Filicki

We had a quick flight from Sweni to Boulders Lodge but arrived fairly late in the afternoon. Similar to Sweni, our guide, Lucy, met us as we were stepping off the plane. It was about a 5 min drive to Boulders. Our rooms at Boulders were more spacious than Sweni and had private plunge pools, which was welcome as the weather continued to be extremely hot. We started our drive later because of the heat. Drive 1: 5pm Dec 10  When we got into the jeep, Lucy said we were going to look for the wild dogs but warned it was highly likely we wouldn't see them. Filip said that Meredith hadn't seen buffalo yet either, so maybe we could look for them as well. Lucy warned us that was a possibility but it also didn't seem very likely. After heading towards where the dogs had last been seen, Lucy heard they had been found, so we hurried along- as it wasn't clear if they would stick around. Fortunately we got there in time. We tried following them, but they ran into the thick bush. After...

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, our greeter met us up in the lobby and shuttled us to the small private airport behind O.R. Tambo, where Singita had a private room for us to wait for our puddle-jumper. Our plane to Kruger Our guide, Chantelle met us as we stepped off the plane, she helped us with our luggage and loaded us into her air-conditioned van for a 30min drive to the lodge. Once at the lodge we checked into our rooms, unpacked and then headed out for our first game drive where we met Glass, our tracker. Hippos entertained outside the lodge for our stay The weather at Kruger was really hot- around 100 degrees F in the afternoons, so game drives were either at 5:30am in the morning or 4pm in the afternoon when it was a little cooler.  Drive 1: 4pm Dec 7 We were fortunate the weather was a a lot cooler than typical for our first drive and we saw lots of impalas, elephants and giraffes. In Kruger, the guides are connect via radio and one Chantelle's colleague had an excit...

Aslam drove us to Mount Nelson Tuesday afternoon where we would be spending the next few days. We were a little nervous that it would not be able to compete with the Ellerman House, but Mount Nelson didn't disappoint.  We had very spacious room with a large balcony with a view Lion's Head, and as the weather had cleared we felt teased by the clear sky after our morning hike in the rain. Our room at Mount Nelson Mount Nelson is a large resort, particularly in comparison to the Ellerman House, and is mostly pink. Our check in gift was craft-your-own-pink-gin-and-tonic station and pink macaroons, which we had a lot of fun with. Filip crafting our pink gin-and-tonics Gin-and-tonics and macaroons on our balcony After enjoying our treat, we walked around the expansive hotel grounds and then took a walk in the Company's Garden, a large park in the middle of downtown Cape Town adjacent to the hotel, where we spotted an albino squirrel who seemed to be as curious about us. Playing i...

After a very long couple of days, we arrived in Johannesburg, SA on Thanksgiving Day and stayed overnight at the Intercontinental Hotel, conveniently located across the street from the airport. Despite feeling exhausted, we rallied, got dressed up and had a lovely Thanksgiving meal at Quills.  Our dinner included Kudu carpaccio, chicken liver and Springbok fillet. Friday morning we had an early flight to Cape Town and after collecting our luggage, we met a driver from the Ellerman House who delivered us to our home for the next 4 nights.  The Ellerman House is truly a special boutique hotel, almost indescribable. From the front it appears to be a modest home, but it is anything but that. The Relais & Chateau resort includes 13 guest rooms and 2 guest houses, an art museum and a restaurant with creative dishes. As our room wasn't ready when we arrived, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the patio with some light whale spotting in the ocean.  We had a lovely room with a l...