Travelling is what I do best but I am a travel writer that is always getting lost! Finding Thandeka Lodge somewhere up a long track near the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Bela Bela, would have been much harder without “Bossy“. Bossy is the female voice on the Nokia Navigator GPS phone that my travelling companion Toni has on her Vodakom contract. Bossy told us exactly where to go and when we’d gone past our chosen point, she kept her calm even when we ignored her.  We did at times tell her to shut up and sometimes she heard us.

Once we’d arrived at Thandeka, we let Bossy have some rest for a couple of days, although we felt she was itching to come on the 4×4 game drive just so she could tell Vernon (Thandeka’s manager),  a thing or two about finding your way around.  I suspect she would have been out of her depth, because Vernon is no novice in the bush, he’s a guide trainer and in this terrain, I have no doubt that Vernon would have kicked Bossy’s ass.

What a pleasure to be with a ranger who asks what you are interested in, rather than just repeats lots of dry facts and figures. Vernon used to teach bush survival skills and sent his students into the wilds to cope alone for a couple of days. I’m sure I would do what one of his student’s admitted to years afterwards; finding himself on the border of the reserve and seeing a pineapple farm beyond, he persuaded the workers to lob over a few juicy ones, and then pretended to be starving when he tracked his way back to camp. Finding the edge of Thandeka Game Reserve wouldn’t be that difficult, as it is not huge, but contains just enough animals to make the game drive interesting.

Vernon and his wife Lorriaan manage Thandeka Lodge and their hospitality experience shows. I felt well hosted with a sense of a friendship developing, and this is more difficult than it sounds when you have to be nice to people all the time. I couldn’t do it, but they love their job and their presence makes a stay at Thandeka memorable.

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Maun is the gateway town into what is perhaps the ultimate safari area; Botswana’s Okavango Delta. But only a couple of years ago the choice of accommodation in Maun was pretty dire. So why stay in Maun you might think? Well, firstly it is the only town for many miles, secondly after a long international flight and an internal flight from a major airport like Johannesburg, you may reach Maun at an inopportune time to take your final flip into the Okavango Delta. Or thirdly, you may just be so exhausted that you need a night or two to recover before flying into the Park on a 6 or 8-seater light aircraft and paying top Dollar prices while staying there.

In which case, I would recommend staying in Motsentsela Tree Lodge, or just ‘Tree Lodge’ as it is known. It is only 15km outside town on 200 hectares of mixed bushland, dotted with springbok and zebra and other non-threatening animals. You can wait a day or so before you come face to face with something capable of eating you in the Delta itself, by which time you will be awake and ready to witness the great beasts of Africa.

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The Cherry on the Safari Cake

Just when I thought life on safari couldn’t get any better, it did.

It was my birthday and I was sitting in a bubbling hot spring on the edge of the Kafue River in Zambia. Fireflies were dancing around my head and a fellow journalist on this press trip - a rather tall, handsome fella - was giving my shoulders a massage (c’mon it was my birthday). I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Large boulders surrounded the hot springs, protecting it from an unannounced visit by hippos or crocodiles. There I sat with a glass of bubbly in hand and a big smile on my face. If this wasn’t enough, I was then informed that Hippo Lodge offer massages at this spot too. This information served to put the cherry on top of the safari cake for me and I mentally awarded Hippo Lodge in Zambia’s Kafue National Park, top honours in my safari lodge repertoire.

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On a private concession inside Kruger National Park….

Rhino Walking Safaris have, in my opinion, got it right. They have a variety of safari experiences in their three accommodation options; 4×4 safari drives, bush walks and a multi-level large wooden platform in the middle of nowhere, where you can spend a night in the branches overlooking a little waterhole.

There are three different accommodation options here and they suggest starting in Rhino Post Camp, their solid-walled safari lodge on the banks of a dry riverbed. It combines rustic and luxury (if that is possible) with innovative design features like dry packed stone walls held in check by wire casings. From here they give the option of walks or 4×4 drives - the night drive is fascinating, when bushbabies leap from tree to tree and owls stare into the spotlight.

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This is no ordinary horse ride, oh no, novice horse riders need not apply, as experience and a high level of in-the-saddle competence is a pre-requisite for this adventure with African Horseback Safaris. You have to handle horses that are fit and raring-to-go, as well possible encounters with Okavango Delta big game like leopard, lion, elephant, buffalo and wild dog. I was up for the challenge and riding fit and very excited about this trip.

It is my not-so-humble opinion, that the Okavango Delta is one of Africa’s greatest wilderness areas. It offers one of the best all round safari experiences and being on a horse here, is for me, the pinnacle of safari experiences. The potential dangers of the African bush are far less fearsome on horseback than say walking, as the horses play their fair share in warning of hazards. After all they don’t really want to be eaten by a lion either.

GALLOP THROUGH THE FLOODPLAINS.

I was last seen galloping joyfully through the Okavango’s seasonal floodplains, joining in a zebra stampede and trying to keep up with suprisingly speedy giraffe. We never met any lions, who would probably run away from this wild-west cowboy spectacle anway.

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