Wallamble

After a super fun couple of weeks, we are ready to head home and process all of the amazing things we have seen. Today we did a little exploring of Johannesburg…

… before heading to the airport for home sweet home.

We’ve always wanted to do this trip, and we’ve wanted the kids to come too. The earth is full of amazing things and experiences! (particularly this part of the world!)

It is important to us that the kids learn inquisitiveness, independence, self-confidence, resilience, awareness, appreciation (and more!) through travel. We like that they can lead the way through busy airports to find the gate, or find hotels in new cities using google maps. We like that they can be patient through delays and adapt plans after cancellations. We like that they can pack and live out of a carry on bag for a couple of weeks. We like that they can enjoy both the quiet and the hustle. We like that they will listen, watch and try new things in new places.

With Elimena entering year 11 this year, next summer we will probably be busy (checking out colleges or she will be studying for her finals etc). The summer after is all hers to plan. It was now, or possibly never (once the kids leave school we can’t guarantee they’ll be able or wanting to join family vacations – we’ve raised pretty independant kids, they’ll have their own committments). The time was now and we are so glad we were able to make it happen.

It was a truly special trip of a lifetime – full of amazing memories and great quality family time – that we’ll never forget!!!

Up for the predawn ritual of a quick rusk & coffee
(yes this is a fancy place – it even has stairs to get into the jeep and hot water bottles and blankets for the early morning drive – such incredible thoughtfulness)

before heading out on our final game drive.

Goodbye super cool animals. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to come back, but we certainly enjoyed our time with you 🙂

With that we left the park and drove through the little villages enroute to Kruger airport

for our flight to Johannesburg,
In Joburg we Uber-ed to hotel, checked and then headed to Nelson Mandela Square for dinner in search of a sundowner (whilst still enjoyable, the sundowner wasn’t quite the same)

Up before dawn for a rusk and a coffee before heading out on a morning game drive – watching nature do their thing! We saw hippos, baby elephants including a baby trumpeting on video

four lions kindly having a mid-morning nap and posing for the camera

a huge pack (12+) of hyenas eating a hippo w vultures waiting for their turn

Brunch back at the lodge & a well deserved nap

I read a book on our porch, only to look up and be faced with bush beasts and impalas…

In the afternoon we set off on a suset game drive, where again we were amongst an abundance of animals

including a newborn rhino

And the ever important sundowner…

and a leopard right outside the lodge as we headed back for the evening.

A fabulous predinner drink and then an outdoor dinner by the fire (with a super friendly scorpion also warming itself by the fire)

This really is a little piece of heaven 🙂

Lazy 9:15am breakfast before heading off on the next round of the Wallace safari. This time 2 loops through prime animal viewing territory! We saw giraffes drinking, elephants, lions on the hill, kudu, impala, wildebeest, baboons, warthog with perfect curly horns 🙂

Lion-king-esque mountains…

Another awesome amazing safari drive. We had a quick rest stop for lunch for a final buffalo pie (yum!)

As we left Kruger we saw an awful lot of backburning very close to our drive…

to drive next door to Sabi Sands Game Reserve
(not knowing how or if the game viewing would be successful, we decided to have our last two safari nights is (an almost guaranteed viewing) private game reserve. If you are going to come all this way, you want to see some animals!)
In Sabi Sands there were wildebeest welcoming us just inside the gate

and giraffes on arrival to our new camp
(middle picture taken later in the afternoon)

A pretty spectactular arrival! A little time to chill

Before high tea and setting off on a sunset game drive that went super close to the animals – elephants, giraffes everywhere….

With the highlight being 2 lions eating a wildebeest…

Sundowners mid-drive (we could get used to this)…

Dinner under the stars

Spectacular! Incredible! Amazing! just wow!
(I’ve run out of adjectives and still haven’t adequately described this two week experience!)

Today – team Wallamble take on Kruger with a self-planned-self-drive tour. After studying the animal sighting map the night before, we were up early, in the car and off (with our fingers crossed hoping to see something, anything – but unsure of if this would be successful. Afterall we could just spend hours driving along empty dirt roads…

We piled into the car as the sun was starting to rise and took the long route to….

Breakfast at Tshokwane Rest Camp for a breakfast of buffalo pies, bacon and eggs 🙂
Over breakfast, we were fending off the hovering baboons. Hilariously we watched a massive papa baboon push open the door, grab a packet of rusks and then pull open the door to escape. It was so smooth and fast – it was obviously well practised. The nearby baboon wrangler did not even have time to react! The savvy baboon managed his escapade twice in the hour we were there!

We were off, exploring again and saw lots of animals! Zebras, mongeese, an ostrich, elephants, a giraffe Steinbecks, impalas, a hyena, baboons, monkeys, pretty birds, warthogs, buffaloes….

A herd of elephants grazing next to a river and and lions under a tree

Then returning for a late lunch at Skukuza rest camp.

Check out the varieties of meat in the butcher shop at the rest stop!

A much deserved nap before joining the ranger-led sunset game drive…

where the highlights were hyenas

and 3 leopards!

Before a very “late dinner”…at erm … 8pm!!!

A magnificent day in the spectacular Kruger National Park 🙂

The overall plan for today was to fly from Victoria Falls to Kruger National Park. Simple right?
So there was a direct flight at 2pm from Livingstone, which is just across the border (Zambia) less than 20km away. Easy…!?!

So we had until 2pm to do the 20km to get to Livingstone airport. We didn’t want to see the Falls again and we hadn’t seen a rhino yet, so what to do? Obvious right?

