What an amazing, adventurous holiday!
We started with a group of 28 people – 5 males and 23 females, but unfortunately one person had to return home from Cape Town due to family circumstances. Our fantastic Tour Manager was Ann Forsey (Annie). She was brilliant. The local guide was Carol and she too was amazing. She remained with us throughout the tour in South Africa.
Our flight to Cape Town was delayed by ca half an hour. We were very lucky with the weather on arrival and after a short orientation tour of the city, we visited Table Mountain. The cable car ride up the mountain was thrilling! Being a clear sunny day, the views from the Mountain were beautiful. We arrived at the hotel around 16:00. Included dinner was at Richard’s Supper Stage and Bistro, which included a Cape themed show. The food was delicious.
The next day we had a dull cloudy start to the day and it was quite chilly. This was the day to explore the Cape Peninsula. Most of us did the optional boat trip to Duiker Island to see the seals. I have never seen so many seals in one place and it was a sight not to be missed. It was very cold and windy at the Cape of Good Hope. The sun came out when we reached Cape Point. There were lots of warnings about baboons, but unfortunately we did not see a single one but there were lots of Starlings ready to pinch your food! On the way back we visited the penguins at Boulders Beach and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We were lucky to see a whale on the way back from Cape Point.
On day 4 it rained a lot, sometimes heavily. We did a walking tour of the Malay Quarters, visited the Bo-Kaap museum and the mosque followed by a delicious home cooked lunch served by a local family. Since we were a large group we were divided into two smaller groups and each group visited a different family. The lunch was a hurried affair as we had to be back at the hotel by 13:30 for those who were doing the Cape Town township tour. I had opted to go to Mount Nelson for the afternoon tea. This was much better than afternoon tea at Claridges (can’t compare with Ritz as have not been there). I for one could not face dinner after lunch and afternoon tea so decided to skip it.
We departed Cape Town on day 5 for Stellenbosch. We had two stops for wine tasting. After an overnight stay, we left for Oudtshoorn on day 6, visiting the Ostrich farm along the way. Left for Knysna on day 7 and visited the Cango Caves. Really beautiful and well worth the visit. Along the way we saw mountain zebras and baboons. I opted out of the optional township excursion as this was the only free time I had during the whole trip. Usually I do all the optional excursions. I enjoyed browsing the shops near the hotel which was situated right by the waterfront. On day 8 a few of us arranged an early morning trip to the Knysna Elephant Park for elephant encounters. I thoroughly enjoyed the close encounter with the elephants. We all purchased a bucket of food to feed the elephants. After the visit we went on the included trip to Featherbed Nature Reserve. Most of us walked down from the top with the aid of a stick! The scenery and views were great. This was followed by a buffet lunch under the shade of milk wood trees.
Day 9 was a very early start at 4.30 to travel to Port Elizabeth to catch the flight to Johannesburg. On arrival we went straight to Soweto for a tour and lunch. After lunch we visited Nelson Mandela’s house, which is now a museum. We reached our hotel ca 16:30 so this was a very long day.
On day 10 we took the Panorama Route to Kruger. Lunch stop was at Dullstroon. On the way we visited the 3 Rondawals, God’s Window and Bourke’s Luck potholes. The scenery was lovely but the day was very long.
On day 11 we went on an early morning game drive with our breakfast boxes! We were very lucky to see the Big 5. Besides the Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) those on the same Jeep as me saw bush buck, cheetah, hyenas, zebras, giraffes, warthogs, impalas (lots of them!), nyalas, kudus, wildebeest, baboons, leopard tortoises, duiker, crocodiles, hippos, mongoose, steenbok, waterbuck, warthogs and lots of birds including brown headed parrot, lilac breasted roller, red bull oxpecker, black headed oreo, snake eagle, tawny eagle. I also did the optional afternoon game drive. We say lots of rhinos and 2 leopards. One leopard crossed right in front of the jeep after lunch – this was the same leopard we saw in the morning, but from a distance. We all got great photos of the leopard.
