ELECTRIC EXPEDITIONS

Your next big five excursion could be battery-powered. Richard Holmes has unearthed the ‘shocking’ details

Picture the scene: there’s an African sunset at its finest beyond an acacia tree. You’re perched on the back of a game-viewing safari vehicle. Beyond the bonnet is a sighting that’ll set tongues wagging back at the luxury game lodge you’ve escaped to for the weekend. To give everyone on the vehicle a good view, the ranger decides to move the Land Cruiser forward a few metres.

The diesel engine rumbles into life, spews a cloud of black smoke into the air and lurches forward. Just in time for you to watch the leopard, aardvark or (insert once-in-a-lifetimesighting) melt away into the undergrowth, alerted by the noise. The ranger shoots everyone a sheepish grin and the Cruiser rumbles off in search of its next sighting. The sense of disappointment can be palpable.

“It was my pet hate on a game drive, and I thought there must be a way to improve on this,” grumbles Japie van Niekerk, owner of the luxurious Cheetah Plains lodge in Mpumalanga’s exclusive

Sabi Sands Game Reserve, where four-bedroomed bushveld houses start at R90,790 a night.

But aside from raising the bar for ultra-luxury safari lodges, Cheetah Plains is also part of a revolution in the safari industry as operators make the switch from noisy diesel-guzzling game-viewing vehicles to whisperquiet electrically driven 4x4s.

Haul out the diesel engine, tanks and fuel-burning bits, drop in a few battery packs, control gizmos and an electric motor, flick the switch and you’re ready to roll away in silence. That leopard won’t be scared away again.

Converting the power source in game-drive vehicles from combustion engines to electric energy isn’t a new idea. In Botswana’s Chobe National Park,