Gabrielle26

Hi

I’d like to thank all of you who helped me organize this trip, and gave suggestions on places to sleep, eat and visit during my stay at Cape Town and the winelands, as well as Sabi Sands. I wanted to write a report on my trip, because everything I read from this forums helped me a lot on getting a better perspective of the country, as well as what to expect from a trip like this.

First of all, I´ll have to say that it was amazing, we had a great time on our stay there, we were worried about the weather but were blessed with sunny days and no rain at all. The people were great, warm and receptive. Scenery, among the most beautiful I’ve seen. And the safari experience everything I´d hoped for and more.

A bit about us, we are a couple in our mid 30´s from South America (so English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes I make), who enjoy travelling, wine and dining. Our differences: my DH is not into nature at all, to tell the truth he wasn´t very excited about the safari portion of our trip, but ended up having a great time, and decided that in a few years we should take our kids back to experience a safari together. So I guess that´s a good sign. We´ve been together for 11 years and have visited many countries before we met, but as a couple we´ve traveled to Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Spain, and a few places in the US including Hawaii.

We booked our trip with Southern Destinations, they took care of our flights in South Africa, lodgings, transfers, and tours.

Our itinerary looked like this
Day 1 Arrive in Johannesburg, overnight stay at the D’Oreale Grande Hotel
Day 2 Flight transfer from ORTambo to Hoedspruit. Stay at Simbambili Game Lodge for 3 nights
Day 3 – 4 Stay at Simbambili
Day 5 Flight Transfer from Mpumangala Airport to Cape Town. Drive to Franschhoek, stay at The Franschhoek for 1 night
Day 6 – 10 Stay at Radisson Blu in Cape Town
Day 11 Depart Cape Town

The first day we arrived at the D’Oreale, we didn´t do much, we were very tired after our flights, it took us 26 hours since we left home until we arrived at Johannesburg, plus the jet lag, we really only wanted to rest. We walked around the Emperors Complex for a while, and decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at Ocean´s basket. The food was good, and at a very good price, after our meal we went straight to bed, way too tired, didn’t even get to gamble a little in the casino. The hotel was nice, very comfortable bed, big room, we woke up and went to have breakfast which was really good, great variety and choices. And then to the airport for our flight. We traveled on South African Airways, the flight departed at 10:00am and we arrived in Hoedspruit around 11:00am if I'm not mistaken. The airport is really just a landing strip as far as we could tell, and our driver was waiting for us to take us to Simbambili.

The ride was only about 1 hour and 15 minutes, nothing eventful happened, but we got to see a giraffe, a few impalas, and 3 warthogs, which was exciting, kind of a nice preview of what lied ahead for us.

Upon our arrival at Simbambili, we were greeted by two ladies who were really friendly, I cannot remember their names, who brought our release forms for us to sign, and then showed us around the lodge and our room. DH says he will not forget my face when one of them instructed us not to forget to lock our doors when we were not in our rooms, since the monkeys would come in to find the sugar for our coffee and eat it on our bed. I thought she was joking.

We were gladly impressed by the room, we stayed at Room 2, it had a romantic feel to it, the balcony was a great space to lie around, the plunge pool was freezing so we never actually used it, the bathroom was very comfortable, the shower was so cool, nothing blocking your view, in fact later on I would get to see some elephants walking towards the waterhole while I was taking a shower. Amazing!

After inspecting our room and getting our stuff out of our luggage we went to have some drinks. At the public area they had some books about the African Wildlife which I checked for a while. Everything was so relaxing, I loved the place, I was so glad I was finally there, it was quiet, and warm, and exotic, I can tell you I felt like this was the reward for all the planning, and booking, and flying, and spending all that crazy time in so many different airports, it felt like I could just sit there and absorb the view and stay there forever and I could be happy.

KayeN

Hi Gabrielle26

For English not being your first language, you have done very well!

Also good to hear you had a great time and that your husband ended up enjoying the safari portion - 3 nights would never be enough for me but then neither is 28 nights! I also love the Sabi Sands area for great gameviewing with most of the cats, leopards and lions, being relaxed while being viewed.

I have some serious back issues, but when gameviewing it is like I am 100% fit, as I love it so much!

Kind regards
Kaye

Gabrielle26

Thanks Kaye.

I wanted more days as well at the safari, but 3 was all I could bargain with my husband, I'm already looking forward to our family trip, which by the way is in about 4 or 5 years, but who cares, the good thing is I'm going back.