On day 12 I did the morning bush walk (I think there were 6 of us) and we were very lucky to see the wild dogs. Apparently seeing a wild dog is much better than seeing the leopard or a cheetah as there are very few of them left. The walk was very interesting and we learnt a lot about animals, termites, trees etc. We also saw green pigeons. On the optional afternoon game drive besides all the other animals, we saw two lions basking in the sunshine before walking away. There were only 6 of us in the jeep. Those doing the full day drive returned to the hotel about 16:00, but we did not get back till after 18:00. We saw the beautiful sunset in the Kruger National Park. Unfortunately Kruger is experiencing the worst drought and had to cull 800 hippos. It did rain on the day we left Kruger for Johannesburg. Rainfall is desperately needed. There was hardly any grass for the grazing animals.
On day 13 we headed back to Johannesburg. Those of us doing the Victoria Falls add-on were dropped off at the hotel before the rest headed back to the airport to catch their return flight.
On day 14, we went on the sunset cruise along the Zambezi River. It was great to relax enjoying lovely views. We saw crocodile, hippos, split billed storks, fish eagles, communal spiders nest and other birds. All drinks and snacks were included. I skipped dinner as could not face any more food!
Day 15 was the full day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana. All 12 of us went. Besides warthogs, monkeys, elephants, impalas, water bucks, tree squirrel, vultures, marabou storks, African spoon bills, crocodile, sable antelope, zebras we saw a lion with a kill surrounded by vultures. He was guarding the kill from the vultures! We did the jeep safari in the morning and the river cruise along Chobe River in the afternoon after the included lunch. I enjoyed the cruise as we were able to get close to the animals. Saw lots of elephants – in fact they were everywhere you looked! Also, saw hippos, crocodiles, black herons, water monitors, king fishers, red lechwe (may not have spelt this correctly, but they are similar to deer).
On day 16, my day started with an early morning micro light flight. Three of us did the 30 minute flight and two 15 minute flight. Having never even been in a helicopter, I thoroughly enjoyed the flight and would highly recommend it. I was lucky to see a mother rhino with a baby (we saw a line of tourists with a ranger getting ready for the walk to find the rhinos- so said the pilot) besides hippos, crocodile, zebras, elephants and saw great views of the Livingstone Island and the rainbow over the falls. We flew into Zimbabwe! On return to the hotel, after a quick breakfast, we went on a guided tour of Victoria Falls in the morning, followed by a visit to Mukuni Village. There was hardly any water on the Zambian side, but some on the Zimbabwe side. In the evening 11 of us went on the Royal Livingstone Express for dinner. What an amazing experience!
On day 17, despite an early start at 06.30, two of us went on a cheetah encounter. We were back about 09:00 and after having breakfast it was time to get ready to leave the hotel at 11:00 for the airport to fly to Johannesburg to connect with an evening flight to Heathrow.
This was a very hectic holiday, but I personally enjoyed every second. I wish we had at least one more day in Zambia if not two as there was no time to visit Livingstone Island. We had to try and fit in as much as we could. If there was enough time, then besides Livingstone Island I would have loved to ride an elephant and have a close encounter with lions (both these were available at the same place as the Cheetah encounter). Perhaps Just You will take note and make the Zambia add-on 4 nights as previously. I can’t understand why, instead of increasing the day(s), Just You reduces the number of nights/days for the add-ons? I for one would gladly pay a bit extra for more days as it does make sense when one has already flown many miles to be there.
The only thing I did not enjoy was flying with BA. On the way out they had over booked and I did not get an Aisle seat. There are far too many seats and hardly any room to move. You sit rigidly for 11+ hours and you get up feeling stiff. I also did not get an aisle seat on the return flight. Both journeys were very uncomfortable. In trying to fit in as many people as possible, BA is compromising on people’s health. Given a choice, I would not choose to fly BA. Also, instead of loading the plane by rows, it is ‘free for all’ after the First, Club and Premier Economy passengers have been loaded and this results in congested aisles.
Please feel free to ask any questions.
Jaya
A very interesting and comprehensive report, which has strengthened my resolve to do this trip in due course - but only after the Zambia add-on has been lengthened!
I spent two weeks in August in the Waterberg/Limpopo area, ending at Kruger, and was also struck by how dry everything was (apparently there had been almost no rain during the preceding wet season) - the Limpopo itself was not much more than a river bed, and I think I could have walked across it into Botswana or Zimbabwe.
One question: I saw all the wild life you did, including a surprisingly large number of rhinos - but, as far as I could tell, they were all white rhinos. Did you manage to see any black rhinos? I got the impression that these were even rarer than the wild dogs, and only to be found in particular places.
