tripgirl

Sightings and Special Moments

We had a total of 4 game drives, 1 boat excursion and 1 mekoro.

DH and I had the Land Rover practically to ourselves for the first 2 game drives; the travel agent joined us the first night, we had it to ourselves the first morning, then we were joined by a guy, his girlfriend and her mother. But the girlfriend and mother did not actually really join us until later. More about that later.

Anyway, the first night is just a little sparse on sightings, a few elephants, lots of impala ( there seemed to be tons of these throughout our stay), baboons, some great birds including my new favorite, the blue roller. But not much action that first night.

But no matter, DH and I are just glad to be here and the Botswana sunsets are worth it alone. More action happens later and does not disappoint.We are entralled by the flooding starting to come in and enjoy going through the water tremendously. I am amazed how tough these Land Rovers are!!

In the next subsequent days, the bush begins to stir!

I think what I liked most about safari, was the anticipation of what you might see. Even though for most mornings we drove around for awhile without a sighting, it was still exciting as at any moment you might see something wonderful.

And wonderful did happen! For a total of the all the game drives we saw:

2 separate lion sightings: 2 brothers, the kings if you will, then the next day their four brothers. When we first saw the two brothers, it became apparent to me how good you have to be as a guide AND as a tracker. It took us awhile to get to the site where these two lions were, back and forth commmunication with Kay the other guide until we came upon a most magnificient site.

The two brothers were found at a large watering hole and once upon them we just stopped and admired. One of things I knew but perhaps forgot from reading previous threads here and my own research, was the fact that as long as you don't talk loudly, stand up or otherwise cause a ruckus, these animals don't seem to give a fig about you!!

I was always seated in the row behind Rain on one of the sides. One of the lions came within inches of me and at first, I thought, oh dear.. but he just walked past without a care in the world about me. Makes you kinda feel pretty small as a human being, huh???

Anyway, being that close was sooooo thrilling!!!

The four brothers the next day were equally entertaining for they were all playful with each other. And Dh has the most magnificent picture of one of the lions yawning. Even Bob, the gentleman we shared the Land Rover with commented on DH's picture that it looked like something out of Nat Geo. Bob has been on safari 12 times and is quite the photo bug.

Rain explained that the 2 brothers kicked the other brothers out of their territory and it will come down to a fight sooner or later.

We are to have two more lion sightings at Signita, but for now I am most happy with these 6 lions.

Other sightings along these 4 game drives incuded:

Elephant: lots of them, families, single ones alone and I will tell you about the "camp" elephant at the end of this section: a funny story.

Eland
Wildebeest
Kudu
Tsessebe
Waterbuck: the poor unfortunate Waterbuck with a target right on its tush!!
Bushbuck
reedbuck
Warthog: UGLY!
Bushbaby
civet
honey badger
Giraffe
Mongoose

and then there was the Sable Antelope, Hyaena and Leopard of which are all interelated as we saw them.

So on our morning drive the second day, we come upon a gorgeous pack of Sable Anteloupe. Beautiful really. All posed so perfectly, the pics of the them are amazing.

Which by the way, Dh is compiling all our pics, there are so many he is at work at them. I promise lots of photos once all is coordinated.

Anyway, back to the anteloupe,. So we are enjoying the peaceful stillness of them. They are all just together grazing and moving slowly. Males, females, babies.

Then....

In the distance Rain spots two hyaenas running. We hold on tight and Rain makes a beeline right for them

In one of the hyaena's mouth is a baboon of which a leopard has killed it and the hyaena's steal. So the hyaenas are running with this baboon and we watch the whole meal being savored.

I was grossed out at first, but in a some weird way I began to understand the process of nature and actually was intrigued by the whole process. Powerful bone crunchers, they truly enjoyed that baboon.

But then....

We turned the jeep around and alas there is the leopard! Looking for any leftovers, all they left was the ratty tail.

We watched this beautiful creature for awhile, obviously disappointed in her lack of a meal.

The day before we spotted another leopard alone in the afternoon on a wide open field. We watched her jump over some water, what elegance!

So this little drama, the quiet stillness of the anteloupe and then the brutality of the hyaenas followed by a somber leopard was just fantastic; a great morning.

In addition to the wildlife, Rain pointed out all kinds of trees, termite mounds, and many birds of whom I have now a deeper appreciation for. To see a lone bird soar high above the Delta as the sun is rising or setting is truly one of those special special moments. Kind of has you forget about your busy life, even if for a short moment.

For the boat ride and mekoro, as many of you know you do not see too much wildlife, but we did spot hippo, twice, and I loved the little reed frogs when we went inthe mekoro. Oscar, our poler made me spot them and at first, due to my lack of keen obeservation, I had a hard time, but by the end, I was spotting them. Cutest little things and I love how they change color to avoid predators.

