A bad choice of flight left me very little time to collect my hired car and race out of Johannesburg city before the afternoon peak traffic congestion. Slipping out just as the congestion started, I had 3 ½ hours easy drive on good tarred road to get to the western entrance to Madikwe Game Reserve at Wonderboom gate. The friendly security guard at the gate greeted and welcomed me. After signing in, I entered the game reserve and enjoyed my own little game drive en route to my lodge where I would stay for a night. Ah! How nice it was to be back in the bush! Peace and quiet!

 

On arrival at the beautiful Impodimo Game Lodge, Steve, the owner, gave me a warm welcome, offering a cool cocktail to quench my thirst. The security guard at Wonderboom Gate communicated my arrival to Impodimo Lodge so Steve was at the entrance to lodge waiting for me when I arrived. My luggage was transferred to my luxury suite and Steve gave me a quick orientation tour of the lodge.

 

My late arrival meant I missed the afternoon game drive and sundowner drinks in the bush. All game lodges are booked on an all inclusive basis, including all meals, 2 game drives per day and some lodges include drinks. My pre dinner drinks were enjoyed on the balcony overlooking the open plains of woodland and grassland below. A popular waterhole near the lodge kept us entertained as game strolled in to drink. A delicious dinner was enjoyed in a traditional boma, our dinner tables placed around a roaring bon fire under the clear African sky.

 

The unfenced camp meant that I required an escort to my room by an armed game ranger. What luxury! I felt like a real lady! My luxury suite had its own private deck looking onto the open game area, a large colourful four-poster double bed draped with mosquito netting, a beautiful bathroom and a great outdoor shower.

 

An early morning wake up call had me jumping up in excitement. It had been years since I was last in the bushveld surrounded by game. I was looking forward to the open vehicle game drive. We enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and some delicious snacks before heading out on the drive. Roddy, our chatty game ranger ensured that we enjoyed a great gaming experience with spottings of lion, elephant, hyena, black rhino, black backed jackal and numerous very colourful birds species.

 

We returned to the lodge to enjoy a full buffet breakfast attractively arranged in the bar area at the swimming pool. As we sat down with our first serving, a small herd of elephants strolled up to the swimming pool just a few metres away from us and started drinking out of the pool. Wow! What an encounter! Who needs a game drive when you can sit in comfort at the lodge and watch the game come to you?

 

I decided to vary my stay in Madikwe by including 2 different lodges to stay at. After breakfast at Impodimo and a bit of time with the ellies, I then made my way to Mateya Lodge, a 5 star experience like no other! With immaculate attention to detail, the lodge is intricately designed, has magnificent arts and crafts from all over Africa and offers 6 star service! Exquisite!

 

On arrival I was welcomed with hot hand towels and an exotic cocktail, my hired car driven to the car park and my luggage carried to my suite. I was invited in for lunch on the deck overlooking open plains and a water hole where game roamed freely. 

After lunch, I was lead along a raised wooden walkway to my private suite. It was more like a house! It was huge! The spacious, beautifully decorated bedroom opened up to my own private deck and plunge pool overlooking the open plains where the game roamed. The bathroom, almost the size of the bedroom, complete with all the luxuries fit for a queen!

 

After a quick nap in the comfort of my suite and a dip in my private plunge pool, I joined the rest of the guests at the lodge for high tea. Aware of the 5-course dinner that awaited us in the evening and having already enjoyed 2 large meals today, I struggled to taste some of the delicious looking snacks at high tea!  The atmosphere was ignited with excited chatter between the game ranger and the other guests.  Being foreigners they had not experienced the Africa wildlife before and were enthusiastic about the afternoon game drive, which would take place after high tea.

 

Equipped with binoculars, mammal and bird books and an experienced game ranger we set off in our open 4×4 safari vehicle for our afternoon drive through the reserve.  Our spottings were excellent and included sightings of lions, elephants, a leopard on a kill, a small family of bat eared foxes and hyena. My 300 zoom lens allowed some good close up photos. After the drive we all gathered for dinner on the deck and shared our excitement of our days sightings. The meal was exquisite and the company was fun, drinks flowed until late in the evening.

 

After a good night’s sleep I took some time to enjoy the luxuries of my suite. Top quality bath products in a steaming bubble bath had me lulled to a light sleep. A luxury skin lotion pampered my body and prepared me for a new day.

Breakfast was yet another magnificent display of good food, a huge selection of tasty things to choice from.

 

My time in the lap of luxury had come to an end. I had a plane to catch to get me back home by the evening. “Farewell until next time” I said!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where to go on a weekend in South Africa? Botswana

Southern Africa is becoming a new long-weekend destination for the British. There’s no time difference, the flights are overnight (both ways), and you waste no precious daylight hours travelling.

