June 2026 - Africa (and a little time at home)
Before I get to Africa, it was lovely to spend a couple of weeks at home. Caught up with our mums and spent time with all our kids and our gorgeous grandbaby. We even had a sleepover with our granddaughter to give her parents a break. She is a true delight and brings the whole family so much joy.
And, of course, we spent time with our much-loved doggies, Albus and Harry, who enjoyed a doggie holiday at the kennel whilst we were away. We are away a lot (although, usually, our daughters look after the dogs) and the dogs are so forgiving of us. Lick us to death when they see us and then act as if we were never away. I heard someone call dogs at our stage of life, “The kids after the kids grow up.” Truer words never spoken!!
So, Africa…..WOW! We had a week (as a three-generation group of seven) at Mabalingwe, then a few days in Victoria Falls. Finally, just Andrew and I had three nights on a luxury train from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth.
One at a time..Mabalingwe Private Game Reserve. The house we rented was magnificent with amazing views. At about $500 per night, it was something that would have cost $2000+ a night in Australia. We loved mooching about the house but the highlights were the game drives.
We did five guided, private game drives which worked out about $30 per head (the baby was free). These were amazing as we had guides with expert knowledge and we were able to access part of the Reserve that we couldn’t access on our own. We saw elephants twice (!!) and, both times, the elephants were in this private part of the Reserve. The guides were young, enthusiastic and fun and we loved these drives. Also, it was a lot of fun being in a game vehicle with three rows of tiered seating. We all had a great view every time. The drives were 2.5 hours and we thought they were fabulous value.
We also drove in our own rented cars and saw a range of wildlife. Only once I felt uneasy and that was when we verrrrry close to a group of giraffes. I’ll never know if I was rightfully uneasy or not but best to be safe.
Wildlife we saw and became “experts (!!)” on included: warthogs, giraffes, elephants, hippos, zebras, rhinos (with their horns!), a range of antelopes and a heap of colourful birds.
Andrew and I went to the SuperSPAR (supermarket) at nearby Bela Bela once and stocked up. Other groceries eg water we bought from one of the convenience stores in Mabalingwe. (you could also buy alcohol at the Mabalingwe stores). We self-catered some meals and we ate out others.
There’s a few restaurants at Mabalingwe. Most times, we went to Valley View Eatery Restaurant where there was a large menu. To be honest, the food wasn’t fab but it was wholesome and very reasonably-priced (less than $15 for most main courses). We had a magnificent kitchen at our house but Bela Bela was about a two-hour return drive due to road works and we just couldn’t be bothered with the drive. Bela Bela is not a tourist town but there is a KFC and Maccas and a few other Western-looking food outlets there.
Something Mabalingwe also had was the Predator Park. Twice a week, you can pay to accompany the rangers feeding the animals which include: African lions, rare white lions, cheetahs and tigers. We all went once and then Andrew and a couple of the kids went again. The talk was narrated and, again, we learnt a lot.
Prior to going to Mabalingwe, I had thought an African safari was a once-only trip. One and done if you will. WRONG!!! Seeing the animals wander in the wild only whetted all our appetites to go back and see more!
Also, a word for the sunsets. DIVINE!! We couldn’t get enough of the sky on fire every night.
Next up was Victoria Falls. The flight from Johannesburg was only 1.5 hours and was in a plane that was configured 1-2. Our son, daughter-in-law and baby sat in a “two” but the rest of us sat behind each other on a window (on the way back too). We felt like we were on a private jet! It was a really fun experience!!
Victoria Falls is a tourist town with all the rip-offs you would expect in a third-world tourist town. Everything (even the supermarket) is in USD.
My advice is expect to be hassled by vendors every time you walk the streets. They do take no for an answer so it was more comfortable than, say, Bali but you get approached. You also get approached to buy the (useless) Zimbabwean currency. Again, they take no for an answer.
We stayed in a house so that we could all be together but there was only one restaurant and convenience store we could walk to. For everything else, we needed a taxi to go anywhere which was a bit of a pain. It is about USD$10 for a taxi ride into town. We had a private taxi crowd on WhatsApp and we rarely waited more than 5-10 minutes for a pickup.
In town, there are a few places to eat – a Smokehouse and brewery, a distillery and a few restaurants. There are also hotels with restaurants (we did not go into any of the hotels). The food at all the places we tried was good and also good value although dearer than Mabalingwe.
Vic Falls is a gateway for lots of things to do but they are all expensive. Most activity providers will pick you up and drop you back to your accommodation.
Even accessing the Falls by foot is USD$58 per person. Single entry! You can’t go there and not see the Falls so you pay it but it is ouchy. Must be the dearest National Park fee in the world! Oh and the views are incredible!
A helicopter ride over the Falls (less than 15 minutes) was USD$180 pp and a sunset dinner cruise was USD$120pp (you could just do a cruise with canapes for less). Both were great experiences, the helicopter especially. Seeing hippos play was the highlight of the sunset cruise.
