Ernie Els Estate and Lanzerac Hotel & Spa Our time in Cape Town flew by, but we had kept our most exciting excursion for the end – a trip out to the world famous Stellenbosch area. Something I hadn’t realised with Stellenbosch and Cape Town, was how close they actually are to one another. In my mind it was hours and hours of driving to get from one to the other, when in actual fact

V&A Waterfront & Parker Cottage Following on from “At Boulder Tintswalo” we had to do the “tourist thing” and visit the famous V&A Waterfront. What a vibe it has! We had a wonderful day out walking around the huge shopping malls and the harbours, with my favourite experience: getting to see the seals. I could have sat for a lot longer watching them play and swim and preen, but Woody’s tummy was growling so it

Tintswalo at Boulders It seems I have fallen behind on my blogs about our life in the tourism industry. You would have thought with COVID life would be a little quieter, in actual fact the opposite is true! COVID has added to the work load, as a “normal” booking can now be changed 2-4 times due to family or friends not being able to travel or falling ill. So, this means multiple cancellations, postponements and

Following on from my last blog, this is a continuation of an agents’ educational trip taken at the beginning of September to Rukuru Bush Camp and then on to Nyamoumba River Camp, both on the Zambezi River.  Nyamoumba is located at the beginning of the Kariba Gorge, only 27kms below the Kariba Dam Wall.  You can either drive into camp via a dirt road which you access from near Marongora, which takes about an hour

The agents’ educational I was invited to at Fothergill was such a success that, a couple of weeks later, I was invited to another. This time there were just 6 agents and it was a combination educational to Rukuru Bush Camp and Nyamoumba River Camp.  Both are located on the Zambezi River not far from Chirundu, Rukuru 10kms downstream and Nyamoumba 40kms upstream.  The trip started early on a Thursday morning for the other ladies

At the end of August I was very privileged to be one of 10 agents invited to an “Educational” at the newly renovated Fothergill Island on Lake Kariba.  This is when agents get to have a proper stay and look at the lodge, so they can fully acquaint themselves to its unique features in order to better sell it to future guests. The other 9 agents were flown in by charter plane from Harare, as

Mana Pools is one of our best loved National Parks in Zimbabwe and as we are based in Kariba, we are lucky not to be too far away to sneak off for a long weekend when the chance arises.  A couple of weeks ago we were invited to the recently opened Ingwe Pan, part of the Machaba Portfolio, which is located not on the typical Mana Pools shoreline where most camps are based, but situated

Winter in Kariba is probably one of the most mild and enjoyable places to be.  The nights and early mornings are chilly, usually no more than a jacket is needed to keep warm and this is shed my mid-morning when the sunshine heat kicks in.  We were lucky enough to be invited out to the newly refurbished Kingfisher Lodges (previously Lambs Lair) in the Charara area over the long weekend at the end of May

Since our lock down in Zimbabwe has eased and COVID vaccines made available, Woody and I were keen to start getting out and about more. So the long Independence weekend in April was the perfect excuse to do so.  We had been invited back to Camp Mana to see the new and improved camp set-up and we decided to take them up on the offer, since our last visit was in 2018. We had not

Due to the countrywide lock down in place since January, Woody and I had not done any travelling this year, but March brought about an ease in the restrictions so we took full advantage of it and went on a wonderful road trip to the Deka Drum area, then on to Victoria Falls, before tackling the long haul home via Bulawayo. Sundowner Zambezi Lodge has been on our “Must Visit” list for a while; however,

After all our gallivanting about the bush, it was quite nice to be heading to Victoria Falls for a few days to catch up with friends and do a bit of shopping before heading back home.  We had never been to Shongwe Lookout Guest Lodge because it is quite a recently built lodge and in fact one of the first things that struck me upon our arrival was how well established the gardens are.  Lovely

From Deteema Springs we travelled to another of Machaba Safaris’s lodges, this being the newly refurbished Robins Camp which is also in the north western section of Hwange National Park.  Various friends had reported that Robins was not in good condition and they were all keen to hear back from us on what it was like now.  We were very impressed with how much work has been done.  The camp itself is made up of

Hwange National Park is an exceptional National Park in Zimbabwe, but due to the distance it is from where we live, we don’t get to visit it as often as we’d like. So it was great to have an excuse to spend some time there in October of this year. We started off by driving to Nehimba Tented Camp, which takes about 2 hours from the Main Camp entrance, it is on a private concession. 

After our exhausting trip of 10.5 hours from Gonarezhou National Park, we were very glad to finally make it to Bulawayo.  After spending the first night with a friend, we were excited to be booking into the famous Bulawayo Club.  The club is located in the heart of the city on the Corner of 8th Avenue and Fort Street. The building itself is historical, originally built in 1895, with the foundation stone laid by Prince

As we continued our trip around Zimbabwe, we had set ourselves quite a daunting task upon leaving Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, when we made plans to travel all the way from the Chilo entrance of the Gonarezhou National Park, on the far northern boundary, to the Mabalauta area, in the southernmost part of the park, in just 1 day!  We didn’t know anyone who had actually done this and therefore no one could tell us

Following on from our last blog, when we described the start of our 3 week trip around Zimbabwe, we began by visiting the Italian church near Masvingo, then Birchenough Bridge followed by spending a few days at Humani Ranch – Turgwe River Lodge in the Save Conservancy.  From Humani we travelled down through the Conservancy to exit at the southern gate, which leads to the A10 road from Chiredzi to Chisimbanje.  From here it was