The boat ride was nice and calming, but I liked the mekoro better, albeit, it was a tad uncomfortable. I liked it as I felt I was going down the Nile or something like that. Flowing through the reeds on a crisp morning took you a million miles away...

I am duly impressed at Oscar's skills to steer this mekoro. He told us he has been doing this since he was 9 yrs old!

Since this was our first ever safari, we were most happy with what we saw. I know in talking with Bob and his girlfriend Pauline, our jeep mates ( her mother was a first timer too like us, but they came from Savuti to LV), that there are many camps with perhaps better sightings, but they seemed to enjoy LV.

I wanted to do a bit on water as well, so I am glad we did this. If we were to go back to Botswana again, I would surely check out other camps.

Now to the "camp" elephant.

Ok, it's our last full day and in the aftenoon while taking a nap in our tent, we heard the rumblings of an elephant on the shower side of the tent. We knew animals roam freely and figured the elephant is just doing its thing.

We go on our game drive, come back and get ready for dinner with a 7:45 pick up time. Well it comes, 8, then 8:10, then 8:15 and no sign of Rain.

About 8:20 Rain lightly taps on the door and tells us there is an elephant right outside our door and to the right and that we cannot leave as of yet. Rain comes into the tent and the three us pull back the curtain and there in all his enormous( and I mean enormous) glory is "our" elephant.

He is so close, yes, its a bit close for comfort.

However, we hang out in our tent, the three of us, with Rain constantly checking the elephants movements as to ascertain if he is in a position so as to let us pass by.

Finally about 8:45, Rain signals us to come out and we head for the dining area. The elephant has however done damage to the walkway and we avoid that part.

All the other guests were waiting for us and did not begin dinner until we came; how thoughtful was that!

After dinner, we had to walk an entirely different way back to our tent, through the staff quarters. There was a hyaena sitting in our pathway and my heart was just a bit racy as I was not sure what other animals we might encounter. But Rain brings us safely to the comfort of our tent.

Through the night, "our" elephant settles in on Tent 5 and then in the morning makes his way through the camp. When we went for mekoro, we turned the mekoros around so we could see the elephant traipsing through the dining area.

When we returned from mekoro, Sara, one of the managers aid the elephant was parked outside her office and was most annoying!!

But I love how the staff respected the animal and the animal respected us.

All in all, an enjoyable first safari. I will get the pics posted soon.

Next up a bit of the dining experience with boma, the staff, guests and my final thoughts on LV.

Kavey

Tripgirl,

How WONDERFUL to read about your trip to Africa and just how much you enjoyed it. The quote that Katie_H already singled out absolutely sums up our own trip to South Africa back in 2004!

tripgirl

Kavey,

Thanks!

I have read over lots of your postings and know how much you adore Africa!

Glad you have enjoyed my report so far.

divine54

TG - the most wonderful report i have read! so lively that one really feels beamed out to africa!

i am desperately waiting for more....

of course i know about the celebrations...

so i wish you a great 4th of july together with your family and hope it won't be too long to get you back in front of your pc ;-)

div

KymH

Great trip report-so detailed and so well-written. I don't leave until August, so I'm very happy you had a great trip for me to "preview". I love the food and wine info, along with all the great adventures. Thanks for taking the time to write it, Kym

PS Have a happy 4th!

Dana_M

What an amazing trip report. I was waiting for the safari portion, but found myself captivated by the Cape Town and Winelands portion of your trip. You write so wonderfully. Thank you for sharing all of the glorious details.

You also had a wonderful start to you safari experience. I agree with you that going on a safari is one of the "freakin coolest things you can do in life." Glad you had a good time at LV. I'm really looking forward to the remainder of your report.

tripgirl

Thank you all for your kind responses. Thanks for taking your precious time to post; I hope I have been helpful.

Dining at LV:

Dining at LV was very nice. It was homier food than of course all the gourmet food we had in CPT and the Winelands, but no matter, that is exactly what I expected.

The main dining area is a long table set with placemats in a blue color scheme. Each meal is buffet, with dinner having your first course and dessert brought to you.

For breakfast you can have cereals, hot and cold, breads, and some hot breakfast meats and eggs.

I never ate much in the am as it is too early for me to eat at 6am. but Dh loaded up!

Brunch has some of the breakfast meats and eggs on offer as well as some kind of protein, and salads, fresh breads and dessert.

Dinner was nice serving protein, chicken and meats, usually a starch like a starchy veggie like yamms, non starchy vegetables and dessert which was often a cake.

I think the food is fine, certainly not fancy but it all fits with the relaxed environment of LV.

One night we dined around a boma and that was fun. The staff entertained us for a good 40 minutes with lovely songs and dance and then we sat at a long table and were served from pots of food.

