Those are good S.A. wines, SV, but I'm going with napamatt on this one. :)
BB, take a look at Honeyguide Tented Camp (in the Manyeleti, Kruger). I have never been there but a South African friend recommends it, says the guys who own it (they own a company called Tenbompas) have exquisite taste. I don't think it gets mentioned on these boards. Might be up your alley.

Here is the Honeyguide link:

http://honeyguide.hitsites.co.za/

For what it's worth, gets rave reviews on Tripadvisor. One camp, the East-Africa designed Mantobeni, doesn't take children. The other, Khoko Moyo, is more contemporary and does take kids. An emphasis on cuisine, allegedly. Would be a nice mix with Londo since you stay in upscale tents instead of chalets.

LAL - thanks for info on Honeyguide. I've wondered what was in Manyeleti Reserve just below the Timbavati. Honeyguide looks interesting and is $100 less per night than Kings Camp (without long stay deals, if 5 nights, then equal). Appears to be -no- single supplement rate.

regards - tom

Also, speaking of "tented" camps, Ngala Tented (not Lodge) has good reviews. It is in Timbavati and would make for an easy short flight transfer to Londolozi (as would Honeyguide or any camp in the Timbavati).

regards - tom

I stayed at Ngala Tented and while it was nice and the tents were big and well laid out, I felt that it was not as nice as other places I have been. The game viewing there was not that great other than we did see wild dog. That certainly could be just bad luck as I was only there once for 3 days.

As for Phinda, I stayed at Forest Lodge and found the game viewing, especially cheetah, to be excellent. However in my two trips there, I will say leopard sightings were non existent. I have heard things are better now, but that is not first hand knowledge. The rooms were nice, comfortable and the staff was very friendly. One of the best rangers I have ever had anywhere, Walter, was there and I would highly recommend him to everyone.

One thing I have heard about Singita, and again this is not verified, is that their game drives are shorter than some other lodges. This was told to me from guests that just came from Singita and were at Lion Sands Ivory Lodge. I could not believe that they were complaining that they preferred the shorter drives, go figure. This should be verified by someone else and I cannot confirm this first hand. They did rave about Singita, but the shorter drives is a big turn off for me.

Mike

Phinda = Cheetah
Singita,Londolozi,MalaMala =Leopard

The two don't seem to mix in South Africa!

Craig

Maybe when it comes to breeding cheetah and leopard have a hard time telling each other apart so they separate themselves to avoid creating cat mutts! :))

I have stayed at both Singita Boulders and Londolozi Tree. Both are EXCELLENT lodges! As these 2 lodges traverse on the same game viewing property, your game viewing experience should be about the same. I have guided at both Phinda and Londolozi, and of course Londolozi has every reason to be famous for excellent leopard viewing, while Phinda deserves the status as one of our countries best reserves for the viewing of cheetah. Having said that, I have had awesome sightings of cheetah at Londolozi and other lodges in the Sabi Sands, though they definitely aren't as frequent as the cheetah sightings at Phinda! The leopard viewing at Phinda is definitely becoming more frequent, but it will still take a long time before they (the leopards) are as relaxed in the presence of game viewing vehicles as their cousins in the Sabi Sands.
Mike Karantonis

SV - Singita Boulders was our destination. On arrival for our two night stay, we were told that we were booked into a wine tasting with the sommelier at 8:30 that night.

We really wanted to select a couple of wine sand head to dinner, he would have talked and opened wines all night. I could have requested a complete vertical of Ernie Els and drunk half a glass of each with dinner and he would have done it.

As it was we were introduced to some amazing new wines and wineries. And also had older vintages opened just to taste them. In our two days we had 10+ wines opened for us to taste, and we killed 4+.

If Ulusaba can beat that, then I may go there some time. But from what I saw of the cellar, both its variety and depth and access to wines no one has heard of, it was simply magnificent. And it's all included.

Either way they both put MM to shame - but there's nowhere else that I'm going to spend my safari $ so that says something!

We stayed at Tree Camp two years ago and had a once in a lifetime experience. The sightings were fantastic - leopard, cheetah (both with kill) and everything else besides. The accommodation and service were wonderful, food excellent and plentiful and the whole experience was wonderful in every way.

Specialist-Ranger

Hi, Mike. I'm sure you don't remember me but my husband and I were with you for 4 nights at Phinda about 12 years ago on our first trip to Africa. You and Moussa (?) were so wonderful and one of the main reasons we just returned in October from our fourth trip to Africa. I'm happy to see your name here and hope you are doing well. Hopefully some day our paths will cross again.

