South Africa and Zambia – Part 1

by Karen Settle on 22/12/08 at 5:51 pm

In October 2008 my husband and I travelled on our amazing Honeymoon to South Africa and Zambia. We fly out of London Heathrow with South African Airways, who provided what we considered a really good service: friendly staff, spacious seating, and a huge choice of entertainment.

Our first step onto South African soil was at Cape Town International Airport. Having collected our luggage and made our way through the arrivals hall, we found our private car transfer ready and waiting. The drive to our hotel was around 40 minutes as traffic was quite heavy, and our driver was constantly talking to us about places to visit and giving us useful tips. Tips, for example, like traffic lights are known as ‘robots’!

We arrived at the Romney Park Suites, a five star property roughly a 10 – 15 minute walk from the V&A Waterfront. We were upgraded to a two bedroom suite which was far bigger than we actually needed, but who could grumble at a freebie!

During our stay in Cape Town we discovered some wonderful restaurants. You can expect to pay slightly more for dinner right on the Waterfront, but you are paying for the location and it is worth every penny. Meats including Zebra, Springbok and Wildebeest were served which went down very well with a glass or three of red wine. We were lucky enough to get to the top of Table Mountain on a fair day, where views were absolutely stunning. We also went across to the famous Robben Island, as well as going on a full day tour of the Winelands which included Franschhoek and the Stellenbosch region. We had four nights in total in Cape Town, which we found just right.

From Cape Town we flew to Johannesburg but were only here for one night in order to get a connecting flight the next day. Having heard very mixed reviews about how safe or dangerous Johannesburg is, we decided to order Room Service and stay put.

We then took our car transfer back to Johannesburg and waited for our flight to Mala Mala Airstrip. Upon boarding, I was horrified to see that the aircraft only had 12 seats and two propellers!! I personally feel safer the bigger the aircraft. I had never travelled on this sort of plane before and found the flight very turbulent and bumpy, and I was continuously watching the propellers willing them to keep going!

Arriving at Mala Mala was a real eye opener; the runway was tarmaced which is apparently quite a luxury compared to some other National Park areas. We were surprised to see though, that there was no terminal building. We had quite literally landed in the middle of nowhere and all that there was to greet us was a man in a high-vis jacket who took responsibility of check in, baggage handling, security and passport control (which we found highly amusing!). We climbed aboard our Land Rover and our driver took us to our lodge – The Lion Sands Ivory Lodge.