I think anyone would be basically pleased with the dining experience.

There are always some staff members dining with you and we got into some nice discussions with them.
Boy, do these people work looooong hours!!!!

Staff: We found the staff to be most charming, talking the most with Ten and Sara. But all of them were pleasant and the housekeepers although we did not interact with them as much, when we saw them on the path, they were all smiles.

I think the camp is well run and everything was done with a can do attitude.

Our tent was cleaned very nicely each day and I think the overall appearance of the camp was very well maintained.

Other Guests;

On our first night we met 2 couples from England, very pleasant folks who went to 3 camps in Botswana. I did feel a bit for one of the ladies as she said she was not well prepared enough for the cold mornings and cold evenings, as I was toasty in all I brought!

RoadWarriorAfrica who posts on this board was there our first night, but we did not reveal that we are both Fodorites and if we had, you know the floodgates would have opened. And they sat further down at the dining table so we did not talk to them much, although DH talked with him when we first arrived at the dining are.

We shared our jeep with Bob, Pauline and her mother Lil. We picked Bob up in the bush one afternoon as he had just come form the airstrip and wanted to get started right away. Pauline and Lil went to the camp instead.

As I mentioned Bob was an avid safari goer, 12 times,and so it was a relief to have someone who knew all the ropes. He also was very helpful to Dh when it came to Dh's new camera a Nikon DX 40. Bob showed Dh a thing or two and it really helped.

The day before we left Fern who posts here as well arrived and when we got to talking we foudn out we were both Fodorites and of course we chatted all about here.

Two women who are on their 5th trip around the world were also there; they came our 2nd night. Retired schoolteachers, yes, they have seen the world times over. Lucky them!

Everyone was pleasant enough and all seem to come from all walks of life with stories to tell.

Final thoughts:

I really loved our first safari. There are so many little things that I just found awesome;

Sundowners in the bush: What more do you say; freakin cool!

The toilet paper in the bathroom was secured with a leaf and wound with a reed: how creative!

Tea at 3:30 : how civilized

Knowing you can sit down, shut up and just enjoy something other than the drone of human beings going on and on usually about nothing and realizing your place in the world is very small.

If that is what a African winter is, bring it on; it sure beats snow and ice anyday. I'll surely take sunny crisp mornings and almost 80 degree midday temps in the winter

Realizing you can be happy without all the added stresses of life. I do enjoy my life back here, but slipping out of it, really slipping out of it more than any other trip in 20 yrs of international travel, was just what DH and I needed.

Knowing that a piece of heart now belongs to Botswana permanently.

We were not the usual Botswana goers, as many of the people were doing 2 or more camps just in Botswana. We only did the one, but I can see why people do more. It did not work out that way this time, perhaps another time. But we GOT it and we will remember our time forever.


Next up.. a brief trip back to Joburg and then the spectacular finale: GRAND SINGITA!

jb04

Hello tripgirl,

I, along with many others , am immensely enjoying your trip report. I am planning a trip to SA at this same time of year in 2010 with the same tour operator you used. I read in one of your installments that you were "toasty warm" because you had the right clothing with you. I was just wondering what type of clothing you found invaluable for the safari portion of your trip.

tripgirl

jb,

I am planning on finishing this report with all the things I found useful including clothing.

Can you wait until I do that so its all in one place?

June 11th: Back to Joburg

So....

As you can tell we really enjoyed our time at LV. But what happened very next was not so much fun.

We get to landing strip after Lazurus ( Lazzy) takes us there and it's a mad rush to get on the plane. This time its not a 4 seater but a 12 seater and all is well.

But when we land at Maun, our duffles are not there!

We are a bit miffed as to there were only less than 12 people on
the plane and where on earth could our bags have gone to?

We get inside and see the Sefofane rep, Chipa, again is there and he remembers us on our departure out of there 3 days prior.

After so much confusion, Chipa finally tracked down our duffles and they were taken off the plane at Chitabe as we landed there before heading to Maun.

It seems there is not the best system of identifying whose bag belongs to whom and it all happens so quickly: bags off, people deplaining, getting into the jeep.

So here is the thing though. Chitable camp is located about 40 minutes from their airstrip. Then a plane has to get ot Maun. All in a time span that does not fit when we are to depart to Joburg. And the plane for Joburg is the last one for the day.

And we depart for Singita at 9;30am the next day from Joburg and so we are not staying in Joburg.

So the whole thing is kind of a mess and all the clothes we want to wear for Singita are in the duffels!

So we are pretty upset by this and Sefofane does call Wilderness who does track down the duffles at Chitabe but we are told our bags might not make it at all.

Well resigned to a big ol mess we are to board the plane to Joburg. As it is, the plane is late taking off, a good sign as it gives them more time to get the bags here from Chitabe. But alas, it looks like we are boarding and we do not think the bags will make it.

