One Giant Leap

• Share

Most people who go on South African safari holidays hope to see Big Five game — lions, leopards, buffalos, rhinos and elephants — but what about the Small 110? That's how many South African frog species there are, and Amakhosi Lodge, a five-hour drive southeast of Johannesburg in the Kwazulu-Natal province's 10,000-hectare Amazulu Game Reserve, is offering frog-tracking safaris to find them (tel: [27-034] 414 1157; www.amakhosi.com). Frog watching can involve three-hour sessions of nocturnal wading; a headlamp leaves your hands free for holding a net and a guidebook.

Expect to see up to 12 species a night, from the sharp-nosed grass frog, which holds the world record for longest amphibian jump, to the foam-nest frog, which lays its eggs in — you guessed it — a foam nest. The reserve is home to over 20 species — more than in the whole of Europe — but it's not just frogs you'll experience.

"You see a huge amount of other life as well, including creatures rarely seen on big-game drives because the habitat is not accessible," says Alwyn Wentzel, the lodge manager. "Rare serval cats, monitor lizards, terrapins, aquatic birds, cane rats, pythons" and more. But why does the safari leader carry a rifle? Because the Big Five frequent the watering holes, too.