Sun, May 21
First day of total travel.
BOS → LHR
- 6 hours, 30 minutes
- Boeing 777
- 3,254 mi
LHR → CPT
- : 11 hours, 40 minutes
- : Boeing 777
- : 6,012 mi
Mon, May 22
Hertz
After 18 plus hours of travel, in typical fashion, I made Matt drive us to the hotel in a country that drives on the opposite side of the road. Fortunately for his left hand, we rented a Volkswagen and made it without incident.
The Westin Cape Town
We checked into our hotel where they put us in a suite and gave us the lay of the land.
Within two hours we were headed via Uber to Table Mountain where a cable car with a rotating floor whisked us to the top. It was a stunning day in Cape Town and we had amazing views with fresh air to keep us going. Park Rangers pointed out resident Baby Dassies: our first southern African animal sighting.
After a nice hike (at the top), we grabbed a beer and then took the cable car back down the mountain.
The Waterside Restaurant
That night we had dinner scheduled at the Waterside in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. This restaurant is part of the La Colombe restaurant group which has establishments throughout SA. This location sits on the water and is billed as more casual which is why I booked it. I am not sure what is casual about 9 courses, but every bite was delicious and a similar meal in the states would cost three times as much. No one was seated outside because we were traveling in “Winter.” The wine list was equally impressive, but I had to make some guesses: not knowing much about the region’s options. 8 courses may have been overly ambitious for the first dinner (or maybe we should have said no to the additional cheese plate), but it was definitely worth it. I would recommend and return. The V&A Waterfront was on my list to visit during the day but we ran out of time to check out the original Victorian buildings and the craft marketplace. Next time…
It's worth noting that Uber drop offs at the V&A have limited access (they can’t drive into waterfront area) so plan ahead. A helpful valet at one of the hotels made sure we met up with our driver after dinner.
Tue, May 23
After our breakfast, thanks Westin Cape Town, we jumped back in the VW Polo and headed south to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We had another sunny clear day with mild temps. We later learned this was unusual for this time of year.
Our first stop was in Simon’s Town to see an African Penguin Colony at Boulder’s Beach. Navigation was fairly straightforward: a few interesting road signs including a large painted reference to “Robots Ahead” which we never fully figured out [Matt: apparently a "robot" is a traffic light]. Parking for the Penguins was well signed and people were friendly. The Penguins were easy to watch and overall adorable.
We continued on to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, which is technically an extension of the Table Mountain Nature Reserve. Similar to National Parks in the US, you pay a fee to drive into the reserve. We headed to Cape Point first and grabbed the last funicular ride up the Cape Point Light before "load shedding" prevented The Flying Dutchman from running for another two hours. Views at the point were spectacular. This is where European ships rounded Africa en route to the east: it is not, however, the southern most point in Africa.
We did head over to the Cape of Good Hope: choosing to spend quality time with a small flock of Ostrich instead of the flock of Tourists. Our final stop on our way out of the park was the visitors center. There we encountered a large male baboon procuring, by force, a picnic lunch for his troop. The park is having a big problem with tourists feeding baboons (signs are everywhere warning people not to do this) and this interaction (along with subsequent bad baboon behavior in the parking lot) confirmed this problem. Luckily for us we had a date for a wine tasting in Constantia.
Klein Constantia
The Potluck Club
Our next dinner in Cape Town was at the Potluck Club. Located in the Woodstock neighborhood in a reclaimed Biscuit Mill, this place was right up our alley. Woodstock Brewery was down the street (the logistics of Cape Town make venue hopping more challenging). Dinner had Asian fusion influences and all of the dishes were big on flavor. We sat next to a couple from the US who were just beginning their honeymoon - we sent over drinks for them like a couple did for us 14 years ago in Venice.
Wed, May 24
Villiera Wines
We kicked off our last day in Cape Town with a drive in the opposite direction toward Stellenbosch. Our first stop, Villiera was known for their sparkling wine made in traditional champagne styles: referred to as Cap Classique. They had a few wonderful bottles (none of my favorites available to ship to the US of course…). They also have a small game reserve where they focus on indigenous plant restoration as well as wildlife preservation. We ended up on a private drive through the sanctuary and it was a great kick off: no big five here but we did see Giraffes and held chameleons!
Clos Malverne
We headed to Clos Malverne next for lunch. The Vineyard was very pretty and wines were good. Compared to the food we had elsewhere in Cape Town this was just okay.
Ouzeri
Our last dinner was at a Greek restaurant in Cape Town. We love a Greek place and this one did not disappoint. Recipes were inspired by Cyprus and other islands. We had excellent dishes many of them new to us including tasty mussels. Cocktails were innovative and they had the only SA orange wine I saw the entire trip. It was clear that most people did not order this wine and we watched the bar and wait staff try the wine. I think only 1/3 liked it.
