OUR TOP TEN EXPERIENCES
1. Bushmans Kloof – dinner in the original shepherd’s cottage
2. Leopard Tracking and Research at Phinda
3. Ascending the Barrier of Spears
7. Sleep out at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve
8. Lynn Angel Interactive Cooking Evenings
10. Great White Shark breaching
1. Bushmans Kloof – dinner in the original shepherd’s cottage
This has to be one of the most evocative dinner venues in South Africa. A good 30 minute drive from the main lodge at Bushmans Kloof, it is remote and isolated, with sweeping vistas of the Cedarberg Mountains.
Originally a shepherds cottage, it has been renovated but not modernized and lighting is by lantern and candlelight, with a giant hearth preparing the food and providing warmth. It is memorable in any weather: we were there with a small group and the weather had set in: but to be on a mountain with the sash windows rattling in the wind, huge fire going and thick stone walls surrounding us, while being served an exemplary red wine and four course meal, is exactly how we like it – wilderness in style! In good weather, the night stars from here are incredible.
2. Leopard Tracking and Research at Phinda
If you have passion or special interest in leopards then the opportunity to observe Phinda Private Game Reserve’s leopards with a specialist ranger and tracker team is an absolute must. Leopards in the KwaZulu Natal area are fully protected in Phinda as well as in nearby conservation areas, but are heavily persecuted once they move onto privately-owned game and livestock farms, of which there are several on Phinda’s boundaries.
In a private open 4x4 safari vehicle, this Specialist Safari offers the rare opportunity to join Phinda’s research team who monitor the daily movements and behavior of elusive, solitary and largely nocturnal leopards – one of the most persecuted large cats in the world. To facilitate the monitoring of Leopards being studied, the cats are initially sedated and fitted with radio transmitting collars. This allows an individual Leopard to be later located by radio telemetry.
As you leave camp, there is an air of excitement and anticipation as you head deep into the African bush with your Specialist Guide, occasionally stopping to check for signal with his radio telemetry kit. Once a leopard is found, it’s then an adventure pinpointing its exact location, as these cats are so well camouflaged with the thick bush which they favor during the day.
Should your visit coincide with the timing for one of the leopards’ collars to be replaced, you are in for a once in a lifetime experience. The cat is lured by raw meat to a specific area and is then sedated by the resident wildlife vet. Once fully sedated, the animal is brought out from the cover of the bush into the open, where the awaiting research team springs into action – the sedative is only effective for 20 minutes or so. Observing the research team taking the cats physical measurements, blood and DNA samples - all the while its vital signs being monitored by the vet - is fascinating.
3. Ascending the Barrier of Spears
The Drakensberg is one of the finest mountain wilderness ranges in Africa and is a World Heritage Site, not only for its dramatic scenery and rare indigenous flora and fauna (including the Bearded Vulture) but also for its beautifully preserved San Bushman rock art. Bordering the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, the highest peaks in Africa are to be found here, with one of the most recognizable the Amphitheatre, an imposing flat topped mountain that would dwarf Table Mountain if juxtaposed.
Also known as Mont aux Sources, it is here that three major rivers in South Africa have their beginning, including the Wilge, Orange and Tugela Rivers: the latter cascading an incredible 947 metres (3110 ft) from the mountain to make it the world’s second highest waterfall.
The ascent of this mountain is possible for novices and is done in a 5 hour return trip from a station that is about mid way up the mountain peak. It is strenuous but can be done at your own pace and the time frame allows for plenty of stops. The last section is done by a chain ladder against the rock face: easily navigable, but not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights.
The summit is breathtaking – even more so because the ascent is up the “back” of the mountain and cannot prepare you for the sheer cliffs and gorges that stretch out before you across the whole of Kwa Zulu Natal, while to the west is the great plains of the Free State. It is not hard to see why this is called Dragon Mountain by the Boers, with the mountains the rugged spine of the dragon running for hundreds of miles, and the Barrier of Spears by the local Zulus.
Best accessed from lodges in the Northern Drakensberg such as Montusi Mountain Lodge, there are also less strenuous hikes to the foot of Tugela Falls through the gorge with the Amphitheatre towering above you. With either option, New Frontiers now has a permanent guide based in the area, who will escort you on a day hike that will leave an indelible impression.
This is the ultimate whale viewing experience - an eagle’s eye view of whales undisturbed and unaware of human presence.
As your plane takes off from Stanford near Hermanus, Walker Bay unfolds below – famous for both it’s great white sharks as well as the numerous Southern Right Whales who return to this stretch of coastline every year. The shallow, sandy-bottomed and sheltered bays are perfect for mating, calving, nursing their young and resting – and from the air, allow for clear, unhindered observations of these giants.
