Melanie’s Kruger, Cape Town, Okavango Delta & Vibrant Victoria Falls

On arrival in Johannesburg you are warmly met by our representative who will assist you to check in for your flight to Hoedspruit. From Hoedspruit airport, you are transferred by road to your lodge in the Balule Private Game Reserve. There is time to settle in at your lodge before you set off on your first game drive.

Your stay at Balule is by own arrangement.

Flight time – Johannesburg to Hoedspruit: approx. 1 hour

Transfer time – Hoedspruit airport to Ezulwini River Lodge: approx. 1 hours

The unique Kruger National Park and the world-renowned private game reserves that border it together make the Greater Kruger area one of the largest wildlife conservancies in the world.

The Kruger National Park was established in 1898 and is the oldest National Park in Africa. The 2-million hectare Park provides sanctuary to 147 mammal species, including the Big Five, as well as over 500 bird species. The Kruger National Park has more than its fair share of the Big Five, with an estimated 1,500 lion, 12,000 elephant, 2,500 buffalo, 1,000 leopards and 5,000 rhino. Cheetah, wild dog, spotted hyena, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, warthog and many antelope species are also regularly seen on game drives.

Boundary fences have been dropped between Kruger and its neighbouring private game reserves, such as Sabi Sands, Timbavati, Klaserie and Manyaleti, meaning that the animals are free-roaming over an area the size of Switzerland, resulting in an immense gene pool. Kruger is unrivalled in the diversity of its life forms and a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies.

After your morning game drive, you are collected from your lodge and transferred by road to Hoedspruit airport where you check in for your flight to Cape Town. On arrival in Cape Town you are transferred to your luxury hotel in the Cape Town Waterfront for your four night stay.

Transfer time – Ezulwini Lodge to Hoedspruit: approx. 1½ hours

Flight time – Hoedspruit to Cape Town: approx. 2 hours and 40 minutes

Transfer time – Cape Town Airport to hotel in Cape Town: approx. 35 minutes

Explore the Mother City and the Fairest Cape – from the oldest buildings in South Africa to trendy waterfront shopping; from majestic Table Mountain to sun drenched beaches; and from dramatic seascapes to verdant vineyards. Cape Town regularly tops many lists of world must-visit destinations and Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain has recently been voted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Cosmopolitan and fashionable, the relaxed atmosphere and pavement café culture give Cape Town a Southern European feel – but with a distinctive African twist.

Over the next few days, you enjoy private tours of Cape Town City and Table Mountain, highlights of the Peninsula and Constantia Winelands as well as to Hermanus for a whale watching boat trip.

This morning is an early start as you are collected from your hotel at 07h30 and transferred to Cape Town airport where you check in for your flight to Maun.

On arrival at Maun airport, you connect with your light aircraft flight to the airstrip near to your camp in the Okavango Delta. From here you are transferred by game-viewing vehicle or by boat (depending on water levels) from the airstrip to your camp.

Transfer time – Cape Town hotel to Cape Town airport: approx. 35 minutes

Flight time – Cape Town to Maun: 2 hours 30 minutes

Flight time – Maun airport to airstrip near your camp at the Delta: approx. 30 minutes

The Okavango Delta in Botswana with its richly diverse wildlife species is one of the premium destinations in the world for a dynamic safari experience. This 22,000 square kilometre area offers a truly unique wilderness safari in Africa. The Delta forms where the Okavango River disappears beneath the sands of Botswana.

Although the periphery is semi-arid, the Okavango Delta itself is a patchwork of cool clear streams, lagoons, floodplains and forested islands. In the dry winter season vast numbers of wildlife flock to where the floodwaters infiltrate the delta, providing one of the world’s most spectacular sights. The world-renowned Moremi Game Reserve covers part of the Delta and is known as the ‘predator capital of Africa’. It is also home to the Big Five and large herds of elephant and buffalo. Famed for its big cat and bird population, the Delta is a peaceful haven where animals have been protected for decades. Watch giraffe and other plains game march across the savannah. You might even catch a glimpse of rare wild dogs stalking the plains. Wide grassy floodplains are host to a magnificent array of wild animals, including the specially adapted sitatunga and lechwe antelopes.

Within this lacework of channels, game viewing and bird watching is frequently guided from mokoro (dugout canoes) or more commonly, environmentally-friendly fibreglass replicas. In these slender flat-bottomed craft, guests are propelled by expert polers, many of whom were born in the Okavango Delta and know the winding waterways and their inhabitants intimately.

This morning you are transferred from your lodge (time to be confirmed by lodge) to the airstrip near the camp for your light aircraft shuttle flight to Kasane airport. On arrival in Kasane, you are transferred to your lodge in Victoria Falls where you check in for a two night stay.

Flight time – Okavango Delta Airstrip to Kasane: approx. 50 minutes

Transfer time – Kasane Airport to your lodge in Victoria Falls: approx. 2 ½ hours

Besides being one of the seven natural wonders of the world and a World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls is the unchallenged adventure capital of Africa with more than 50 activities available.

At 1708 metres wide, Victoria Falls is the most expansive curtain of water in the world and drops more than 100 metres into the sheer Zambezi Gorge. Straddling the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, these Falls and the Zambezi River are the central points in an area of spectacular scenic beauty: from the Falls themselves to the broad, picturesque course of the Zambezi River upstream, the rainforest adjacent and the stark jagged gorge downstream, the power and timelessness of nature’s forces are evident throughout.

The Falls’ local name, Mosi-Oa-Tunya – “the Smoke that Thunders” – more accurately defines the essence of the place: the rising, shining spray that can be seen 30km away. This vapour has the effect of adding moisture in the form of humidity to the air in the “splash zone”, so that a unique, small rainforest ecosystem clings to the edge of the Falls, providing a toehold for no less than 70 shrub and 150 herbaceous species, as well as trees such as pod and Natal mahogany, ebony, Cape and strangler fig and Transvaal red milkwood. There are two National Parks in the vicinity: the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe and the Mosi-oa-Tunya Zoological Park in Zambia, which means that herds of big game such as elephant and buffalo, as well as smaller species and even predators such as lion persist in the area.

This morning is at leisure until you are collected from your hotel reception for your transfer to Livingstone airport where you check in for your flight to Johannesburg. On arrival in Johannesburg you connect with your international flight home.

Transfer time – Victoria Falls Lodge to Victoria Falls airport: approx. 25 minutes

Flight time – Victoria Falls to Johannesburg: approx. 1 hour and 40 minutes