As we board, DH sees Chipa on the tarmac and goes back to him, getting out ofline ot board.

He tells us that the plane from Chitabe should be here in about 9 minutes. But we are to take off, so DH and I don't know what to make of this.

So...

We board, but the plane is not taking off.

And then a voice of a flight attentant comes on and says" Passenger Webb will you please identify yourself".

Sure enough the plane landed from Chitabe and the pilot came on board our plane to deliver our bags.

Whew!

I had also left a msg about our troubles with Julian and when I spoke with him later from Joburg, he said that between him and Wilderness they held the plane up just so our bags could make it!

He told me that Wilderness told Air Botswana" you do not leave until those bags are delivered"

So there you go... Wow, what drama, but what service. The other passengers did not know what was going on and we did not want to make a scene, so hopefully no one knew that we were waiting for our bags so the plane could take off!

In any event, I am sure this was just a mishap on the part of both Sefofane and the guides on the ground at Chitabe. I am not sure how each person who deplaned identified their bags as I could not see what was going on outside the plane as we sat inside the plane. But somehow our bags were taken off the plane and thrown into one of the jeeps with someone assuming that the 3 bags belonged to someone in that jeep en route to Chitabe.

Oh well.. another travel story to tell.

Next up: Back in Joburg for the night and GRAND Singita!

realoc

Very nice trip report, tks for sharing.

fairyjay

This is such a fantastic report tripgirl!

We're off next week, staying at Cape Grace, meeting Robin in Johanesburg, and also staying a Singita Boulders.

Have a fantastic July 4th, and I can't wait to read more!

basto

Thanks a lot tripgirl, for a very well-written trip report. I have been enjoying it very much, it is so nice to start the morning with a cup of coffee and a some great reading from Africa.

thanks a lot!

regards,
Tom

tripgirl

Happy 4th for those who celebrate today!

Family is still sleeping and I am up so I thought I would go ahead and try to get more done here on this report.

June 11: So we have our bags on board and off we go. We arrive late in Joburg first from taking off late to begin with and then we make a stop in Gabarone and people who have connecting flight in Joburg that are tight are asked to deplane so they can get on another plane. To make a long story short, there was much delay with our plane and we arrived in Joburg about 2 1/2 hrs after we were originally supposed to.

Derek is waiting for us all calm and smiley. We are back to the Melorse Arch and the staff remembers us from 3 days prior and greets us with a warm" Welcome Back Mr and Mrs Webb"

Our room is on the same floor as before and we are most pooped, but make our way back to Moyo for dinner again, we enjoyed it so much the first time.

Bobotie for me and DH has fish.

Off to bed for tomorrow is SINGITA!

June 12: Derek picks us up at 8am and its goodbye to Melrose Arch; a really nice place to stay if you like hip and modern with a playful sense offun.

We arrive to the Federal Air Terminal and Derek gets our hard sided luggage checked for storage and we check in.

What a nice set up. For those of you who will going through Federal Air Terminal, its lovely. It's set up with a full food station, a frig full of beverages, TV with wildlife shows and you sit at tables and chairs and couches. Sure beats any terminal I ever had to wait in.

When its time to board we board through the "garden" area and off we go in a 12 seater. Hey, now I am a pro at this, huh???!

Stops are made at Exeter Leadwood and Sabi Sabi and then Singita for us.

Waiting for us is the lovely Jennie, our guide for the next three days. A slender, tall blonde with a wide smile and a terrific personality; DH's grin widens.

And George our tracker for the next 3 days, a strapping guy who is just a big teddy bear and I instantly adore him.

There is a really nice spread ina lovely thatched roof pavilion set up at the airstrip with refreshments, food and a beautiful bathroom. We freshen up and make our way to camp!

Havig grown up in the hotel business, I wanted to go to Singita ever since I knew about. I know there is alot of threads here, "Is Singita worth it" or comparing other camps to Singita.

Well I can say that it exceeded all my expectations and the kind of place it is, is what we are accustomed to, so for us , yes it is over the top, but we felt right at home. Also, we had a well rounded experience here. Yes, the game viewing was great ( I am going to get to all of that soon), but also being with the staff and learning all about them was very rewarding for us. You could treat Singita as a pishy poshy place, but for us, it wasn't soley that it was elaborate, we felt we actually had a down to earth experience by being with the staff and our fellow guests of whom our jeep mates are a dream come true ( more about them later)

Jenny and George bring us into the airy high ceilinged main lobby that looks like Ralph Lauren exploded in it. No, really, its magnificent. With multiple seating areas all adorned with huge pillows, coffee table books and all kinds of lively art work and then a fireplace covering one wall and then the bar area where over the next few days, we are welcomed to help ourselves to any beverage we desire.

