Sanbona has brought elephant, herds of springbok, cheetah, hartebeest, white rhino, hippo and lion back, plus introduced some exotics such as giraffe. And some of the lions carry that rare white lion gene. They have recently been released into the wild and are hunting successfully despite being snowy white blobs on a brown canvas. Unfortunately, some of the prize cheetahs have have found themselves on the menu too. Yet, we failed to find them on the game drive, despite their lack of camouflage and despite the fact that they wear radio collars.

The small herd of elephants spends its days chomping its way through the reed beds above the Bellair Dam, while sizeable herds of springbok pronk across the stony flats. We happened upon a cheetah kill in the morning, where three cheetahs had downed springbok. We were able to walk to within twenty metres of them while they fed, as they are habituated to humans.

I would recommend Sanbona for a unique African wildlife experience in close proximity to Cape Town, for its remote silence and to sample the Little Karoo biomes that it protects like Montagu Shale Renosterveld and Quartz Vygieveld. The latter is a component of the southern extremities of the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot, one of three in South Africa and one of eight in Africa. Sanbona also includes Cape fynbos vegetation types, and along with the Renosterveld it is a component of the Cape Floristic Region, another hotspot.