The good news is that the aeroplanes depart around 8pm, so dinner; sleeping and breakfast are at the right time in the right order. The pleasure in travelling or sleeping overnight on a plane to South Africa however is that you wake-up to a different and dramatic landscape; fresh air and smiling warm faces and if you are lucky, some snarling animals as well.

BEFORE YOUR GO

The best way to travel on your weekend is to pack light and travel easy. The out-going flight is on Thursday, so carry a bag, small enough to smuggle in and out of your office:

Hand luggage can include your binoculars, camera and travel books you’ll need on safari

Arrive at the airport well before time to have a glass of champagne and some smoked salmon at the Caviar House.

Travel in the loose chinos or combat trousers you’ll wear for game drives, plus the baggy cotton or fleece jumper

Take a pure down baby pillow: it squashes up small, you can cosy up to it on the plane and it’s invaluable in the camps where pillows are hard.

JOHANNESBURG – MAUN

Your wake-up call is a few thousand meters above Johannesburg. You have the choice to eat on the aircraft or at the airport café that is decent and above the excellent book- shop. Buy Sasol’s illustrated guide to the birds of southern Africa and the Sasol mammal book. This is the old Africa hand’s library; your guide will be dead impressed.

From Johannesburg, there’s a comfortable connection to Maun in Botswana. The two hour flight allows another opportunity for a nap or a quick introductory lesson from your book. At Botswana, we change into another plane for the last hop to adventure. The time to go to Botswana is in our summer when the Okavango Delta swells with water from Angola.

OKAVANGO DELTA

There is mystery and romance of the Okavango’s waters. Much of the fun in viewing wildlife here is by a boat. Some prefer the big boat but the sound of silence is so potent that I prefer the traditional makoro. As we glide slowly above water, Hippos pop up on each side. We paddled to a far island where birds chatter volubly in the reeds. On ground, there is a herd of buffalo munching the water meadows and there are tracks of lion and elephant.

I spent my afternoon watching a fluffy, magnificent prince among raptors – the rarest, Pel’s fishing owl. He stood there contemplating us as I looked at him through my binoculars and hurriedly reading notes in my bird book. In the sunset, that was one of the most spectacular, we could see a lion pride feeding on a zebra.

En route to the tent we met the mamba, rampant, while I was withering along behind the camp manager. But when someone freezes in the bush, you shut up and freeze. The mamba dropped from its striking position and slithered off. I saw the swish of the most scary tail in Africa. Quite as bracing as my pre-lunch shower.

MOREMI WILDLIFE RESERVE

The next day, I flew to Khwai River Lodge in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve that has a drier, harsher environment. Moremi lies in the centre of the Okavango Delta. It is undoubtedly one of the world’s most beautiful wilderness areas. Moremi is a place of lily-covered wetlands, grass plains and forests, where even at the busiest time of year you’re likely to be the only spectators at even the most dramatic animal sighting.

The lion were at Khwai. Actually, the whole drama of life and death was at Khwai. Wild dogs are back here — a rare treat — and a pack drove a baby water buck into the river. The baby made piteous juvenile water-buck noises, its mother was frantic, the wild dog hovered at the river’s edge. And the inevitable happened: the arrow-like ripple in the river, the black little eyes (nature’s periscopes), the snap, the squeal, the thrashing hooves, the closing of the waters and Mr Crocodile had served himself dinner.

The next morning, while on a drive with our guide, we breakfasted with the lion. We were watching birth of a water buck in the reeds by the river’s edge when our guide heard the roar of a lion in the distance. Just as lechwe began its precarious journey in the wild, we drove into the wilderness.

The pride sat at their table without knife and fork but tidily eating their breakfast, a zebra. A few feet away and in our Land Rover, we opened our packed sandwiches. The lionesses regarded the vehicles with a lack of interest bordering on contempt; were one to get out, however, the time span between touching the ground and becoming a second course would be minimal.

CHOBE NATIONAL PARK

Our next flight hop was to Chobe, often described as one of, if not the best, wildlife-viewing area in Africa today. Savuti boasts one of the highest concentrations of wildlife left on the African continent. Animals are present during all seasons, and at certain times of the year their numbers can be staggering. Its uniqueness in the abundance of wildlife and the true African nature of the region, offers a safari experience of a lifetime.

The most remarkable feature of the Chobe National Park is its huge concentration of elephants. But it’s not just the elephants that make this special park worth visiting. It’s so wild, a leopard made a kill in the Car park just before I. arrived and blood stains from a wild dog kill were still visible nearby.

Savuti Channel, a strange waterway that seems to have a mind of its own, bisects the park. The channel was dry for one hundred years, then flooded abruptly in the 1950s and remained flooded till the 1980s, when shiftings of the subterranean tectonic plates caused it to dry up again.

The journey home is a sleepy crash- out, arriving back in good time in the morning. Jet lag? Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. There’s nothing but buzz, excitement and a heightened sense of living; about going so far and seeing so much.