South Africa

I write to you from the edge of the world, Cape Town, South Africa where I am spending two months visiting and getting to know this country on a deep and intimate level.

I’ve spent 3 weeks in the bush on safari in the areas of Kruger National Park, Sabi Sands Nature Reserve, and a quick trip up to Zimbabwe to see the amazingly successful rhino conservation project in Malilangwe Nature Reserve. 

Now that South Africa is open to international visitors, their restrictions have deescalated and the vaccination numbers are moving in a really promising direction, I knew it was finally time to get over here. 

The trip began with an Air France flight from Charles De Gualles (visiting Momma in the Loire Valley) to Johannesburg. The business class was comfortable and the 11 hours flew by in a restful sleep with two delicious meals.

If coming from the states there is an excellent nonstop flight on Delta from Newark or from the West Coast, I highly recommend the Qatar Airways flight in the extremely comfortable Q Suites. 

Staying next door to the airport at the Intercontinental was a comfortable way to recover from the flight and get ready for an early morning flight to the bush the next day. 

A quick 1 hour flight (with a quick stop for customs at Buffalo Range Airport - 15 min max for all 7 of us to get our passports stamped and the visa on arrival paid) up to Lonestar airstrip took us 15 min away from our first stop Singita Pamushana. 

Nestled high on a sandstone cliff overlooking the glistening expanse of the Maliliangwe Dam with epic views of the Malilalgwe Nature Reserve. Each suite has it’s own private swimming pool and there is a main swimming pool in the central area of the lodge. 

The Malilangwe is famous for it’s healthy population of White Rhino and the more elusive Black Rhino (both of which we saw on our very first game drive ending at sundowners where they came to poke around our vehicle and see if there were any unclaimed gin and tonics) and hugely successful conservation efforts for both. During our four night stay (I would not recommend any less) we experienced the Big 5, some of the most incredible baobab trees on the African Continent, and some amazing boat safaris on the Malilangwe Dam to see hippos all around our floating sundowners. 

I visited at the end of the dry season (April-October) and beginning of the rainy season (December-March) before the lush overgrowth of the vegetation gives the animals more places to hide from our eager lenses and binoculars. 

We headed back to Johannesburg for an overnight in the Saxon Hotel, the cities best hotel in terms of design, luxury, and service. It was actually such a nice break from the dust and exposure in the bush. We all happily showered and put on a nice dress for a lovely dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. 

The next morning we were off to Kruger National Park to visit two Singita lodges - the award winning design Lebombo lodge and its sister property the more contemporary Singita Sweni lodge. 

Singita Lebombo is suspended high above the N’Wanetsi River, the design of this lodge’s 13 contemporary “bird’s nest” glass walled suites offer some dramatic cliffside views.

Situated on Singita’s 33,000 acre private concession in the Park, the lodge incorporates the rich diversity of African wilderness with large euphorbia trees dotting the walkways where all of the 5 five occasionally wander close enough to camp where you can relax in your private outdoor skybed (yes, I slept in this both nights!) and watch the game come to the riverbed below to feed, hunt, breed, etc. 

One of my personal favorite experiences at this lodge (other than the incredible boutiques down the hill which feel more like a Malibu-based curated shopping village) is the incredibly impressive cooking school where executive chef, Xavier ____, led us in the most fun and educational cooking lesson in the beautiful open-plan kitchens. 

The game viewing here was outstanding even compared with Malilangwe where it felt like something exciting was waiting for us around every corner. 

We visited Singita Sweni just down the hill on the riverbed and it’s identical suites really blew me away with the totally different style (more contemporary with pops of color and unexpected bold design. It is a more intimate camp and although the layout of the suites are the same, it has an entirely different vibe. 

Next and final stop was Sabi Sands. Singita’s private concession is located in the Sabi Sands reserve and houses both the Singita Boulders and Singita Ebony. 

Boulders is the quintessential African Safari Lodge. It’s 8 river suites and 2 bush suites and one family suite are some of the most aestheticlly designed safari lodges in the world. I spent two nights being woken up by HERDS of African elephant coming to drink at the watering hole on my back patio coming as close as 20 feet to some of these incredible creatures. The wine cellar with the boulders that the designers worked around as they were just too large to move when constructing the lodge (cool!) blew me away and the wine program with Sommelier Minnie was a big highlight for me. The depth she can offer on education around South African wines was seriously impressive. 

This 45,000 acre sanctuary is renowned for its high concentration of big game and frequent (I mean seriously frequent, we saw three in two days!) leopard sightings. The uninterrupted river views ensure that even if you skip the early morning game drive, you will have the opportunity to watch some serious conscious connection to the wildlife over your breakfast. 

And that’s a wrap of my first safari (out of three on this trip!). 

I will leave you with a glimpse into one of the more powerful moments on my safari when we arrived for a surprise “bush dinner” where the Singita folks had set up the most magnificent outdoor dining experiences with what felt like hundreds of glass rail lanterns hanging from a great Baobab tree which reached up above us towards an African sky slowly coming alive with the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. The care and dedication the staff put into creating that moment for us and the surprises they incorporated into the night (such as the local tribal chorus’s visit to sing and dance with us under the moonlight) literally took my breath away. As I sat inside of the most romantic scene I have maybe ever experienced in ten years of visiting top honeymoon destinations around the world, I thought to myself: Everyone should come and feel this kind of connection with what is, at it’s most basic roots, the very definition of wild.