We did a day trip to Livingstone as the kids surprised us with High Tea at the Royal Livingstone Hotel. High Tea wasn’t much but the Hotel grounds are beautiful and there was a giraffe and several zebras wandering around!!
If you aren’t going to the Hotel, I wouldn’t bother with Livingstone. It had nothing going for it at all other than The Livingstone Museum. Admission is USD$5 and an hour is plenty. Most of the Museum hasn’t seen any love for decades but the room dedicated to David Livingstone was interesting. There was also a room of stuffed animals that you see in Zambia and we had seen quite a few of them so that was interesting (if a bit weird) too.
To get to Livingstone, you get a taxi to the Zimbabwe border and then another one from the Zambia border to Livingstone and the same in reverse with Immigration x 2 stops both ways. A bit painful. (Note – if you want to cross the Victoria Falls Bridge by foot, you need to take your passport and ask for a free Bridge Pass. This is a white slip of paper which you hand back when you finish the walk. This also takes time!)
We opted to hire a driver for the Livingstone day (this still meant two drivers and two taxis). That cost us USD$175. A complete rip off given the short distances involved but that was the cheapest we could find.
We also did a day trip to Chobe National Park. This cost us USD$180 per adult but it was a fabulous day. We had a private car transfer to Chobe (about an hour’s drive but allow extra time for 2 x Immigration stops and take your passport with you), a guided private game drive for about 3 hours, lunch at a resort, a 2 hour private river safari and the car transfer home.
If we’d opted to travel in a group with others, this day would have been a bit cheaper but we wanted to accommodate the baby who we thought was bound to get grizzly at some stage. We even had an infant seat in the game vehicle for her. I doubt any of us will ever forget that day!
The kids all went home and Andrew and I went on our Rovos Rail (RR) journey. I’ll be writing some travel stories about this. This was our first multi-night rail journey. We’ve just released a YouTube episode about it so you can see the full experience - https://youtu.be/6jr3xHZr85c?si=VVzjD2QhKs9JBV4V
There are plenty of different RR routes. Ours was Pretoria to Port Elizabeth (three nights). It was actually meant to be Jo’burg to Cape Town but heavy rains washed away some track so a new itinerary and excursions were devised. When we arrived in Port Elizabeth, we had a guided coach tour and then a flight to Cape Town (all arranged and paid by RR). This was all communicated to us before we left and full refunds were offered. We were told that no one cancelled.
The trip started in Capital Park Station, a privately leased railway station exclusive to RR. Carriages and locomotives are acquired from all over the world and brought here to be remodelled, serviced and maintained.
Off-train excursions were to Kimberley, the historic diamond capital of the world, and Addo Elephant National Park. We saw lions at Addo (what a treat!).
The excursions were great but the highlight of the RR trip for us was the experience itself – the unrushed four course lunches and dinners with paired South African wines, the free flowing drinks all day, the silver service, the singer who performed in the evenings, the “dress up” for dinner, the full size, fixed bed (note – not all cabins have this) and the very attentive staff.
It was a unique experience and we hope not the last of luxury train trips for us!
If you are looking at planning an independent trip to southern Africa, I have prepared some notes which I am happy to share - email me at leonie@weliketocruisenadtravel.com
Update from May - NAB were very good about the scam at Maccas and we didn’t have to wear that $4,000. Thanks NAB 😀
In Writing Wins, still no time for creative writing at the moment but I had a few travel stories published. A New Zealander read my story on The Q Train, booked lunch on it and emailed The Q Train to tell them that. That email was forwarded to me which made my day!
My review about The Queenscliff Hotel was also published which was lovely to see in print. And a wider story about the Bellarine. That makes three stories from me about The Bellarine, all published on NZ mastheads including The Post.
Also a story from a lunch at Restaurant Paul Bocuse which I enjoyed (and wrote) last June!! A story about Trier and a story detailing each of the walks I did in March on Flinders Island. A truly mixed bag of wonderful experiences 😊
PS The Post stories are paywalled but I have pdfs. Let me know if you would like to read one – leonie@weliketocruiseandtravel.com
See you from the other side of the world!
• Lunch in Motion - https://www.thepost.co.nz/travel/361027261/inside-stunning-revival-abandoned-1887-hotel
• A Grande Dame Reborn - https://www.thepost.co.nz/travel/361027261/inside-stunning-revival-abandoned-1887-hotel
• A Taste of The Bellarine - https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20260629/281840060393243?srsltid=AfmBOopM8QajWRDr9T1-KHQp8vuKiwrkhbLm5-SOBteApJtlKezICytN
• The Day of Surprises - https://www.thewisetraveller.com/Articles/view/?permalink=the-day-of-surprises
• The Lyon King, Restaurant Paul Bocuse: Review - https://www.firstclassmagazine.co/restaurant-paul-bocuse-in-lyon-review/
• 6 Hikes to Take on Flinders Island off the Coast of Tassie - https://weareexplorers.co/hikes-on-flinders-island/
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