Lion Sightings in the Lap of Luxury at Thanda Safari
A couple of weeks ago, I complained to a friend that I never have good big cat sightings when I go on safari. (I know it's an absurd thing to complain about. But I'm [...]
Mhondoro: Ultimate Luxury in the South African Bush
I have safaried in every possible fashion during my years in Africa. I've done low-budget camping trips, high-end tented camps, mid-range SANPark self-drives, river safaris, and walking safaris. You name it, I've probably done [...]
Cheetahs on the Hunt in Welgevonden Game Reserve
Over the recent long weekend I spent two days at Mhondoro Safari Lodge in the Welgevonden Game Reserve, which is in the Waterberg region of Limpopo. This trip amazed me in several ways, the [...]
Kruger, Top to Bottom: Secret Places and Random Tips
Before my recent trip, I hadn't fully grasped how large the Kruger National Park is. The park is 19,500 square kilometers (7,523 square miles), spread over a pipe-shaped area 360 kilometers (220 miles) long and [...]
Three Incredible Moments in the Kruger
I've just come back from a week with Ray and his family in the Kruger National Park. I'm not sure where to begin writing about it. This was an extraordinary trip. Sunrise in the Kruger. [...]
Five Cheetahs and an Aardvark
We tiptoed along as the sun lowered behind us. The wind howled. Tendai pointed ahead and we could just make out the body of a large animal with three small, spotted heads bobbing around [...]
Pafuri: A Beautiful Place With an Ugly History, Turned Beautiful Again
Once upon a time, the Makuleke people lived on a triangle-shaped piece of land, bordered by two rivers, at the intersection of three countries. The land was beautiful and fertile, with a huge diversity of [...]
The Land of Elephants and Baobabs
The Pafuri Triangle -- a piece of wilderness in the very northern corner of South Africa's Kruger National Park -- is a land of giants. The trees are huge. The animals are huge. The [...]
Kruger at Ground Level, Part 1: Animal
A big thank you to travelgurus.co.za and Wilderness Adventures for making this blog post possible. Last weekend I visited Kruger National Park, the largest park in South Africa. This wasn’t just any old Kruger safari, either. I went [...]
Elephant-Watching Through the Rearview Mirror
It was a beautiful afternoon in Pilanesberg, a game reserve two hours from Joburg. Joe, my mother, and I, along with our safari guide, Chris Green, were driving slowly behind a large bull elephant. [...]