South Africa and Zambia – Part 2
by Karen Settle on 22/12/08 at 4:53 pm
Read previous post: South Africa and Zambia – Part 1
At Lion Sands there are two Lodges – Ivory Lodge, which comprises of 6 individual lodges, and River Lodge which has individual lodges but with shared facilities. Everything about Ivory Lodge was just slightly better, more exclusive and more special. Our Lodge was huge with a large bed, bathroom, outdoor shower, and lounge with fireplace. The outdoor decked area had a small plunge pool overlooking Sabie National Park and we were right in front of the Sabie River. We saw so much game just from our viewing deck along – a fantastic location!
We received two daily game drives which allowed us to see the big five, and much more including bush baby, hyena lizards and birds. We saw a lion run to make a kill, a leopard that had just made a kill, and a pride of 15 lionesses and cubs.
On our departure it was almost like saying goodbye to family, as the experience here was so personal. We bought a couple of Lion Sands souvenirs and have already decided that we will be going back.
We next flew to Livingstone and, for any travellers suffering claustrophobia, I wouldn’t recommend this airport! It was tiny with one terminal and one departure lounge, it was incredibly busy and extremely hot! We stayed at The Royal Livingstone which was an amazing location directly on the Zambezi River and from our room we could see the slight mist from the Victoria Falls. The monkeys here are a nuisance but also rather funny, and on one day six zebra walked right past us whilst we were in the pool. At the time of year that we visited, the Zambian side of the falls was almost dried out so we decided to take a helicopter flight so that we could also see the Zimbabwean side. After Zambia we flew home, our luggage got stuck in Zambia as our plane experienced technical difficulties due to the heat, but we received it back the next day and fortunately it was our homeward bound journey!
As an summary, Cape Town is a lovely city and it’s definitely worth doing as much as possible here. It is somewhere that we can say we have been but probably wouldn’t go back, purely because there as so many other places to see . Zambia was lovely and the setting is just a cut above the rest of the hotels here, although we found the service slightly over the top.
For my husband and I the ultimate experience that nothing can top was definitely the safari. The location of the lodge, the service, and the game drives were all just amazing, and seeing animals in the wild was such a breathtaking experience.
A few pieces of advice would be to buy the Zambian Visa before arrival as the queues at the airport are huge. Take plenty of Mosquito repellent (although it didn’t really work for me!) and take plenty of warm clothing as the morning game drives are very cold.
This was a once in a lifetime experience for us, and we would definitely love to go back!
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