00 in the morning and arrive in Cape Town four hours later, about 6:00am on Friday, 3 April. We'll be there overnight, and I've got three excursions planned.

Stay Tuned,
Jim