My wife and I will be spending two weeks on holiday in South Africa in early September.

Looking to see if anyone has any ideas on good things to see, tips, good accomodation venues etc?

I do have some ideas but am welcome for suggestions.

What we probably will do is to include a trip to Cape Town and also the Stellenbosch and Paarl wine regions. To visit some wineries and have a look around. Plus the lovely Cape Dutch architecture.

So we will certainly be down that way.

Kruger Park is another possibility. Any recommendations for Kruger or the surrounding areas?

Other worthwhile parks?

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I will be doing a short hunt with member 'KarlS' in Namibia, a place I have always wanted to hunt. And also a week long cow elephant hunt in the Omay with Nengasha Safaris prior to the holiday.

Depending on how whipped up you want to go, but aparently Leopard hills in sabi sands is awesome according to a freind who has just come back from her second visit!!

If you are looking for Kruger try Dennie at www.Execubush.com , the website is currently being updated but he'll take you about and is a PH so you can talk hunting too!!

FB

I strongly recommend Shark Diving with Carcharias in Kleinbaai, South Africa. My wife and I did it prior to our hunt in Namibia last September and had a great time.

2 feet away from one of the largest predators on earth, here is a picture my wife took from inside the cage:


Here is the link

http://www.carcharias.co.za/index1.html

My family just arrived back from South Africa. We hired a private tour guide, our outfitters recommendation, in Cape Town. He arranged everything from accommodations at the Commodore, airport pick up & drop off, etc. We did a tour of the Cape Peninsula and Table Mountain we saw the seals, penguins, Cape Point, etc. we stopped in some small towns so my wife could look in the Antique shops. On return from our Hunt KLM cancelled our flight from Cape Town so we had another day in Cape Town and did the wine lands tour. We had lunch in Stellenbosch. For the price of the tour's it was not worth my time to rent a car and try it myself. He even had much better rates at the hotel than I could get on my own.

My wife hates tour buses so we wanted a private tour and did some research up front an told him what we wanted to see. If you want prices and contact information I can dig it up.

Mike

RSA is one of the most diverse places on earrh, for its size, so see a little of it...

Kruger is great but don't forget those awesome parks in KZN...Mkuzi Game Reserve is one of my favourite spots in the world....Like tiger fishing...Jozini Dam is just around the corner from there...look for 'Irie Tigerfishing' on the web, contact Chris Rippon and get him to guide you there...

If you want to chill in a great, peaceful place, look at Otters Den (close to Kruger, just outside Hoedspruit) www.ottersden.co.za your wife will flip for a balloon flight (so will you).

The Drakensburg is awesome, look at the Karroo too and spend a night out there, lastly, the Western Cape, environmentally completely different to the rest of the country.

Thats just a quick sample, scratching the surface but would be worth your while, depending what you can fit in...!

John,
If you are looking for a place to stay near Kruger, check with Claude and Jill Kleynhans of
Mafigeni Safaris they have a nice place close to Kruger.

John- Have you checked out the "Garden Route" east from Capetown? I have not done this but feel we should have. Our feeling are that Stellenbosch and immediate environs are a bit "over done". A day to check out the sights there would be plenty.

Thanks for the replies so far.

FB

Sabi Sands. Thanks. Will look into it.

Atticus

Diving with White Pointers. Sounds like an exciting idea, but personally I wouldn't spend time in South Africa diving with white pointers. I can do it at home. The movie "Jaws" was actually filmed partly in South Australian waters. I've never been scuba diving so would look to doing a course first. Maybe one day. Definitely would be exciting however, but as we get white pointers cruising our beaches in summer, I might never go swimming at the beach again!

Tradewinds

I hate tour groups too and have only ever been on one (except for little half day trips). I MUCH prefer independent travel. However a driver may make sense. We used a driver plus personal tour guide in India at Christmas where they are pretty much essential especially if you want to enjoy the trip. They chased away the touts and pests.

Contact information and prices would be much appreciated. Email Nitro AT NitroExpress.com . Thanks.

Kayaker

Which would you prefer - the Umofolozi/Mkuze reserves or Kruger? And why?

Balloon flight - an idea.

Drakensberg mountains are a definite possibility. Some of the photos are spectacular. Any "dragon" sightings recently?

The idea was this to be a first trip, two weeks is only a short holiday, but two plus weeks hunting as well is all I can be away for.

Rusty

Thanks for a Kruger tip.