So the day started with a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast in town. We are on holidays after all 🙂

Before taking a taxi to the Zimbabwe side of the border ($10). Then we walked across the border on the stunning but misty bridge from Zimbabwe into Zambia
(again this could have been $US100pp transfer, but if you travel light there is something pretty cool about physically walking between countries and being in “no mans land” in the middle)

I bought 50 billion Zimbabwean note from a trusty man mid-crossing in no mans land!!! (and a $10bn, $1bn and $50million). I just had too 🙂

I had arranged a service to pick us up at the Zambia side of the border and take us to the airport. When I messaged them the night before to see if they could also take us to walk with the Rhinos, they said “No problem!”. Besides if you look at the map at the top of this post, the Mosi-oa-tuni NP is on the way-ish right?

So DewClaw picked us up from the border crossing and took us on a game drive through Mosi-oa-tu ya National Park. Saw elephants, buffalo, impala, zebras, warthogs

..to see and walk with the white rhinos!
(interestingly, we were told that Zambia only has 10 white rhinos apparently and that these are 4 of them. So Zambia has them under armed guards for protection from poachers. Here we were thinking that we were the ones being protected…)

Morning tea-ish by the Zambesi River

A drive through Livingstone town to the airport.

It was super kind of the car service to throw in the game drive and morning tea by the Zambesi River 🙂

Next up was our flight (with a studding view of the falls)…
(the first photo shows the mist in the distance then the second is a little closer)

…to Kruger National Park airport, pick up hire car and drive

to our hotel. Arriving just as they closed the gates to Kruger National Park for the night 🙂 We had just made it in time thanks to Nathan’s amazing driving!
(nothing like a blackout over dinner – given all the scheduled power outages in Cape Town it wasn’t a surprise. We’re getting used to power and wifi being only intermittent)

A lazy breakfast at the Lookout Cafe with it’s stunning view of the gorge

A quick walk to the falls ($50pp and yet you have to buy a map separately!!! Totally a rort but worth it)

…the reality action shots…
(This might be a good time to point out, that before leaving New Jersey mum bought four ponchos. The night before leaving home she went around and made sure everyone packed them. We all carried out poncho in our luggage for the first week. The morning of Victoria Falls, everyone got their poncho out – and in the end mum carried hers and dad carried three in his pocket for the Falls outing. Yet in the photos you only see one poncho….)

We walked back to town from the Falls with the villagers & elephants!
(there are two versions to this story – in one Bianca was an inch away from death when she stopped to take a picture of the elephants, however in the real one, there is a study fence and also cars she could quickly jump behind – ha!)

A quick snack in town, then back to hotel to chill before returning to the 3 monkeys for a long early dinner (ok the hotel did have a dinner show – pic below on right – but we chose pizza and cocktails instead, shhhh)

Up early again for a 6am game drive, where we saw hyenas, elephants, hippos, impalas, monkeys, baboons, giraffes, banded mongeese and

and a leopard! Our first big cat 🙂

Back to hotel for a much deserved buffet breakfast. The Warthogs still outside our room

We checked out and headed to our next destination (from Kasane Botswana to Victoria Falls Zimbabwe).
(Mum cut ALOT of corners on this trip. Rather than pay the $120pp for the super comfortable transfer, she made us do it our selves $10pp. This meant a taxi to Botswana border ($10 – 100 pula) – walked across to Zimbabwe – taxi to Victoria Falls ($10/each). Rather than taking an hour it took us two hours, but saved us $400 USD).

We arrived at Victoria Falls and had then chilled for a few hours. This hotel had families of monkeys instead of warthogs…

In the late afternoon we did a quick walk around Victoria Falls town before chilling over drinks & a long early dinner.

We woke to find a very very large family of impalas on the banks 🙂 This place is magical!

To a hot farewell breakfast in the main lodge

and then loaded the jeep

On drive to airport saw a pack of five wild dogs out for their morning trot.
(maybe the ones from the night before that were chasing the impalas?)

Then buffalo, hippos, an elephant, jackal, elegant birds.

Exited the park (and kept the animals safe by spraying the truck and wiping our feet)

Through town

At Maun airport 3 minutes to check in and get through security before our midday one hour flight to Kasane.

The drive from the airport was luckily only 6 miles this time. We checked in and had a (super disappointing) lunch at hotel (the chicken wings were still red on the inside and we are used to be fed by the amazing lodge). Our hotel was on the Chobe river right where the river cruises leave from. Right outside my room were warthogs 🙂

Some downtime on wifi before joining a sunset boat cruise. We were super lucky and the other people on the trip cancelled, so we had the boat to ourselves!
Just wow! Elephants swimming across the river!

Hippos…

Nile crocodiles,..

water buffalos, impalas

and the sunsetting over Namibia (had we have touched the land on the other side of the River we would have been in a new country)

Dinner back in Kasane after another amazing day 🙂

Sleep in! Up at 615 for a 6:30 breakfast…after going to bed so early and with all the excitement, it was as bad as that reads 🙂

Magical early morning game drive – ostriches, elephants, impalas…

We followed the lion prints to a dead impala (picture of wild dog and kudu to fill the space)

Back at 10:30 to chill at the lodge.

Chill to 3pm – when a hornbill started knocking on our door. It knew the schedule – ha!

The lodge gave a talk on the Delta, followed by an afternoon tea, then we were off on a late afternoon game drive. Just wow!!!!
A troop of 22 Giraffes just hanging out…
(apparently it is a “tower of giraffes” if they are just hanging out, or a “journey” if they are on the move – we learnt so many useful facts)

A pod of 31 hippos,..

mum & baby elephant, 3 types of mongoose, and more!

G&T sundowner stop (with Kurt our amazing guide)

The drive finished by following the wild dogs who were chasing impalas (in the twilight)

Then finally a big hyena crossing the road just outside our camp clearing (gulp). When we arrived back at the Lodge there were an elephant and impalas were happily grazing on the banks opposite,

An incredible day!!!)