Luxury travel company &Beyond and wildlife broadcasting experts WildEarth have come together to stream twice daily, personalised wildlife drives that you can view from the comfort of your own home.
Lasting approximately three hours, the drives will be streamed in real-time from two of South Africa's most regarded private reserves: &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve and Djuma Private Game Reserve. Both are on the fringes of Kruger National Park, with Ngala being located in the greater Timbavati Private Game Reserve and Djuma within the adjacent riches of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve.
The non-scripted drives are authentic wildlife experiences and will follow the sounds (and footprints) of wildlife until sightings occur. Hosted by expert field guides from &Beyond and WildEarth, these drives will be streamed over a variety of social media platforms every day during April. With the help of a director in a control room, the live feed will move between three or four cameras to bring you the best wildlife action as it unfolds. This should create a seamless multi-feed virtual wildlife drive. You will be able to interact with your safari hosts and have your questions answered in real-time, just as if you were actually within the 4WD vehicle.
These online drives will allow you and other wildlife enthusiasts to track the lives and unfolding narratives of some of the continent’s most enigmatic wildlife characters, such as Thandi, a well-known female leopard and her cast of feline relatives. Also sure to play a staring role is the Birmingham lion pride, whose story straddles both reserves. The females of this pride are currently at &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve, where they are famously raising two white lion cubs, while the pride’s male coalition moved south to Djuma Private Game Reserve some years ago. But know that this pride is but one of many you may encounter on these drives.
The first 45 minutes of each afternoon drive will be dedicated to young wildlife fans, with the guides answering questions asked by children during this time only. You can sign up your children by selecting a date on wildearth.tv/kids. You or your kids can then email kidsquestions@wildearth.tv for age-appropriate and personalised responses.
Drives are starting daily at 6am (8am GMT) and 3.3opm (5.30pm GMT), though this may vary slightly due to the changing times of sunrise and sunset. For viewing, log on to www.andBeyond.com to connect to Wildwatch Live. The drives will also be screened via &Beyond's Facebook and YouTube channels. Be sure to interact with the guides by asking questions on YouTube or using #wildearth on Twitter.
In addition to these broadcasts with WildEarth, &Beyond will also be hosting Instagram Live sessions led by guides from &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve; to view these, simply follow @andBeyondTravel on Instagram, go to Notifications and select Live Videos and make sure “Get all Notifications” is selected.