We are greeted by Claude one of the managers who spends the next hour with us going over all the details of Singita. But first we are introduced to Difference, our butler. Difference would be one of the staff members throughout our entire trip that I grow a deep fondness for. We end up learning so much about him and his family; a very enriching experience.

I'll have to continue with this later... family is up!!!

Kavey

OK, I've caught up and am waiting avidly for more!

tripgirl

To continue...

So Claude explains all to us and then another staff member Angela takes over to show us the grounds to include:

Wine cellar: of which we will return later on inthe visit for a wine tasting with Francois

Spa and fitness center

Library

Dining area

And then we are led to our room.

I was well aware of what they looked like, so yes, they are extraordinary and now probably the best place in terms of luxury that we have experienced in all our trips over these past 20 yrs of international travel.

Once entered, you literally have a house. To your immediate left is a bar, not a mini bar, but a bar filled with every imaginable beverage and packaged foods: sweets, savouries,

As you enter the space to your right is the living rm/dining rm with gorgeous furnishings all in a brown/cream colored scheme. A large leather chair and ottoman graces the living room and a round dining room table finishes the space. A long cushioned seating area adorned with fluffy pillows, obviously hand made, and a beautiful afgan rounds it all out. An ipod station is mounted on the wall and the music programmed is fantastically hip.

A floor to ceiling stone fireplace separates the living area from the bedroom, we use it once on our last night.

The bed, huge and glorious, shrouded in wonderful netting, faces the glass walls so that all of nature is spread out before us. The bedroom has a hand carved table that even supplies paper and watercolors if the mood strikes you. In the shelves surrounding the bed are adored with beautiful urns and a huge straw basket is placed next to my side of the bed.

I had read in a travel guide that the bathrooms could fit a herd of impalas and I guess that is just about accurate.

Crossing from the bedroom into the bathroom, you are afforded wonderful oudoor views through the glass walls as you indoor shower or indulge in a bath. His and hers sinks on top of a stone base with lovely large mirrors takes up one side of the bathroom. A table complete wiht all the electrical outlets you'll need is set in one corner. The indoor shower is huge and the best part though is the outdoor shower which was fun to do with complete abandon.

Our outdoor living space consists of two lounge chairs, table and a plunge pool; all very relaxing to use.

Angela explains that we have a guest bathroom, in case we have visitors ( yeah right, who is coming to see us!)

It's all very comfortable and of course one of the worlds finest properties in so far as all the luxury is concerned.

So.. what I would like to do at this point again in my report is to give you categories rather than day by day blows, so I will do:

Sightings and special moments
Dining
Staff
Guests
Final thoughts

And then I will complete this entire report with what I found useful and pointers for others planning a similar trip. I will include my packing list and just general tips we found helpful.

Well I am off with my niece to the pool, so I will be back tomorrow....

Dana_M

I'm looking forward to more, tripgirl, especially your gameviewing. I'm glad your bags caught up with you, and that Singita exceeded your expectations.

mistik321

Hi tripgirl:
Enjoying your report immensely.

Which Singita villa did you stay? DH and I will be there next month.

tripgirl

Hi all... just a few answers before I head for the evening: we are going to see Donna Summer!

Anyway, we were at Singita Boulders and our home was number 8.

Glad you are enjoying my report; I promise to be done soon!

You and I are both glad our bags made it!

fairyjay

Hope you enjoyed the concert!

Loving your report - leaving on Friday for SA inc. Singita Boulders. Can't wait to finish reading about it!

tripgirl

Ok... now to finish.

Sightings and Special Moments at Singita Boulders

Our first game drive is afternoon after arrival and we are sooooo happy as our jeep mates are fabulous! A nice couple from Chicago on their honeymoon, they could not have been more perfect to be with. With a nice curiousity about we are about to see and great safari manners, DH and I consider ourselves very fortunate.

The Land Rovers used for Singita are a bit cleaner and somewhat fancier than the ones at LV, but no matter, both were just fine.

This time we have a tracker unlike at LV where Rain did everything.
George with his broad grin hops into the tracker seat and off we go.

So for most of the time at Singita we are with Cyndy and Rob exclusively, that only changes when one afternoon drive we are joined by two travel agents who are on a fam trip. They are from Joburg. They are only at Singita for 1 night. And then after Cyndy and Rob leave, we have one more game drive and a mother and her son join us from Ebony lodge. I'll tell you the less than ideal pairing they were! I now know the experience some of you have had with annoying jeep mates, more later.

The terrain here is starker, browner, not quite as lush as at LV, but the roads are less bumpy.

On our first drive here, we complete the Big 5 by seeing Rhino and Water bffalo. We see the buffalo just as we are about the end the drive for the evening, so George has made me very happy.

