Where Is Safarigal?

In the middle of the night I could feel the gentle movement of the ship. Previously when sailing from Cape Town,  the first night out was like sailing through the Bay of Biscay. The Cape rollers  caused the ship to pitch and roll, it was always a rough crossing....

Cape Town We had breakfast in the Kings Court, looking out over the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. In the Kings Court you no longer serve yourself, the waiters serve you. I actually quite like this, I think it’s better than using the same serving utensils that...

Cape Town The flight to a very rainy Cape Town went smoothly. We had had to check our carry-on bags, but all of our luggage made it there. We took a taxi to the Mount Nelson Hotel for check in for Queen Mary2. It was about 4:00 PM by the time we reached the hotel....

Our last morning here. This really has been the most wonderful lodge. Idube was nice, and the leopard sightings were amazing, but I have totally fallen in love with Kambaku and the Timbavati reserve. I had such mixed feelings as I tried to finish packing our...

We woke up at sunrise. I had apparently slept through the hyenas calling, and neither of us heard the lions. We took some photos of the hide, Brian made himself some coffee, and we sat in the swing chairs watching a couple of hippos return home to the dam. It was...

We started off the morning tracking a lioness, but her tracks disappeared into the thick bush, so we lost her. Then looking up at a nearby ridge, we saw a couple of elephants, so we thought we would stop by and see what they were up to. After a very bumpy drive we...

They do things early here – wake up is at 5:00! No phones though, our guide, Phanuel,  comes to our door and says “knock knock”. Much better. It was just the 2 of us on our game drive again, which was great. Phanuel had heard that there were wild dogs in the area...

Our final game drive at Idube was great. No rain today, and lots of animals. We had our final morning tea break at one of the many dams. Then it was time to finish packing, and say a fond farewell to our friends. I wish they were able to join us at Kambaku. Our...

We were awoken with the phone ringing at 5:30 AM. Back in the old days of staying in tented camps someone would come to our tent and call “knock knock” and bring a tray of coffee and orange juice to our tent. Not here. There is a telephone in our room (horrors),...

We are planning on staying at 2 game lodges on this trip. Our first lodge is Idube in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, and our second is Kambaku in Timbavati. Both are in the general area of Kruger Park, and are said to have great game viewing. We have not stayed at...

The end of a journey It was a noisy night on the train. But I still loved it. We rattled and rolled along, with frequent stops on the way, but you really knew you were on a train. Breakfast was excellent as usual (what’s not to love about eggs benedict and...