Thu, May 25
The Westin Cape Town
Hertz
We left the Westin, drove the rental car back to the airport, and started our journey for our days of safari.
This was our first time on "real" safari and overall it was a great success. We ended up staying at two lodges in different locations due to scheduling constraints (i.e. I waited too long to book anything…). Although this made for a more challenging travel experience, there were some benefits to experiencing two separate lodges.
CPT → MQP
- 2 hours, 10 minutes
- Embraer 190
- 954 mi
Sable Tours transfer to Dulini Moya
Our first stop was Dulini Moya located in Sabi Sands (adjoining Kruger National Park). We flew from Cape Town to one of Kruger’s Commercial Airports and then were driven (about two hours) to the lodge.
Dulini Moya
We arrived just in time for a quick lunch and the afternoon game drive. Dulini runs three lodges in Sabi Sands and there are many other lodges in the area. Unless there was a pretty significant animal spotted, we did not see many other game vehicles.
Dulini was extremely accommodating. The level of service was outstanding and the drives were very interesting. The vehicles were comfortable and you could see very well from any seat. Coffee Break and Sundowners were elaborate even though it was all packed into our vehicle. Meals were gourmet and we were just figuring everything out when we had to leave and head back to the airport for our private flight to Phinda.
Dulini Game Drive
On each game drive, we were very lucky to see many animals. Some of the larger cats took tracking to locate. One of the "common" animals, Giraffe, we didn't see until our last drive when they were eating right off the road by the lodge. We saw more birds, cats, and other (Dulini, Phinda) animals then we were able to write down. Although, we definitely tried. Partial animal lists follow for each drive.
The story of the first Dulini drive was a big cat. Our guide kept the reason that we were driving to the far end of the park, but it turned out that a young male cheetah (which are uncommon in Sabi Sands) wandered in from Kruger. We took our turn viewing him while he sat comfortably in the open. We also spent some quality time with a Spotted Eagle-Owl which posed for us and didn't fly away for several minutes.
Fri, May 26
Dulini Game Drives
The story of the Friday evening drive was also a big cat. One of the dominant male leopards in Sabi Sands was spotted laying in the road. [The roads in Sabi Sands were, in fact, sand.] It was helpful for tracking and we spotted full body imprints left by rhino and others that implied animals were using the soft sand as a comfortable place to rest. This male leopard had just eaten, and was very full. Too full to be bothered to move off the road. Two vehicles at a time took turns pulling up the road towards the leopard and one vehicle would shine their spotlight on him. This provided great viewing experience as the light faded.
While we were focused on the leopard, a lone hyena snuck up on the back of our vehicle. Our guide noted that the hyenas, as pack animals, have learned to associate the safari vehicles staying in one spot with some creature having a kill nearby. This hyena, who was extremely cute as he looked up at us, kind of wandered around us looking for something to eat. Failing that, they wandered away.
Sat, May 27
Dulini Game Drive
On our last morning drive in Dulini, we spotted a small crash of rhino. The three young bachelors may have been responsible for the body prints we saw the day before. While we were observing the rhinos, another hyena came by looking for something to scavange. After running towards the rhinos, and immediately turning back, he proceeded to sit near the vehicle to clean himself.
We ended the drive by spending time with two sister lions. One of the two was nearing the end of her gestation, and spent a few minutes calling for her partner to return to her. Initially, we were going to wait for the male to show, but when he returned her call it was clear that he was quite far away. Spending time with the two ladies was a great way to end our time at Dulini.
Dulini Moya
Sable Tours transfer to Nelspruit Airport
On our transfer back to the airport, we saw another large group of elephants and later a solitary bull elephant. A good reminder that animal viewing was good at all times when near the parks.
MQP → PZL
- 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cessna (Light aircraft-single turboprop engine)
- 185 mi
&Beyond Phinda Rock Lodge
Phinda game reserve is located closer to the east coast and was more accessible to our ultimate destination in Durban. The Reserve is private unlike Sabi Sands which is open to Kruger National Park. Phinda lodges are all run by &Beyond and they have a total of 6 lodges in the reserve. The terrain where we stayed at Rock Lodge was very hilly and so it felt very different from our days at Dulini. The accommodations were more compact at Rock Lodge and because we arrived late to the lodge (due to weather) we had less time to acclimate. Regardless, the food was once again great and our game drives fruitful. We actually never experienced a Rock Lodge sundowner because we were tracking animals and did not want to stop!
It was easy to make comparisons between the two lodges, but I would recommend each of them just for different reasons.