Gabrielle26

Moving on with the trip report,

After our drinks I realized I had left my camera on the vehicle that drove us from the airport, I was about to have a heart attack, how could I have left it there, and how was I supposed to go on my first game drive ever without a camera. Fortunately the girl at the reception called the driver and asked him if he could leave my camera at the Sabi Sands gate, and someone from the lodge would go and retrieve it.

We went to have our lunch, all the people from the staff introduced themselves to us, they were all really friendly and kind, I am awful with names so I only remember Reinas, but really all of them tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible. The chef came out with our lunch dish, which he proceeded to explain. It was an array of different items including chicken kabobs, fresh salad, feta cheese, black olives, some sort of turnovers filled with minced beef, and a fruit platter, as dessert we had ice cream with fruit on a stick. Everything was really good and fresh. After our lunch we went to our room to grab our sweaters and jackets to go on our first game drive. Hopefully with my camera.

I was really happy when I arrived at the reception area and my camera was there waiting for me. They introduced us to Lazarus who was our ranger and Joseph who was our tracker. On the vehicle aside from us, were a couple from England who barely made it to the game drive since they had just arrived because their plane was delayed, and a lady from Australia. After a few safety instructions, of we were on our adventure. There are definitely no words to express how excited I was.

First thing we saw were a few impalas, then some zebras, a couple of warthogs, and for the highlight of the afternoon we saw a pride of lions with their kill, there were 2 male lions, 3 female lions and 6 cubs. We stayed there for a while just looking at these amazing creatures, the cubs were nursing and one of the male lions was eating and wouldn’t let the others close to him. Lazarus kept telling us how lucky we were to have been able to see them since it is not easy to spot the whole pride because they don’t usually stay in that area of Sabi Sands. We then went to find a leopard but were unlucky, and on our return we saw a glimpse of a buffalo but didn’t stop since it was already dark.

We had dinner that night at the Boma, we had a choice of ostrich carpaccio or vegetable soup, and beef or dorado, and for dessert chocolate mousse. We had a bottle of Leopard Leaps Cabernet Sauvignon, after dinner we went to our room to rest to be ready for our very early wake up call.

At 5:30 we woke up, went for coffee and left for our morning drive. I never dreamed it was going to be that cold, as I had followed the advice on the boards I had dressed up in layers, but I can tell you 5 layers barely kept me warm, I also had gloves, hat and a scarf, and I had to cover myself with the blanket from the car and the hot water bottle became my best friend. It was really cold!

We went looking for the leopard that we couldn’t find the night before, Joseph and Lazarus went on foot while we waited on the vehicle, after a few minutes we saw them rushing back to the car because they had spotted a leopard kill. An impala was hanging from a tree, and the leopard was on the ground right next to the tree, we were really close, and I manage to take what I think are really nice pictures. After a while we left and found some more impalas, zebras, giraffes, a hippo, and then we returned to the leopard and we found her this time with her 2 cubs. One of them was on top of the tree feeding. It was a really good morning.

When we returned we had breakfast, the special of the day was scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. Then we went to our room to rest for a while, look at the pictures we had just taken and just lay on our day bed. I really loved that day bed. After a while some monkeys came to our balcony, and one of them was trying to get into our bathroom (or at least I was convinced he was), the other was drinking water from the pool, my DH tried to shoo them away but with no luck, they just didn’t pay attention to us, but I have to confess I got a little nervous and was chased away by the monkeys.

We wanted to go get a massage at the spa or something but were just too lazy, and stayed in our room looking at the waterhole, until 2:00pm when it was time for lunch. Again, the food was good, we had a choice of spinach and apple soup or asparagus wrapped in crocodile carpaccio and seared tuna with papaya relish or vegetable spring rolls. We both chose the carpaccio and the seared tuna, and for dessert we had homemade peppermint and chocolate chips ice cream. Really good!

After lunch we left on our afternoon drive, now the weather was warm and pleasant. It was only 4 of us now, since the lady from Australia left that morning. This time we saw impalas (which of course you see them on every single drive), we went to find the leopard with the cubs again, they had almost finished the whole impala by now, kudu, giraffes, a group of elephants (don’t remember what is the name for the group), and 4 rhinos. My husband was really excited because rhino is his favorite animal.

We stopped for sundowners, looked at the stars, the sky was so clear but no moon. On our return they were waiting for us with amarula, I had never tried it, I found it a bit sweet but good. Our dinner that evening was on the river bed, it was a buffet, we had soup, corn on the cob, ostrich neck stew, kudu, lamb chops, sausage, chicken, and pudding for dessert. I was starting to worry about weight gain, but then again I was on vacation so I might just as well enjoy everything about it. Overall it was a great day, but again we were really tired, and by 10:30 we were in bed, wondering what the following day might bring us.

