Day one - Blyde River Canyon resort / Kruger Park
We collect you from your overnight accommodation or on arrival at
the Airport in Johannesburg . Drive to the scenic Drakensberg Escarpment
through the agricultural and mining rich 'highveld'. Visit Pilgrim's
Rest, God's Window, Waterfalls, Bourkes Luck Potholes and The Three
Rondavels - Overnight
Our meals will be at wayside cafes en route to and from
the Parks. In the game reserve we will have breakfast and dinners in
the restaurants.
Breakfast offers one, from cereals, porridge, fruit, juice, yoghurts
through to a full cooked breakfast with eggs, bacon and then generally
sausages and tomatoes or the like. Dinners are generally buffet style.
Soup, fish, a variety of meat dishes, though usually a choice of roasts
(sometimes venison is on the menu as an option) with vegetables, ending
in sweets, cheese and biscuits and coffee. Lunches are usually snack
type at one of the camps or at picnic stop cafes. Here the choice is
limited to sandwiches and the like.
Day two and three - Kruger Park restcamps
Kruger National Park for two nights, Bungalow accommodation. Here
the rooms have twin beds, each a private shower, toilet and handbasin
en-suite. The brick under thatch rooms are equipped with airconditioning
and a fridge. There is insect proof screening on the doors and windows.
You will be provided with bath and hand towels as well as soap.
Full daily game viewing programme including a night drive
in an open game viewing vehicle. This to improve on your chances of
seeing some of the nocturnal species such as leopard (always difficult
to find), lion, hyena, genet, bush babies and then the other nocturnal
animals such as the owls and nightjars. You also get to see most of
the diurnal animals, their eyes lighting up like a little town when
you chance on a herd of Impala. Kruger is an excellent venue with good
sightings of lion, elephant, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, kudu,
warthog, baboon, monkey, hippo and impala regularly seen. The more elusive
animals like cheetah, leopard and wild dog are an exciting find. Option
to go on a walk in the bush with an armed field ranger - included, adults
only.
Day
four - Ntshondwe Camp, Ithala Game Reserve
Depart Kruger Park, travel through to northern Zululand and the
Ithala Game Reserve. The Ithala experience combines excellent facilities
with superb game viewing and bird watching in a beautiful setting. Of
the 30000 ha, about a quarter is open bushveld and much of the remaining
area consists of steep valleys with dense vegetation. Very different
to the flat, open terrain of the Kruger Park.
Animals occurring in the reserve, that are considered rare and endangered
include, greater bushbaby, caracal, leopard, honey-badger, brown hyena,
pangolin, tsessebe and the martial eagle amongst others. Good sightings
of eland, red hartebeest and mountain reedbuck are regularly enjoyed.
Overnight Ntshondwe Camp.
Day five - Hilltop Camp, Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park
We leave the Itala Game Reserve travelling through rural Zululand
and proceed to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park where we would spend the night
at the world renowned, Hilltop Camp. The accommodation here is brick
under thatch chalets, each with their own private bathroom. The meals
would be at the excellent Mapunye restaurant.
This is the game reserve famous for "Operation Rhino"
which brought the white rhino back from the brink of extinction. Now
you should see just how successful the Nature Conservation Service has
been.
Sightings of rhino, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, warthog, baboon.
vervet monkey, with antelope such as impala, nyala and kudu frequently
seen and with the possibility of seeing lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant,
black rhino, hippo, crocodile, monitor lizards, hyena and antelope such
as red bush duiker, steenbuck, waterbuck, eland, reedbuck, bushbuck
and then the rare Samango monkey and Wild Dog, much less frequently.
Day six - Lake St Lucia
This morning we will go on an early morning bush walk with an armed
field ranger. This is one of the highlights of the trip in my opinion
and here you get to track the animals and we often get comfortably in
sight of animals such as white rhino. The black rhino is given a wide
berth should we chance on one of those more cantankerous of pachyderms
- optional, included, adults only.
Visit a Zulu cultural village - optional, included - and
then on to Lake St Lucia to overnight at a Lodge close to the Lake shore.
Sundowners overlooking the Lake with the possibility of seeing hippo
leaving for their nocturnal grazing grounds.
Day seven - Durban
Early morning cruise on Lake St Lucia which was recently proclaimed
a World Heritage Site - hippo, crocodile and excellent birding, arriving
in cosmopolitan Durban late afternoon, travelling via the scenic Dolphin
Coast.
The cost of this seven day, six night fully inclusive
private Safari based on a minimum of two people travelling