2025 POSTCARD FROM AFRICA [SOUTH AFRICA] Wednesday 19 February – Tuesday 4 March 2025

I took off on my shortened [thanks to a lot of aches and pains] trip to South Africa on Wednesday evening and arrived safely in Johannesburg at 10am on Thursday 20th. Quite a good flight – just a few cobbles over the Sahara. On arrival at the InterCon at Jo’burg airport I was well spoilt [thanks to my friendship with the GM of the London InterCon]. Good room with a nice bottle and some nibbles. After dinner and breakfast at the hotel I travelled from Jo’burg to Skukuza from where I was transferred to Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge. That afternoon I was met by my guide Ruan, and we did an excellent safari drive – quiet to start with but then it got busy with some lions and then a wonderful leopard – my guide told me that unbelievably it was the same leopard as I saw last time – goes by the name of N’weti. He was fun to follow through the bush. Amazing to see the Big Five on my first afternoon. For the following few days I went out on two safaris, morning and evening, with the same group – just six of us – and had some good sightings – many of them were leopards and lions. Spent the middle of the day by/in my little pool. On day four the five others in my safari jeep left and I was joined by two ladies from the UK and one from the USA. During the 7 days I saw the Big Five quite a lot and had some amazing sightings of them, especially leopards and lions. In the evenings, on day one I had dinner with my Ranger, Ruan. On day two I had dinner with the group of guests from my safari car and my ranger. On day three I had dinner with the General Manager – a delightful lady called Patty. And on day four Ruan invited me to dine with him again. On day five I dined with my new group of guests as well as Ruan in the Lodge’s Wine Cellar. On day six one lady climbed on to the Ranger’s seat on the front for a photo and fell off – she cracked her head and had to be taken to hospital. In the evening had a pleasant dinner on my own in the Boma. My final day was not very good having a lady [travel agent] in my car who could not stop talking. Not what you want when on safari, especially on my last day. In the evening I had dinner on my own in the garden, and left the next morning for my flight to Jo’burg. Having changed my schedule I have to wait two days for a seat on BA home – so relaxed in the InterCon hotel at Jo’burg airport doing lots of work on my tapestry. Had a very smooth flight home on 3-4 March but sadly BA took over an hour to produce my luggage – the last case to arrive! Not good, especially as it had priority on it!