einavido

Started looking at a South Africa trip in summer of 2008 and would kindly ask for opinions:
Basically the idea is as follows:
Fly to Johanesburg and then to Port Elizabeth. Do Addo and Shamwari (anything else ?). Then spend a week around oudtshoorn/knysna. Then about 5 days in the area of Capetown (including Hermanus, Dyer Island, penguins in Boulder Beach). Then fly to Upington and drive to Kgalagadi Park, cross to Namibia for Fish River Canyon and back through Namaqualand for the flower blossom in Mid August. Sounds reasonable ? Any tips ? How long do we need for the northern cape part ? How long in advance should we reserve places ? Thanks for your kind replies.

annhig

hi, einavido,

looks like a great trip.

the only thing I might change is to swapthe time for the garden route and CPT - I'd spend less on the garden route and more in CPT.

we spent two nights at Shamwari and were a tad disappointed - as you are flying into Jo'burg, why not spend the time at Kruger instead. I understand that you can cut costs by booking your accomodation yourself through www.sanparks.co.za, or there are lots of threads about mala mala and sabi sands etc.

alternatively/as well, you could try a night at schotia, just round the corner from Addo. we had a night in one of their roundels which was terrific.

on the garden route, we stayed 3 nights at a lodge called Hog Hollow, which is near Plttenberg Bay, and was all round the best place we stayed all trip. 3 nights there and 2 in Knysna would be pretty good.

in CPT we stayed at the Radisson - it came as deal with Shamwari. if you stayed a week, you could have time for CPT itself, the cape [combined with a trip to the penguins], Robbin Island, Table Mountain, constantia, Kirstenbosch, the winelands - we found a book called "7 days in CPT" on amazon, which has enough ideas in it for a whole fortnight!

one thing to bear in mind is that "summer 2008" [if you mean June, July, August] is in fact their winter. in our 12 days we had 3 days rain, and the weather after we left was very poor especially in the CPT region. also the days as pretty short.

I'd give you a link to my trip report, but I seem to have lost it -sorry!.

do feel free to ask me anything else.

regards, ann

Patty

Here's Ann's trip report http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...4&tid=35042459

canadian_robin

A few suggestions! Fly to Cape Town Spend a few days there - do a township tour (Inkululeko Tours - a google search will bring up their website), take day trips to the Winelands and Cape Point (taking in the penguins and Chapman's Peak Drive on the latter trip), ride the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, have dinner at the Africa Cafe, visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Then drive along the Garden Route at your leisure - some places to stay - Moontide Guest House in Wilderness, Under Milkwood in Knysna and the "Oceanettes" at the Storms River Mouth Restcamp (a South Africa National Park - www.sanparks.co.za) Then to Addo - forest cabins or the family chalets are great. From PE, fly to Upington - stay at La Boheme Guesthouse in Upington - a fantastic B&B. In Kgalagadi, stay at the wilderness camps - they are fantastic. It is worth hiring a 4 x 4 (we use www.kgalagadi4x4.com - the Toyota dealership) so that you may access the most isolated camps - Bitterpan and Gharagab. On our most recent trip, we went 2 nights Kieliekrankie, 1 night Nossob (one of the bigger camps, so not as nice, but it is difficult to get all the way to Gharagab in 1 day - also good predators in the Nossob area), 2 nights Gharagab (a fantastic camp - a leopard came into the waterhole at dawn and dusk), back to Nossob for 1 night, 2 nights Bitterpan (our favourite camp), 1 night Kalahari Tented Camp, 2 nights Urikaruus (giraffe feed on the trees around the tents - feels like they're peering in at you!) - then back to Upington to return the 4x4 and pick up an Avis car. Then from Upington, drive to Fish River Canyon (easy to do in a day, crossing the border at Nakop) - stay at Canon (not Canyon!) Mountain Lodge - great place with wonderful food - see www.gondwana-desert-collection.com. The...don't miss this...Eagles Nest Lodge in Aus (also www.gondwana-desert-collection.com) - ask for the Rock cabin - amazing place!! A favourite! From there, drive to the dunes in Namibia - great place to stay is Kulala Desert Lodge - see www.wilderness-safaris.com. Then drive to Walvis Bay across the desert (C27 and C14 - a fantastic drive) and fly back to Cape Town from there or drive to Windhoek and fly home from there or back to CT.
Ann is correct - if you mean our summer (June, July, August) then it will be winter in southern Africa - the best time to go for game viewing, but Cape Town and the Garden Route may be wet and cool.
Fair warning - Kgalagadi's wilderness camps have only 4 twin-bedded tents and they fill up quickly, especially during their winter - June , July, August. Go on the website, and you will be able to see what is still available www.sanparks.co.za. Fish River and Aus are also very popular!
Happy reading! Robin

