Safari & Golf Journey in South Africa

This trip was booked 3 times before it finally happened thanks to the pandemic and border closures etc. Alice from Discover Africa was with us for the entire 3 years – from planning, canceling, and rebooking. She stayed in touch and communicated with us regularly during the entire 3 years. Her insights and suggestions helped make this trip one that will be very difficult to top.

“Fabulous Experience”

Cape Buffalo in the Kruger National Park. — Cape Buffalo in the Kruger

In terms of the actual holiday … Words fail me! Someone was watching out for us because we had multiple sightings of the Big 5, Magnificent 7 and Super 8 plus all of the other animals – small (mouse) to big (elephant). Pretty special when you consider that includes two sightings of Wild Dogs when there are only circa 400 in total in Kruger! I appreciate that’s completely outside of anyone’s control but worth mentioning. Going in September meant that the bush wasn’t at full height, so we were able to see the animals.

Cheetah with fly on nose — Cheetah with a fly on the nose

The lodges were great:

Thornybush and Jock’s Safari Lodge – they were luxurious without being pretentious. We were well taken care of and well-fed!
Gallo Manor Lodge in Johannesburg – it was very comfortable, and we were well taken care of again – the Director, Angel, chauffeured us to and from the golf course which was unexpected and very kind.

Colourful bird in tree — Colorful bird in tree

This holiday combined golf with safaris. The golf was good too. Hans Merensky’s course is well laid out and an interesting course to play. It does need some investment (as well as the hotel).

Leopard Creek was an experience! Old world golf club and an interesting course (unfortunately we didn’t see any wildlife as we did at Hans Merensky). We really enjoyed the Rocklands Course at the Johannesburg Country Club and had a lovely meal afterward looking over the course.