Here at Singita over the next 3 days we would see:

Most mammals:
Lots of elephants. We came across some familes with lots of babies.

Lion: 2 sighting: one we just happened upon us we were rouning the bend. Having just eaten, George tells us, this lion has a full belly and we follow it all the way up the road and just marvel at its beauty and strenght. It's basically going for a looong walk and we enjoy watching all its powerful strides
The 2nd sighting I am including below in Special Moments

Wildebeest
Rhino
Buffalo
Giraffe
Zebra
All kids of birds
small omnivores and babbons

The giraffe and zebra were actually together and this made for a most interesting viewing.

Waterbuck
Bushbuck
Reedbuck
Impala


And now for some of the special sightings:

1. We had viewed at LV the hyaena in all its brutality, pulling apart that baboon with wild abandon. Now here at Singita we get to see a gentler, almost loving side of a hyaena and yet another side of a calculating predator.

In the first loving side, we came upon a female hyaena in her den with her newborn baby. That newborn was just about the cutest animal I have ever seen. Small, all brown( not spotted yet) and cuddly, the baby lolled around its mother and tried to stand many times over just to flop over on its die. Wathcing the interaction between the two almost had me forget just how vicious these animals can be. It was such a mimic of human behavior when the mother grabbed the child by the back with her teeth and put the child back into the hole of the den to go to sleep for the night.( hopefully no human uses their teeth to get their kid to bed, but we can push our kids a little bit physically when we have a hard time of it)

The whole sighting was really precious and enchanting.


2. Leopard, hyanea and impalas: One afternoon drive, close the end of our drive, we came upon a gorgeous leopard being preyed upon by 3 hyaenas. But first the leopard stalked around an impala and we all thoiught the leopard just about had the impala, but in the nick of time the impala made a run for it. Then out of the shadows, there were 3 hyaenas eagerly seeking the leopard. Luckily the leopard jumped into the nearby tree and stayed there, but not without the hyaenas lurking below for quite some time until they gave up.

a magnificent sighting

3. Hippos: Crossing over water on our last drive of the safari, we saw a hippo I the distance as we could see its snout and eyes. But then, there were two of them and they actually got playful and we saw them jumping about out of the water, almost like dolphins! Quite a sight considering we only saw them at LV from a distance and they lay still in the water.

4. Wild dog: As we were driving around on our last drive of our safari, DH and I noticed that we were not stopping for sundowners. Hmmm. I thought perhaps Jenny and George forgot to pack the goodies. but then Jenny indicated we needed to get soemwhere and it was a surprise.

We got the surprise alright: a wild dog den! I am so happy I get to wild dog as I know many of you here really rave about a wild dog sighting and that it can be rare. Jenny tells us that several babies have been born in recent days, but no one has seen them yet. In any event, we do not either, but we do see the adults, just a few of them and the sight is incredible. We stay there for quite some time hoping to get a glimpse of the babies, but alas no such luck. Anyway, we thank George and Jenny profusely for letting us see this sight!
( Later when I describer the mother and son who were on our last drive with us and so we were with them at this sight, they had no appreciation for this sight whatsoever, they kept asking "is this all there is to see here?&quot

5. Stuck in the sand: While we enjoyed everything we have seen over 3 days including the special moments as above, this one was the best.

So its our last drive and
we come upon 3 lions sleeping on their backs. It's a beautiful night, clear star filled sky above and the "Kings of Jungle" snoozing away. It's nice for us as we have seen lions in various settings: 2 Brothers at a watering hole and 4 brothers playful with each other with one magnificiently yawning at the right photo op, all at LV and a satisfied lion taking a walk after "dinner" and now lions enjoying a nocturnal nap.

So we have enjoyed ourselves and Jenny says we'll go now. But as she tries to get the Land Rover in gear, it is not moving. Trying several times over, George hops into her seat and tries himself. Nothing. The sand below is rather thick and we are just not budging.

Jenny and George tell us that this has happened before so not to worry. But a tow rope is not in the jeep, someone forgot to put it back. Jenny radios and Mark the head ranger is on his way to rescue us. We knew we were in good hands, but this can make your heart race a bit: stuck in the sand at a lion sighting! A little excitement, heh??

But meanwhile our lions are still doing their snore and then one of them gets up and starts heading for our jeep. Of course he walks just past us and by now I have learned not to fear, just remain silent.

As he walks past another also starts on the move and now they are in back of our jeep but a ways from it.

Then before right before Mark comes to the rescue, we have the treat: the lions ROAR!!!! We are so happy that we had the opportunity to hear this and see them actually roar, what a sight! Had we been able to move we would have missed all of this.