Crane

"Garden Route" east of Cape Town? Yes. One possibility which has been suggested to me is approx one week near CT, and then one week in KwaZulu Natal. We would miss out Kruger this time if doing that. But Kruger is close to Jo'burg and perhaps a future trip.

As I and my wife are both from the Aussie wine industry, I want to have a reasonable look at the wines, wineries and vineyards in Stellenbosch, Paarl etc. I hope to have some contacts to visit before I leave to get personal tours etc. From photographs I like the Cape Dutch architecture of the area as well.

Wine regions usually put a lot into the environs and as the area has been settled for hundreds of years it must be very different from a hunter's ideal of Africa, ie the African bush. Best of both worlds, hey?


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Another place I would like to visit, but not this time, is the old diamond mind at Kymberley, a la "Wilbur Smith" novels, the "Big Pit" or hole or whatever it is called now, the water remains of the old diamond "pipe". Birthplace of De Beers diamonds. Having worked briefly in the "Central (or consolidated?) Selling Organisation" building in London, a large diamond "safe", it would be good to see the historical origin!

quote:

The movie "Jaws" was actually filmed partly in South Australian waters.

Really? I'm fairly certain it was filmed in and around Martha's Vineyard, MA...

Maybe you're talking of the ~5 seconds of actual GW footage...

But then truth is sometimes stranger than fiction; we had a 17 footer stranded for several days in shallow water in a Cape Cod lagoon two years ago, if memory serves.

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:

... actual GW footage...

Yes the "actual" "real" Great White footage was obtained in the waters off Port Augusta ot Port Lincoln (???). A lot of Great White Shark footage on documentaries is filmed in those waters.

The town and beach scenes, you are correct, our beaches are much much nicer.

When talking about diving to see Great White Pointers we are talking about real sharks, not mechanical ones.

A quotation from an ABC TV website titled:
"Great white shark to be protected"

quote:

Australia estimates there are fewer than 10,000 white sharks in its waters. South Australia, where parts of the original Jaws movie was shot, has recorded a 94% drop in great white numbers in the decade from 1980.

The shark is also found off the coasts of California and South Africa.

In South Africa, it is famed for its explosive and acrobatic attacks on seals.

The great white is only the third shark to be afforded such protection by CITES, joining the far larger but gentle basking and whale sharks.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1218888.htm

As for the "greenie" "decrease in numbers" claim I have no idea.

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A 'funny' occurrence. A local fisherman a few years ago bragged about catching a new record White Pointer shark, and hung it on the pier to all to see and admire. Including newspapers etc. Then to his misfortune a protected 'baby seal' fell out of its mouth which was still there as they had used the protected species as bait.

Oops!

Hi John,

Do take time out to have a look at http://www.pureafrica.com/

They have gots lots of stuff (in fact all the must do and see in southern Africa)that is in line with what you are looking for.

I'll ask my mate Pete Morrison who manages it to email you with more info.

Regards

Take three days and see Victoria Falls. (Two days traveling, one day there.) The last time I did it was in 2002, and it was part of an individual tour package that included three nights in Kruger camps with our own driver, airfare to Vic Falls (Zim) and two nights at the Thorntree Lodge smack dab on the Zambezi outside Livingstone in Zambia. Total cost for two of us: about $1,200 ... but that was when the exchange rate was more than 10 to 1. If you've not seen the Falls you should.

Bill Quimby

Nitrox, Cape Town is a "must". If you're looking at Kruger you may want to check out www.gwalagwala.co.za - an excellently appointed tented camp close enough to Kruger for daytrips into the park. I use this camp when I hunt in the area and it is great. I also get quite a good rate from them and will gladly set you up there if you want.

In March me and family stayed a week in Cape Town under the guidence of Lesley Cox (Ambertours) and we had a very nice time. She arranged everything and even found a guy who gave us a tour of the bushman rockart around Clanwilliam.

Her winetour was relaxed and enjoyable (not really my cup of tea normally ).

She was recommended to me by members of AR and comes with the best references.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the additional comments and tips.

I have visited Victoria Falls several times already, including seeing it from "below" in a raft which was an unusual angle and fun. The rapids were even better. If I hadn't seen them they would be well worth visiting.

If you've not visited Kimberley, the Big Hole, the diamond museum, and the underground mine tour are well worth the time.

Bill Quimby

If you have time to do only two things, they have to be the bushveld (which you will get while hunting but you may want to add a National Park visit to see the big 5) and the Garden Route, with my personal favorite spot being Plettenberg Bay between Mossel Bay and PE. Spent glorious summer vacations there as a kid. Nothing anywhere else in the world has lived up to that.