I just realized how much I have written, I hope this is not too boring.

kmkrnn

Loving your report. We are looking forward to our October trip to the same area. I am courious as to which South american country you are from. You said it was very cold in the AM ,and I guess it depends on the climate you are use to. I am trying to judge how many layeers to bring, realizing Oct will be different from when you were there.

Gabrielle26

Hi kmkrnn

I'm from Ecuador, really warm weather. I lived for 3 years in Boston though a while ago, so I'm not new to cold weather, I guess it was the wind factor that really made those 2 mornings that cold. But it was only for around 1 hour to 1 and a half hours, after that the layers were no longer needed, and we would arrive at the lodge wearing just a t-shirt when it was 10:00am.

My husband only needed 3 layers though, shirt, fleece and jacket plus scarf(but was very happy with the blanket and hot water bottle), he had no gloves, but said he would have prefered to have them with him.

We were there on July 21st

Hope that helps

sealstep

Sounds like a wonderful trip! Looking forward to the rest.

cw

I'm enjoying your review and love when you said: "it felt like I could just sit there and absorb the view and stay there forever and I could be happy."

I totally agree but have never said it as well as you did.

rhkkmk

also enjoying your report...

Gabrielle26

Thanks for your encouraging words.

On our last full day at the lodge, I can tell you, I really wasn’t excited about the cold, but of course it was not going to stop us from enjoying our game drive. I kept telling myself it’s just for a little while, the sun will then come out. After coffee, the 4 of us left on our 4th game drive, we found impalas, kudu, 3 buffalos that were lying down on the edge of the path, a tiny deer looking creature that I think is called steenbuck or something like it (English not my first language, I have to start looking up the names of the animals in both languages so I can properly tell people what is it that I saw) and then Lazarus told us that he really wanted to show us a couple of adult leopards, we spent more than an hour looking for them, DH was starting to get really bored, and I was worried he might not want to go on another game drive ever, but finally we found them. I was really amazed by the skill of these guys (tracker and ranger), how they manage to “read” the road, the signs, the prints, it was really impressive.

Back to the leopards, we found both of them walking side by side towards the tree where the female leopard and her cubs were the day before. They told us this couple of leopards were Tyson and Safari, a female leopard who had lost an eye. We took a lot of pictures, they went up and down the tree, they started growling at each other, the female leopard started walking toward us, so we got a good look at her face and her missing eye, poor thing. Leopards really made an impression on me, I found these creatures to be so elegant and regal, graceful in their movement, and they look so strong, really amazing.

The day repeated itself as the day before, except for the monkeys that didn’t show up this time. For lunch we had a platter dish that consisted of meat balls, fresh salad, butternut squash kische, a tomato and feta cheese filo pastry, potato salad, and twisted sisters with ice cream for dessert.

On our afternoon game drive we saw wildebeest, elephants, around 400 buffalos, first we were right in the middle of them, we got to see them really close. Then we drove to a waterhole and watched them as they ran towards the water. It was an impressive sighting. We then saw impalas, zebras, kudu, waterbuck. Afterwards we went to a lagoon where we saw a huge crocodile, and around 19 hippos in the water. At that spot we had our sundowners as we watched the sunset. We saw an African white eagle flying, but no picture. My husband wanted to see hyenas but we gave up on them after a while, and what do you know, right when we decided to go back to the lodge, 2 young hyenas decided to cross our path right in front of us. They surprised us, so I could only take one picture of one of them, but we got to see them.

On our arrival to the lodge we were offered more Amarula, and then we went to dinner. We had basil and tomato soup, kudu skewers with apple and cous cous, and a cheese platter, with a bottle of Merlot. The staff sang Shosholoza, the national anthem, and another song that I don’t remember, and said farewell to us and welcomed a group of 6 people from the Netherlands. We stayed up a bit longer this time and sat by the fireplace, some of the waiters told jokes while we drank some more wine.

We had to leave at 8:30am the next morning, so we could not go on the game drive. We woke up a little bit later, had breakfast, the special of the day was Benedict eggs. Our driver picked us up for our transfer to Mpumangala airport. I really did not want to leave, I had an amazing time, everyone was so attentive, friendly, warm, I cannot find any fault on our stay at Simbambili. Of course I don’t have anything else to compare it to, but all I can say is everything was perfect.