Following the rocky coastline from Cape Hangklip just north of Hermanus right the way along the edge of the ocean to Cape Agulhas, you will witness these giants of the deep crashing through the water below. From the comfort of a dedicated whale watching aircraft, these creatures can easily be tracked. It is enchanting to watch small calves touching their mothers for reassurance, and unbelievable to witness these enormous 18 metre long, 80 ton whales breaching and crashing back in an explosion of spray. Mating groups are often spotted from above and from the air there really are more whales out there than you would believe possible! Our record to date is 135 whales in a 30 minute flight in Walker Bay!
The aircraft is ideal for photographers as it has a removable door offering an unobstructed view from a stable, smooth platform. During the whale season sightings are guaranteed with a full refund if whales are not found.
Livingstone Island is located in the middle of the Zambezi River, touching the lip of the Victoria Falls, where the water thunders down the 103m drop. Livingstone Island, being part of the Victoria Falls that is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a world heritage site, plus its geological location makes it a very unique lunch spot.
To make this experience even more unforgettable, don’t miss the chance to take a swim in The Devil’s Arm Chair Pool, a small natural pool, enclosed by rocks, right on the very edge of one of the biggest, most beautiful waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls. The cost of USD110.00 per person includes your boat trip from the hotel jetty to Livingstone Island, tracing David Livingstone’s approach to these magnificent falls as well as a delicious buffet lunch and refreshments.
Devil’s Arm Chair Pool is definitely one of the most surreal locations on Earth. The swimming pool -- a small pool enclosed by rocks - is at the very brink of the mighty drop off - where the mighty Zambezi gushes over the edge of the falls. Not for the fainthearted – you have to jump into Devil’s Pool from a rock that juts out above the pool.
One cannot comprehend what is going to stop you from being swept over the edge and pureed on the jagged rock of the falls below. But it’s a leap of faith and an adrenalin rush that is hard to beat! While it feels like the current will take you over the edge, there is a hidden rock ledge below the surface with stops you. From here you can inch your way across the shallow water literally 2 inches from the edge where the mighty Zambezi River thunders into the gorge below.
Fantastic photo opportunities abound with a permanent rainbow from the mist of the falls behind you – not to mention an adrenaline rush that is hard to beat!
Cape Town – Monaco of the South! Experience Cape Town from the luxury of Princess Emma - the latest gem from the Last Word Retreats Collection – and the first super luxury yacht available to cruise the Cape coastline. Princess Emma is a 25 metre, 78 ton motor yacht permanently moored at the Cape Town Waterfront , able to host 8 guests in 4 air-conditioned cabins with its own bathroom en-suite, TV, DVD and radio. The spacious aft deck is perfect for alfresco dining while the swimming platform allows easy access to the water.
There are a number of tailormade itineraries taking in Hout Bay, Simonstown, Hermanus as far as Knysna – or up the West Coast to Langebaan and Saldanha. Our suggestion for a taste of sea faring luxury?
Day 1: Depart the V&A Waterfront for Hout Bay. At Hout Bay meet your guide who will take you on a private tour of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Ascend the Peninsula via funicular – it is here at the Cape of Good Hope that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans symbolically meet and the view from the top of the Peninsula is awe inspiring. A Champagne picnic lunch is served overlooking False Bay before your journey continues along Chapman’s Peak, rated one of the top scenic drives in the world. We meet up with Princess Emma again in Simon’s Town harbour for dinner on board.
Day 2: Cruise False Bay via the Cape of Good Hope to Kalk Bay and Seal Island, returning via Clifton Beach for sundowners and afterwards the Waterfront Marina for dinner and overnight stay on board.
The yacht is manned by a fully qualified skipper, an operations manager and crew including a private chef, all on standby to provide a highly personalised and memorable experience.
7. Sleep out at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve
Sleep under the stars and the incredible stillness in the middle of the Kalahari. If a private bush dinner isn’t romantic enough, Tswalu also does ‘sleep-outs’, where a private bedroom is set up beneath a mosquito net on the dunes – complete with beautiful bed linen, Kelim rugs and romantic candles.
After your private game drive, your ranger will drop you off on the edge of the mysterious desert wilderness. The sweeping sand dunes and the Korannaberg Mountains make an awesome backdrop to your late afternoon sundowner, draped in mauves and pinks.
After sundowners, enjoy a picnic style dinner under the magnificent star studded velvet African sky. After your Amarula, hot chocolate and marshmallows it’s time for bed. As there are no elephants in the reserve and lions are fenced out of the sleep out area, your biggest concern is an unannounced thunderstorm. Your ranger will stay with you if you like, but it is far more romantic to have him leave a walkie talkie (2 way radio) and cell phone with you and to make the most of your desolate desert surroundings.