Then at that moment, Mark arrives, we all get into his jeep, Jenny drives us back, George stays behind to help Mark with Jenny's jeep and Jenny goes back after our drop off to help them. She told us the next day with all the ruckus they made in getting the jeep out, the lions could not care less, they just went back to sleep: ZZZZZZZZ!

So overall we were satisfied with all we saw. Jenny is delightful and knowledgeable and George is just so teddy bear like, we love him.

Jenny was an ad exec in Cape Town for many years and she told her husband many years ago, that one day she is going to work in the bush. And that she did. We think she is a great asset to Singita.

George is the only tracker in a
family of 7 kids. His father was a tracker and taught George well. George was so sweet and told us all about his family and how hapy his family is. We learned all about his brothers and sisters and the training that his father put him through to learn tracking: TOUGH!

We enjoy them both tremendously and thought they did a great job. Especially getting us back to safety after the lion scene!!!

Other activites:

As many of you may know Singita is very fancy and there other activites in addition to game viewing. We participated in just about everything you could do

We took a village tour of one of the villages closest to Singita, where George and Difference live. The tour took place between breakfast and lunch and you go inthe Land Rover with others( our jeep was full, Ebony and Boulders go together).

The tour was lovely, we got to meet the people who live in the village through their song and dance performances, learned how to prepare traditional foods and generally saw life in this nice village.

Wine tasting: If you like wine at all we highly recommend this service. There is no additinal fee and Francois is so passionate about wine, you almost have to keep track of the time so you do not miss dinner!

Cyndy and Rob did this with us, so the four of us piled in the fabulous cellar, SA largest collection of wines. We tasted about 5 wines from chardonnay through Pinotage to Pinot Noir and Shiraz and all were superb. I have the wine notes somewhere in my pile and if I find it, I will post it.

After the wine tasting, they brought all the bottles up for the four us to finish off with dinner.

Spa: I always spa wherever I am and I know some of you cynics will say it does not belong in a true safari experience, but hey I enjoyed it!

DH had a pedicure and massage and I had the Hakuna Mathatha treatment. It started with a exfoliating rub, then a coffee wrap( felt like a baked potato!) and then a full massage. It was fabulous!

We also visited the African Trading store located between Ebony and Boulders lodges and its lovely. DH bought me an exquisite necklace ( itsour anniversary)and we bought some shirts and a lovely horn for our glass shelves in our living room which hold treasures from all over the world.

Staff: We generally found all the staff to be very nice and down to earth. All of the mangers were very good and everyone took the time to say hello on the path and of course Difference, our butler was a treasure. He was so fun to talk with and we are so glad to have met him.

Other guests: I will admit that that by the nature of how the tables are se up at mealtime, that you do not have the interaction among guests as we did at LV. For breakfast and lunch you have your own table, but of course this does not preclude you to ignore other guests, it is just not as conducive to chat at meals. But we were happy to have had Cyndy and Rob as new found pals.

As we were leaving Singita, Lisa the gal who posts here and I found each other! On another thread she had said she was going to be at Singita and that we would find each other. She found me and we had a lovely time talking. She said she even heard the radio show I did at Azure in the 12 Apostles in CPT, and told me she has read all about me. She and her husband and 3 friends were all together and it looks like they enjoy safari immensely as they are avid goers. So Lisa, if you see this thread, know that I loved meeting you and your gang and hope you had a great time at Singita!

There was large family from Texas who had been to Singita the yr before and they occupied the new 2 family units, # 11 and 12. We did not talk to them too much as they kept to themselves, but on occasion they would pass by to say hello. Boy, what a bill they must have had. It was about 12 people.

Now to the mother and son from Ebony that we shared on game drive with. Thank God it was only one game drive. Cyndy and Rob left and then we were to pick up the mother and son from Ebony. This was going to be our last game drive, as DH and I decided to sleep in on our last morning; as much as we truly adored game drives, we wanted just one break.

Without going into too much detail, I will just say, these are the kind of jeep mates you really don't want if you are the least bit serious about safari. Stupid comments to just plain ignorance about safari just about summed up who they were. And they were with us when our jeep got stuck and they started offering not helpful suggestions on how to get us out and were quite annoyed by the whole experience rather than just enjoying it all. They could not wait to get out of there.

Jenny, very smartly as were stuck tried to take our minds off that and proceeded with a lesson in the stars as we waited for Mark to show and before our lions stirred and gave us their roar. Well, they wanted no part of that and were complaining. Geesh! Well, it was only one time with them and so we survived.

Dining:

The food at Singita is delicious!!! Breakfast is after you return from your game drive at about 10:30am consists of a full what they term a alth Bar: a table filled with fresh fruits, Greek yogurt and all sorts of cold cereals. Then you can order off the menu anything hot you desired, I had oatmeal with all the trimmings and it was supreme.