KayeN

Hi Gabrielle26

I am so pleased that you had such good gameviewing and that you enjoyed it! You will now understand why some of us can never get enough gameviewing as I don't think I will ever see everything I want to see and I know I can always get better photos!

Kind regards

Kaye

Gabrielle26

Definitely Kaye, I enjoyed everything about the experience, and know I could go back a hundred times and still want more.

Here is a list of the animals we saw, I used a checklist that the lodge provided and looked at one of their African wildlife books for help with the animal names.

On game drives
Buffalo
Duiker
Impala
Kudu
Steenbok
Waterbuck
Wildebeest
Monkey
Elephant
Zebra
Leopard
Lion
Giraffe
Hippopotamus
Hyena
Hare
Warthog
Mongoose
Crocodile
African Fish eagle
Vulture

At the lodge waterhole
White Tailed Mongoose
Saddle billed stork
Impala
Waterbuck
Monkey
Elephant
Giraffe
Warthog

I guess I´ll try an upload some pictures. I really don’t know much about photography, so it was just point and shoot for me, no special lenses or anything. But my family really enjoyed them, so I hope you guys like them as well.

Gabrielle26

Here's the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4118146...7621967286660/

KayeN

Thanks for those photos Gabrielle26 - you did a great job! The terrapin on the hippo's back is a funny photo. You did have some great sightings. Shame about the female leopard but she seems to survive in spite of having only one good eye.

Kind regards

Kaye

Gabrielle26

The Winelands

Upon our arrival at Cape Town, our driver and guide Mark was waiting for us. He drove us to Franschhoek where we stayed at The Franschhoek. This was the best stay on this trip. The bedroom was cozy, the bathroom was big, warm floor and towel racks in the bathroom were a really nice touch, we found a hand written note welcoming us signed by Conrad and Franklin, the managers. We had reservations at The Tasting Room that evening, so we freshened up after our long journey (3 hours road transfer to the airport, 2 hour flight, 1 hour transfer from airport to Franschhoek), we helped ourselves to a glass of scotch for DH and vodka tonic for me, and sat by the fireplace while we talked and waited for our dinner time. We walked from the hotel to the Quartier Francais where the Tasting Room is located, it wasn’t a long walk and it was a chilly night but nothing we couldn’t handle.

At the Tasting Room we were presented with our menus, we could choose between an eight course meal with or without wine pairing, or a 5 course meal. After studying the menu we both decided we wanted the 5 course meal, and ordered a bottle of red wine, I believe it was an Akkerdal Wild Boar.

http://www.lequartier.co.za/cuisine/the-tasting-room

My choices were:
Crisp skinned silvers, gnocchi, wild mushroom, vanilla. (which was good)
Seared tuna, pea crushed potatoes, tomato, parmesan (good but not the best I’ve had)
Roasted wildebeest loin, aubergine soufflé, butternut, tomato (DH and I agreed this was the best dish of the evening)
Tomato sabayon, parmesan sorbet, parma ham, basil. (For lack of a better word it was “weird”, not bad, just something you do not expect, kind of like the textures didn’t match the flavor, but I enjoyed it, I can say I tried something different)
And for dessert Bitter chocolate, apricot and basil (it was really good)

And my husband chose:
Sweetcorn and truffle soup
Seared tuna, Pea crushed potatoes, tomato, parmesan
Magret duck breast, cherry quinoa, prawn, black pepper jus
Roasted wildebeest loin
And the bitter chocolate

We enjoyed our meal a lot, we asked for a copy of the menu, which they provided nicely tied in a green ribbon. And we walked back to our hotel

When we arrived, we had to double check it was our room, at first we thought we had walked into some other people’s room. It was filled with lit candles, there were rose petals on our bed, there was a champagne bottle with glasses, and 2 crème brulee dishes by the bed. It was lovely!

The following day Mark picked us up at 9:30am, after breakfast which was really good, we went to walk around Franschhoek, and then we drove to the Motor Museum, my husband is a fan of cars, so this was a highlight for him. Afterwards we went to Waterford State for some wine tasting. We tasted 11 different wines, and the last 3 were accompanied by chocolate.

After that, we had lunch at Guardians Peak, we both had the pear and gorgonzola spring rolls, and as an entrée I had the linefish, and DH had pork’s neck. He said it was really good, I didn’t try it, didn’t sound appetizing to me. Both dishes with wine pairing, the starters and the pork neck with a glass of Guardian Peak merlot, the linefish with the Sauvignon Blanc. The view from the restaurant was really nice, you could see the vineyards, the mountains, and it was such a sunny day that we really enjoyed our time there.

http://www.guardianpeak.com/restaurant.htm

We then drove around Stellenbosch, saw the university, some of the cheetah sculptures caught our attention. And then we went to Spier for the cheetah encounter. This experience didn’t live up to the expectations, we had our picture taken with Joseph a 7 year old male cheetah. At the time the cubs were almost as big as the adults so we did not pay the extra money to have our pictures taken with them. I wouldn’t recommend this.