8. Lynn Angel Interactive Cooking Evenings
Lynn is a wonderful no-nonsense chef who co ordinates cooking evenings in her suburban home, either on a private basis or in small groups. She provides a magnificent kitchen, recipes and all the ingredients, thrown together with copious amounts of wine! Relaxed and informal, she is unshocked by culinary ignorance as I discovered in my cooking session, and highly experienced and informative for those who are looking for something more stimulating. It is a great chance to meet other people, interact with South Africans and at the same time prepare a meal that will leave you impressed with your own (assisted) talent. At the end of the preparation everyone sits together to share the evening’s creations – good and bad. It’s a great slice of Cape Town life.
Our last travellers had this to say:
Well, we had the time of our lives!!! Everything that you arranged was perfect - where to start? Kensington was just wonderful with fabulous staff, our guides in Capetown became best friends and we did everything we wanted. Rodwell House really something! Lynn Angel was a riot - we had dinner with her and her boyfriend the next night after clearing her refrigerator of white wine the night before...!
Many of you will already know about the uThando Community projects which you are supporting either through contributions or through the day tour programme which we run. The work being done is varied – from orphanages to old age homes to environmental projects – but it is in all cases humbling and remarkable what individuals are doing for the poorest parts of South African society.
uThando is very careful not to intrude on the projects as these are in effect people’s every day lives – and interacting with children at orphanage schools can be very disruptive for instance, but there is always a non intrusive element to the tours – we for instance watched township children who are given ballet and classic dance instruction every day in a school after hours: there was much face pulling from the boys taking part but some of the kids graduate with such distinctions that they are granted dance scholarships to New York and Paris.
The tours change daily according to what projects are happening that day but whether you join an interactive drumming session at the Hout Bay Music Project, have tea with tenders of the urban agricultural feeding gardens in Khayelitsha or watch a performance of gumboot dancing at the Educational Theatre Project, you will come away enlightened and touched by the work being done here.
10. Great White Shark breaching
A personal account…
It was a June morning in the Cape – almost mid winter and the sun was only now, at 7:00, beginning to show above the dark waters of False Bay. Seal Island lay in front of us, with 40 000 Cape Fur seals tightly packed on the rocky outcrop. Beyond, a good 40 minute boat ride away, lay Simonstown and to the south Gordon’s Bay and the road to Hermanus. In between lay waters up to 60 metres deep and home to the biggest specimens of Great White Sharks in world.
We were here to see a unique example of animal behaviour – Great White Shark breaching – when these most efficient of hunters strike unsuspecting seals from below, launching their bodies out of the water like a torpedo and hitting the prey with frightening speed. In some instances, the whole body of the shark is propelled out of the water from the momentum and if it misses then a bloody chase ensues as the seal tries desperately to escape repeated attempts. Owing to the unique topography of the area, this is the only place in the world where this behaviour occurs regularly.
I must admit to being initially sceptical as we scanned the waters around Seal Island. The chances of seeing an attack in such vast terrain must be minimal. Yet – like a marine game drive – we had a ranger (skipper) and his two trackers (deck hands) who showed us how the read the signals of an impending “hunt”. They followed seals who had been isolated from the pack and were swimming alone, and watched the sea birds who tended to congregate in the air prior to an attack in the hope of picking up tasty morsels. And lo and behold, the water around a seal we were following suddenly broke into a churning mass and the unmistakable black and white body of a Great White launched out of the water – not quite a full breach, but enough for us to see it in full profile. The seal escaped and we watched enthralled as it tried desperately to swim to the island, leaping clear of the water each time, as the shark broke water repeatedly. And then suddenly there was nothing and the birds dive bombed the spot for remnants. It was thrilling stuff – and we were able to see two other kills in the time we were out.
Scepticism erased, we anchored and those that wanted to cage dive were given the opportunity. A dummy seal was laid out behind the boat: so high is the population of sharks here that intensive chumming is not needed – and within 20 minutes the first of a number of sharks made a lazy cruise alongside the boat. Half the length of the boat – a good 4 metres (13 ft), they were incredibly dismissed as “small” by our skipper, who said they grow to over 6 metres (20 ft) here. Obviously not small when seen face to face from the cage as one of the divers testified when they came shooting out of the cage with eyes as big as the mask!
I was sold on the whole experience – this is the water equivalent of seeing a leopard kill in the Sabi Sands – and I preferred the False Bay experience to the much better known Gansbaai option. For one, it is a good 90 minutes closer to Cape Town than Gansbaai, and with the time saved, you can return to the city via the penguins at Boulders Beach and even Cape Point to make a full day of it (the pick up is at 06:00 with return to Simonstown, the launch spot, at around 1:00 pm). Two – you can only see breaching here and nowhere else, while still having the option of a cage dive. Three – only two boats have licenses to operate in False Bay as opposed to the 8 or so at Gansbaai – and our boat only took 12 at a time, so it is a far more personal experience.
On the down side, the breaching is only common in the months May – early September and outside of this time, while there are Great White Sharks, sightings are not guaranteed. In the summer months, Gansbaai would be a better option.
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