African Safari Reviews and News

Or rather 10 things to do in Johannesburg when you are stuck for a day or two. If you are coming to southern Africa on safari, more likely than not you are going to transit via Johannesburg and you may have to overnight and stay over. Our consultant team and our friends from Spurwing in Johannesburg have put together a list whether you are with your partner, friends or family. Enjoy!

By a coincidence of geography and geology, Botswana has within its boundaries one of the world’s great inland waterways, the Okavango Delta. The Okavango River drains water from the Angola highlands into a depression or trough which collects in a delta spreading over 10000 square kilometres. This is a happy accident because this area would otherwise be an arid desert like much of the surrounding area.

In this video interview, Nicolas Edwards speaks with  Tim Butcher, past Daily Telegraph Africa correspondent, award winning author and adventurer.

As we hunker down at the end of the week with a glass of local Klein Constantia wine in our hands, our consultant team likes to shoot the breeze. The conversation turns to why we live in and why we love Cape Town. Here are ten of their suggestions in no particular order:

Colonial governors had the pick of the best real estate in any country they governed and they certainly enjoyed their weekend retreats. Governors Main Camp is the legacy of this investment. Located in the Masai Mara Reserve on a bend on the Mara River, it has the advantage of overlooking a natural water course and wide savannah. It remains the oldest existing safari camp in east Africa.

There are some cities which are instantly familiar even if you have never visited them before and they are in far away and exotic locations. If you are eurocentric or travelled around the Mediterranean basin or the South American coastline, you would immediately feel at home in Maputo.

About 2 and a half hours drive north from Nairoibi lies one of the forgotten gems of wildlife tourism in Kenya, the Aberdare National Park. This park, founded in 1950, is 766 km2 in size but it is unusual for the sheer variety of terrain. It cuts through the eponymous mountain range and encapsulates mountain peaks intersected by streams and waterfalls to dense forest and moorland.

This Q & A interview is an abridged transcription of a video interview conducted with Dr Peter Vincent, head of the Tokai Medicross Hospital, in Tokai, Cape Town. Malaria remains a killer disease and any traveler to a malarial zone needs to understand the disease and how to combat it.

Jamala Madikwe Royal Safari Lodge is a perfect example of what a well run safari lodge should be like. Intimate,owner run and managed, excellent personal service and attention to detail and meals which compare favorably to most 5 star restaurants! From the main verandah you can view game which overlooks one of the best waterholes in South Africa. Look at the video and savour the experience.

In this video interview, we speak with Dr Peter Vincent, head of the Travel Clinic at the Tokai Medicross Hospital in Tokai, Cape Town. He answers all the commonly asked questions by visitors to  malaria affected regions of Africa. What he adds in the interview and which we reiterate here is that you should seek advice and consultation from your local doctor when you travel to malaria areas and never forget to tell your doctor when you return from Africa and feel unwell, that you have traveled in such an area.

Your correspondent has been travelling in Africa for over three decades. I feel that I know sub-Saharan Africa; its smells, its peoples, its geography and its wildlife. Ethiopia is different, as different as snow is to sand. So different that you could get a very sharp knife and detach it somewhere in the Red Sea because it is not similar to any of it’s Arab world neighbours either.

Last week, President Zuma announced the latest Tourism Statistics for 2012 and that tourism to South Africa increased by 10.2% in 2012 over 2011. That number is more than double the world average. Cape Town itself, whilst more difficult to extrapolate exact numbers, is approximated to have grown between 6-8%.

Ballito, on the north coast of Kwazulu Natal, is experiencing the greatest economic growth of any municipality in the country. From a sleepy seaside village, it has mushroomed into one of the most desirable places to live in the country as well as being one of the hot destinations for South Africans to holiday.

In this video interview, we speak with Andrew Rattray, general manager of Fugitives Drift Lodge and son of renowned tourism and social entrepreneur, David Rattray. We ask Andrew about the past but importantly about the future of the lodge, the David Rattray Foundation and this beautiful part of Zululand which his father did so much to put on the world map

David Rattray is synonymous with Fugitives Drift. His love and hard work put this obscure corner of Zululand on the world map. Initially, by him pioneering the new tourism sector of historical tours in South Africa and then by attracting the great and good of this world including several members of the British Royal Family to this area who consequently were important in financing the influential David Rattray Foundation.