Then we drove to Cape Town to the Radisson Blu where we did our check in and went to our room. The room was really big, with ocean view and a balcony, a living room with a door that would close to give the bedroom some privacy. It was nice but nothing spectacular, I think we were spoiled after the previous night.

We went for a walk at the V&A waterfront, and upon our return ate at the hotel, again nothing spectacular. I had mussels and a tomato and feta cheese risotto, and DH had beef carpaccio and seared tuna. I had a glass of chardonnay with my meal.

In retrospect, I would have liked to stay one more night at the winelands to do some more wine tasting, really be able to take in the atmosphere, and visit some more restaurants in the area that I had heard were really good. That’s another reason to return one day.

Gabrielle26

Cape Town
The first day in Cape Town, Mark picked us up at 9:30 and we went to do a city tour. We went to Table Mountain, but could not ride on the cablecar since it was closed for maintenance. Still the view was amazing, then we went to Signal Hill were we could see the new stadium being built for World Cup 2010. Then onto the Cape malay Quarter, Castle of Good Hope, Distric Six, Greenmarket square where I bought a few souvenirs and got to practice my bargaining skills. We had lunch in Camps Bay at Blues. We had a nice relaxed lunch with views of the beach. Then we went to Kirstenbosch Gardens and even though it was winter we found it to be really nice, there were a lot of people with their kids on blankets and little inflatable pools. We found there some other cheetah sculptures like the ones we saw in Stellenbosch. I imagine in spring it will look a lot different. We also drove to Bloubergstrand (not quite sure how to write that) were we saw the view of Table Mountain, Lions head and Signal Hill from a different perspective. There were a few seals on the beach and by the rocks too. And that’s pretty much what we did that day.

The following day Mark picked us up at 9, for a Peninsula tour. First we stopped at the place where you can take the boats to Seal Island, but we decided not to go on the boats, we just walked along the peer and took a few pictures. Afterwards we went to Cape Point, we rode the funicular and then went up the stairs to the lighthouse. And then we went to take our picture with the sign of Cape of Good Hope with the latitude and longitude. We got to see some ostriches but no baboons. Then we went to Boulders beach to see the penguins, again took a few pictures, and we wanted to have lunch at Kalky’s but it was full, the line went all the way to the peer, so we had to give up and find another place to have lunch. We ended up at Polanas, which is a restaurant downstairs from the Harbor House, it was also full, but at least they had a table for us, everywhere else was packed. Of course we were a little worried because being the only place that had a table available didn’t look good at the time. But it was almost 3:30pm so we had no choice. We ordered as a starter some seafood tapas, we were gladly surprised. There were mussles, prawns, calamari and fried fish, everything was very good. As an entrée we both had the fish, good but not great and no dessert, because it was almost 5:30 by that time, the service was awfully slow, but then again the place became packed after we sat down.

After that we went to the hotel, and to Tobagos where we had a few drinks. I had a mojito which was excellent. Our dinner was at Gold restaurant. Everything we were brought was good, and the show was entertaining. We were seated upstairs so we had to stand up and go to the balcony to see the show, but it didn´t really matter. The guys with the drums and the big puppets came upstairs as well to dance and play.

The 2 following days we had leisure days, so we didn’t really do much. We got up a little later, had a relaxed breakfast. The first day we had lunch at Willoughbys which is the best sushi I’ve had, the waiter told us which were his favorite rolls, and I agreed everything was good. And the second day we had lunch at Belthazar which was also good. We also took a helicopter ride around Cape Town and Cape Point, again manage to take a few nice pictures. After that we went to Bascule bar and ordered a bottle of wine, and just sat there and talked about our trip and everything we had seen so far, and that’s when my husband told me that he thought it would be a great idea to return with the kids sometime. I wholeheartedly agreed!

So there it is, that was our July trip to South Africa, even though there were some places where we couldn’t go or didn’t get the chance to visit, I wouldn’t change anything, it just gives us some more reasons to go back someday.

Gabrielle26

Here's the link for the Franschhoek pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4118146...7622015370400/

Gabrielle26

Here's the link for the Cape Town and Cape Point pictures. You can see the amazing weather we enjoyed those days.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4118146...7621898921909/