Part 2 - on Safari in Kruger National Park

Next stop was at The Three Rondavels, wow what a view! Nothing more to say was breathtaking! For the final 2 nights, we are at the 5* Kapama River Lodge on a private game reserve – once again an incredible greeting from the staff! We check in to this impressive accommodation built on land which covers 15000 hectares of African Bush – it’s here that we see all of the Big 5! We are given a quick tour of the of the lodge just to get our bearings before a magnificent lunch is served – of course with all of these meals we are served some of the best South African wines! Just time to unpack before afternoon tea and coffee, then out for our first game drive on the private reserve. This time our safari vehicles are open top, and we have a spotter on the front of the vehicle too! Lots of game around, so good viewing and then we stop off for what turns out to be a feast! A lovely little scene where all the food was beautifully laid out on tables, a choice of chicken drumsticks, pork sliders, spring rolls, cheese, fruit, lots of other African snacks too plus of course an open bar! I can feel that my clothes are getting tighter by the minute!! Anyway, back to the game drive and soon after it is getting dark, we turn a corner and come face to face with a rhino, our tracker studies him and then decides we are not getting too close as he recognises this one to be aggressive, so we back up and give him some space! He just stares at us and so we decide to move on and leave him be. The game drives are so exciting you just don’t know what you’re going to come across! We stay out for around 3-4 hours, and it doesn’t disappoint as we see so much! Back for a wonderful dinner, then a reasonably early night as we get a 5am wake up call, for a 6am leave on the next game drive. There’s a thunderstorm so our departure gets delayed until the storm passes, but still everyone keen to get out and do some more spotting! This time we’re on the lookout for leopard! As we drive through the bush, we’re seeing everything elephant, giraffe, lion, buffalo and of course zebra and plentiful impala, but the leopard is avoiding us, until I think I see something in the undergrowth, so I tell John our guide to stop and reverse up. He asks me what I thought I saw, and I say I think lion but not sure, his eagle eyes then spotted it too and there was our leopard, a very shy one not wanting to come out! But we have at last seen one! Back to the lodge for breakfast, we also have a guided tour of the other room types – all gorgeous and then we have a wonderful 30-minute massage booked in their spa – this was amazing, and I would highly recommend! Before our game drive we visit Kapama Southern Camp. Here we do a site inspection and have afternoon tea. Then it’s onward for the last evening game drive and we concentrate on finding leopard, and we do, and it shows itself in all its glory, so we get a fantastic view of it. We have our final dinner in a private room, with a roaring fire – its is such an amazing scene! The food is again fantastic and lots of South African wine. Our guides join us for dinner and they enjoy telling us their experiences from the bush. Tomorrow is our last game drive, so 5am wake up call, morning tea and coffee and then out at 6.00 on the drive. The wonderful sight of 2 lioness sisters just lazing around before they go off in search of food, what an amazing sight to end our last drive. On the way back we do a site visit to Kapama Karula, a small 5* lodge with just 12 villas, 2 of them family villas – wow what can I say they were incredible. Anyone looking for that extra special place, then this is it! Feeling sad now that the trip is almost over, we go back to have another lovely lunch and then shower and check out before we leave for the 10-minute transfer to the airport at Hoedspruit that will connect with our flight home from Jo’Burg back to London. The week has gone so quick, and we did so much. Time spent with amazing people, seeing an amazing country. South Africa truly stole my heart! I will return…….