Romantic Cape Town & Luxury Safari

We had been thinking about a Southern Africa safari trip for a few years and had some valuable input from Zimbabwean friends who had been on tour many times. So we had a general idea of when and where but needed guidance on the finer details and options, as well as someone to put it all together once we’d agreed on an itinerary (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana). This was possibly going to be our one and only trip of this type so we wanted to get it right!

I saw an ad for a tour similar to what I had in mind so contacted Discover Africa (DA). Devryn was able to clearly outline his preferences that would meet the brief. He suggested the order of travel, how long at each place, what type of accommodation (generally getting better as we progressed), how to get from A to B, etc., via several email conversations.

We had a Zoom meeting with him before finalising the plan, where we were able to ask further questions, which he was able to answer confidently and competently, given he had been to these places himself.

We felt confident enough with his recommendations to lock it in 12 months ahead of the trip.
Naturally, you anticipate some things will go wrong on tour, e.g., a missed connection, a guide not turning up, or accommodation not being as described, and we were mentally prepared for that.

Garry's Safari Experience

However, every connection was made on time and the accommodation exceeded our high expectations!

The Safari experience itself (which Devryn obviously couldn’t guarantee) was superb. The guides from the lodges we used were experienced, informative, respectful of the animals, and considerate of what we had and hadn’t seen previously and so every day (twice a day!) was another trip into the unknown. Everyone hopes to see the Big 5, which we did early on. After that it was a matter of literally sitting back in the jeep and seeing what would turn up. The birdlife was better than I expected (the lilac-breasted roller was a favourite), and seeing small animals like mongooses (4 different species), a chameleon and a steenbok were unexpected highlights.

The food was varied at the various lodges, with usually a buffet of 3 main courses of western-style cuisine (although I ate wildebeest, crocodile, kudu and springbok when it was offered). We finished off with 3 nights in Cape Town to let the Safari experience sink in, which was a very good move.

So in summary, we did some initial research, worked out a plan with Devryn, and he nailed the brief. We’ll never know if it could have been even better, but I seriously doubt it.

Discover Africa took my husband’s outline of where we were interested in travelling and turned it into a fantastic trip. Diane at Discover Africa recommended the lodges we stayed at in South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana, and all were first-rate. Each place had something special about it, and each had wonderful safari guides. We had an amazing two weeks and can recommend Discover Africa Safaris without qualification. Thank you for a very meaningful and heart-opening trip!

Discover Africa , and Matthys van Aswegen in particular, was a pleasure to work with. Firstly, his patience and understanding is a true fine attributive of his. We started talking about a safari to South Africa in mid-2019. We had both phone calls and email exchanges, and he was always responsive with concrete intelligent answers.

In fact, he sent me many options/packages that were only in Kruger, and others that included Botswana, whatever combination I asked him for, he put together happily. However, by the end of 2019, not knowing about Covid yet, we simply weren’t ready to go on Safari yet. He never put any pressure and was quite understanding.

We then spent most of 2020 emailing back and forth again during the pandemic, with many more questions and options. In Dec 2020, I finally booked a Safari with him to Mala Mala camp in Sabi Sands(one camp , 4 nights, seven game drives), as well as visits to Johannesburg and Cape Town.

We continued to exchange emails during 2021, updating and tweaking the itinerary, when suddenly the Omicron variant hit during Thanksgiving. Since there was MUCH uncertainty with Omicron and our trip was a few weeks away, I couldn’t take chance with my family’s well-being and potentially getting stuck in South Africa.

So I postponed the entire trip for a year to Dec 2022. Matthys, once Again, was only understanding and flexible! He helped me re-book everything to Dec 2022 AND I even rearranged the itinerary completely, and he was accommodating and cooperative. He was also able to transfer all of my pre-payments for Mala Mala, other hotels, flights, to Dec 2022 so that not one penny was lost!

In short, he was amazing ! We just returned a few days ago and the safari at Mala Mala was something me and family will always treasure. We also very much enjoyed Cape Town and the winelands! Discover Africa gets an A+ !

We have had an incredible experience in South Africa and we can thank discover Africa and our agent Vihann for that. We have no complaints with the experiences organised, the transfers, or the accommodations; it was pretty much perfect all around.

If there is one note for improvement it would be that we felt that White River where we stayed for a few nights was quite remote for doing the panoramic tour and we thought Graskop might have been more central. But overall a 10/10 expereince.

My mom and I travelled to SA in March 2019. Matthys suggested the ideal lodgings for us in Pretoria (131 Herbert Baker) and safari option (Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp).

We could not have been more pleased. The food and hospitality at all locations was above and beyond our expectations. All transfers were reliable and on time. The value for money was excellent. I will book through Matthys and Discover Africa again when we return.

I would like to place on record the very important role that Discover/Overlanding Africa and in particular Steve Conradie played in making a success of our Africa trip (Cape to Kenya).

The vital information that we were given (that you don’t get in any travel guides) went a long way to making our trip just that much better than the usual safari! Your personal experience and inputs made all the difference.

Thank you to Steve and the team. We will definitely make use of you when next we travel.