Lunch: Anywyhere from 1-2;30 is a buffet filled with healthy and delicous salads, several hot items like a bobotie or a quiche or pizza, lovely breads and dessert or you can order off the menu for sandwiches, et al.

Dinner we had three different ways. The first night was boma complete with dancing and the food was excellent, braai, salads, vegetables, dessert.

The second night was dinner in the dining room after our wine tasting, Cyndy, Rob and DH had blesbok and i opted for risotto. We enjoyed our wines that we tasted in the cellar.

And then the last night....

When we returned from our game drive and our lion story, Angela one of the managers greeted us and told us that we needed to go back to our room for there is a surprise there.

Great we thought perhaps it is something we needed to see before dinner. It was our anniver the previous day and they surprised us the night before with a bubble bath and champagne in a candle filled bathroom upon our return from dinner.

So being our anniv passed we coud not imagine what was in our room. So we told the night porter who escorted us back to the room to pick us up at 8pm for dinner. He looked at us kind of funny and nodded his head. Well what waiting for us before dinner was dinner!!!

Awash in candles the dining table had been converted to a romantic dinner for two complete with menus and beautiful bone china. We rang the front and told Angela we GOT the surprise. We ordered our dinner and Difference showed up with one of the porters named Simon who is a hoot. Difference served us all night long and it was great! A very thoughtful end to our stay. Julian called at that moment and it was him and Singita who had arranged this for us. Wow, talk about special!

Final thoughts;

Yes, Singita is an over the top experience, but if you talk strict game viewing, I think we did great. Even with all the bells and whistles you can have a game experience that is worth it.

I know alot of you do make a clear distiction of what you believe is a true safari experience. Well, I think all people are entitled to their opinions and I don't think just because Singita is a very luxurious property that anything is taken away from having a wonderful wildlife experience. Like I say, you have to actually experience something before making judgements. Singita was our style, of course it might not appeal to everyone.

We are sad to go and Jenny and George escort us mid afternoon back to the airstrip. Bi hugs followed as George took our bags and loaded them into the plane bound for Joburg. I swear if there was a parachute available, I just might have jumped out of the plane as this pretty much sums up the whole trip: WE DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE AFRICA!!!!! OUR BEST TRIP EVER!!!!

Thank you all for your supreme patience while reading this report. Now I am going to talk briefly about how we planned everything and what we found helpful.

Our trip was planned by Julian Asher of Timeless Africa. All I can say it was the most professional and delightful experience working with Julian and as you can see from the above report all worked out great. From
the pre planning to the trip itself every step was carefully crafted and we always felt taken of. The small touches such as making sure our bags got on that plane from Maun to Joburg to arranging a romantic dinner at Singita to just making sure the right hand spoke to the left, without hesitation, I would highly recommend Julian and Timeless Africa.

I must thank all of you, for reading through all your threads I knew exactly what to do in many situations from tips with a nice note card ( the Staffs were all tickled)to what to pack ( Thanks Lynn!) it made all the difference.

For clothes, we found it very useful of course to layer and that is the key for warmth. On safari we wore:

A T shirt, another long sleeve shirt over that, a fleece, then coat( stadium length), gloves, beanie style hat and scarves. We were bundled and we not ever really cold. Each camp does supply blankets/ponchos, so you do have that added protection. But it warmed up quite quickly and by midday its like summer.

We brought long underwear for sleeping which was more needed at LV than Singita as Singita has heat.

Duffle bags from LL Bean( 2 mediums and a small) were great and like I said previously our bags were 7kg each and one small bag for our toiletries was less than 3kg and we were complimented on our packing style!

It was incredibly freeing not to wear makeup. I don't wear much to begin with but on safari, none, , nada, zippo, zilch, zero and it was great!!!!!!!!!!! ( DH is so nice, he always says I don't need any makeup anyway: liar !

We took insect repellent, but found we barely used any, but do pack it. Both camps supply it but I have my favorite OFF wipes.

We took Malarone, no side effects.

DH wore his baseball cap after his beanie cap got too warm, but I don't typically wear hats anyway, so after the beanie came off of me, I just let my hair blow in the wind.

Even at Singita, no one dressed for dinner so just wear what you like, there really was no pretense here and certainly not a speck of it at LV among the guests.

I suggest you run through this board and type in PACKING LISTS you will find what you need. Thank you previous Fodorites for making my organization easier.

Now to the photos; DH is still working on them and we had family here all week, so we are behind. As soon as they are done I will post them here; we got some great shots and DH is so proud of himself as I am in him.

Well this officially concludes my report. Feel free to ask any questions and if you would like to e mail me privately, just send along your e mail and I am delighted to respond.

Off now back into the real world.. I've got to get things planned for a busy work week ahead!!!

Have a great summer everyone!!!