Gardyloo

While south of Namaqualand per se, we spent a few days on the west coast around Paternoster and the West Coast National Park in late August; the wildflowers were great but not yet at their peak. Maybe they peak earlier farther north, but if you're planning for mid-August you might be a bit early. FWIW, here are a couple of photos of that area - we hadn't been there before and it has rocketed up the rankings of areas in SA that we want to visit again and again.

http://gardyloo.us/aug24b%20016s.JPG
http://gardyloo.us/aug24b%20044s.JPG
http://gardyloo.us/aug24b%20066s.JPG

As for the rest of your trip, I agree that the week on the Garden Route sounds a bit longish. Would you be driving all the way from PE to Cape Town?

einavido

Thank you so much for your great and valuable responses. I am aware of the weather (we will come from a hot summer that time, so it might not be that bad). The reason for spending longer time along the Garden Route is that we are traveling with kids (ages 12, 9). They are already "experienced" nature travelers but I thought I had better balance it with some syops like canopy tour, meerkat tour etc. But I can cut a few days. For this reason I do not want to "over do" safaris but rather do Addo (and perhaps indeed Schotia for one night) in the beginning and then Kgalagadi as an isolated place with less people and without fancy lodges. Your ideas all sound great, but then 2 questions pop up - 1) Are there direct flights from PE to Upington ? if there are, I could indeed start at CPT and not PE. 2) Is it possible to rent a car in Upington and return it in Namibia in order to fly out from Namibia back to JBG and home ? Thanks again.

canadian_robin

We have flown Cape Town to PE and I am fairly certain that we could have flown on to Upington, but we opted to drive because we wanted to see the Karoo. I'd be suprised if you can't. SA Airlines would have flights - have a look on their website. It is possible to rent a car in Upington and leave it in Namibia - we do it all the time with Avis - just make certain that whatever car rental company you use gives you the paper work that you need to take the car across the border - you need a letter of permission. Robin

einavido

Robin, Thank you for the follow-up. One last question - what activities are there in Kgalagadi beside game driveing ? Is there any walking/hiking ? Thanks again.

canadian_robin

You may hike/walk from all of the camps, but you must be accompanied by an armed ranger. At the wilderness camps, it is very informal - you simply ask the ranger to take you for a walk - they usually suggest the best time. At the bigger camps, you need to book at reception when you arrive. When we were in Kgalagadi this past July, we went for a hike with the ranger at Gharagab in the late afternoon. We (our family of four) walked about 1km to a viewpoint and back. Later that evening, as darkness fell, a leopard came walking down the same track that we had followed. We couldn't help wondering if had been watching us from a tree somewhere! Robin

canadian_robin

One other thing - given the ages of your children - the down side of the wilderness camps is that they are unfenced, so your children's movements will be very restricted - pretty much to the tents or the walkways that join them to the others (at Urikaruus). They can't run around camp and let off steam after a day in the car for fear of predators that may wander through the camps. At the larger camps, like Nossob, Twee Rivieren or Mata Mata, which are fenced, children are free to wander through the camps to find playmates for a game of tag, catch etc. Just something to think about! Robin