Phinda Game Drive
We started our Phinda safari drives with more lions. We drove quite a distance to visit with one of the lion prides in Phinda. The pride was hanging out near their most recent kill. We were able to spend a bunch of time with two cubs, their mother, and the dominant male.
Sun, May 28
Phinda Game Drives
Morning
On the Sunday morning drive, we spent a few minutes with two sister lions. One of them has hip dysplasia, serious enough to be obvious when she walked. There was excitement about these two lionesses as something happened to their mother when they were young and as such they weren't given much training on how to be good hunters. They had recent hunting success and appeared to be in genreal good health.
Later in the morning our vehicle was alerted to an older female cheetah. We were able to observe her lounging near a copse of tree for a few moments before she was spooked by something. This lady spent a few minutes being freaked out while peaking out at the world from behind the trees before venturing back out. At which point, she freaked out again and made a break for it. There are no photos of the spooked cheetah moving, because when they really want to move: they do it at speed.
As we continued to drive around, we noticed many small herds of warthog. What appeared to be a female and several piglets. We learned that it was late in the season for there to be young that were dependant on their parents, but there had been a high amount of rain that that contributed to healthy plants and animals which led to an additional round of late offspring for several species. The warthog behavior, in particular, was pretty amusing. They would stand put and stare at the safari vehicles, but as soon as we would slow down or stop: they would make a break for it. Tails held high in the air as they ran.
Evening
The evening game drive was a little slow, relative to some of the earlier successes that we had. We were tracking a young male leopard, and he was leading us on a merry chase. While tracking the leopard continued, we did see a few rhino, and filled some of the slow time identifying and taking pictures of many birds.
Later on our guide received word on the radio that the leopard had been spotted near two male elephants. We joined forces with another safari vehicle to continue the tracking. After driving around "the block" a few times, Matt did spot the leopard as we drove past him and he raised his head to look at us. This allowed us to follow him for over an hour as he positioned himself for his evening hunt after sunset. Eventually stalking up to the edge of a group of impala, before laying down to wait for total dark to make his next move.
Mon, May 29
Phinda Game drive
On our ultimate game drive at Phinda, we finally were able to spend time with one of the animals that was meant to be more common: giraffe. As we drove out of the lodge gate, a small tower of giraffe were grazing right off the road. In the soft morning light, we had great viewing of a young calf eating alongside its mother.
We continued the drive, and it was another drive with limited success tracking. Our vehicle was clued in to the location of the two sister lions which we had seen previously. Unfortunately, the vehicle that called them in had just delivered their quarterly vaccines via dart. This caused the two to actively run away from vehicles that approaced them. Rather than chase them, and possibly cause a permanent negative association with the vehicles, we backed off and let them leave.
This provided time for spotting birds and other smaller creatures. One of those smaller creatures Matt was able to capture was a dung beetle and his very large dung ball. We had spotted a couple of them on previous drives, but they work their magic at ground level. Several feet below the level of the safari vehicles. This particular beetle we actually spotted his dung ball while we were stopped for amarula caffé. While our guide was explaining why a beetle might abandon a dung ball, the beetle came back to the road and resumed his attempts to roll the ball into the brush.
&Beyond Phinda Rock Lodge
&Beyond transfer to Durban
Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani
We ended up at the Conference Hotel in Durban and knowing that we would be spending the next few days tethered to the hotel grabbed an Uber over to Butcher Boys Morningside on Florida Road. A modern casual establishment reminded us of Steak Houses in the US. I had ostrich and it was delicious.
Tue, May 30
uShaka Sea World
A catered "welcome event" was held at uShaka Sea World. The location was super fun and the organizers did a great job. Catering was really good: Indian influenced including Durban’s famous Bunny Chow.
Wed, May 31
The Oyster Box Ocean Terrace
We headed up the coast with our European and Australian colleagues for dinner at the Oyster Box Hotel. Although the weather was stormy and we were not able to enjoy the seaside terrace, the ambiance of the classic and historic hotel was very fun. The hotel’s top floor Lighthouse Bar had great cocktails.
Thu, Jun 1
Mundo Vida
Our final night in Durban. We took a recommendation from new friends we made in Phinda and headed to Mundo Vida. The menu was seafood focused and full of locals. We tried more SA wines and ended the night with a Malva Pudding.
Fri, Jun 2
Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani
After checking out, we began the long journey home.
DUR → JNB
- 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Boeing 737-800 Passenger
- 297 mi
JNB → LHR
- 11 hours, 10 minutes
- Airbus A380-800 Passenger
- 5,636 mi
Sat, Jun 3
LHR → BOS
- 7 hours, 25 minutes
- Boeing 777-200 / 200ER
- 3,254 mi