Take care,
Debbie

I went to Phinda in 2006, with the impression that they were a Cheetah conservation reserve. But, the game drives were all purely Big 5 oriented. That said, I did have many cheetah sightings.

Personally speaking, for cheetah viewing I wouldn't look outside of either Botswana or the Masai Mara.

Debbie - I also met Mike at Phinda. He was walking clients accross the reserve! Pretty crazy guy (in a good way).

Craig Beal

Hi! We have stayed at many of the places above and have enjoyed them all and had great wildlife experiences at all as well. We have not stayed at Londolozi, but have heard nothing but great things about the property and game drives.

We've stayed at Singita Boulders twice with the second time being 2 years ago. We had an amazing time with an excellent ranger and tracker. We had very long game drives (in contrast to some of the comments above), but that's what we were there for and our ranger seemed thrilled to stay out as long as we wanted. We even went back out one night after dinner to find some male lions (we knew where they were) just to sit by their side in the dark and hear them roar. It was one of the single best experiences I've had in Africa. If you and your "vehicle mates" want long game drives, I think your ranger at Singita would be more than happy to accommodate you. In fact, our guide seemed excited that we wanted to be as adventurous as possible. He took us out on foot whenever possible - once walking with a journey of giraffes and once tracking (and finding) rhinos. Unfortunately, Singita does seem to attract some people who are more interested in the accommodations, food and wine than the wildlife, but, for us it provided all of the above plus great animals. We were there with another couple and we wanted game drives over anything else, and they definitely delivered. We had a leopard who "lived" near and on our room and we had amazing sightings. I'd definitely recommend it, but make sure your guide knows exactly what you want out of your stay.

We have also stayed at Phinda Forest, although it was 12 years ago (Specialist-Ranger above was our outstanding guide while we were there). It was magical for us because we were very interested in seeing cheetahs and hadn't seen them anywhere else. I was afraid that I'd have to leave my first trip to Africa without seeing cheetahs, but as we landed on the airstrip, a mother and two cubs popped up right next to the runway to greet us. There was a three male coalition there that provided us with beautiful sightings everyday and a single, big strong lioness who we fell in love with. We loved Phinda and have recommended it to everyone we know who has been to Africa since then.

We stayed at both Mateya and Ngala Tented Camp two years ago as well. Mateya was our first stop and a nice one. The rooms and service were wonderful. We loved being guaranteed only 4 to a vehicle. We had a great guide who was lots of fun and the staff was very friendly and accommodating. The wildlife is not as plentiful as in Sabi Sands, but we still had great sightings, especially of lions and elephants. In fact, we saw a very playful lion pride several times while we were there that made for among the best lion sightings we've had. My only slight complaint about Mateya is that the property is totally fenced, and while that makes it "safe" to walk around, I'd rather have a leopard on my roof any day (as we had at Singita) and feel like I'm really out in the bush. On the other hand, there is a waterhole just next to the dining deck and we saw lions, rhinos, baboons and many elephants during the day while we were just sitting on the deck drinking wine.

Ngala Tented Camp provided great game drives and wonderful sightings. We saw lions, leopards, many elephants and buffaloes (if you're thinking about the big five). We didn't see rhinos, although we tracked them several times and it was clear that they were there. We saw no evidence of cheetah. The service was excellent. My main complaint about the property (and why I would not return) was that the tents (although beautiful and comfortable) are very close together and we could hear EVERYTHING in the other tents. We could hear (word for word) even casual conversations from the tent next door and the honeymooners two tents down provided much late night entertainment! It was just not private enough for my taste. If this isn't important to you, then it's a great property, but for me, I don't want to have to whisper when I'm in my tent.

Whatever you decide, you will have a wonderful time. All the places above want to please their guests and my advice is to just make sure they know the kind of experience you want to have and they will work hard to provide it.

Have a great trip,
Debbie

Hi, Craig,

I totally agree, crazy in a most wonderful way. He took us out one night late and we spent most of the night "sleeping" in the vehicle just to hear lions roar and relish the late night sounds of the bush. We watched the stars, he and Moussa told us great stories, and we were in heaven. We were very lucky that we had a private vehicle with the two of them for four nights. It was a great introduction to a lifelong love affair with Africa.

Mike has his own safari business co-owned with Tanya Koetze. It is called Africa Direct. I can highly recommend them as a friendly competitor!

Craig Beal

Hi Debbie.

Thank you for the mention and to you too Craig.
It certainly doesn’t feel like twelve years but the grey hair says it is :-)
I do not want to block up this forum with personal messages so could you please send your details to my personal email address in order for me to say a proper hi?
[email protected]
Best regards from a beautiful South Africa