Today (Saturday) we drove to Madikwe game reserve in South Africa, about 30 mins or so from the South Africa / Botswana border. I can now say I’ve been to South Africa four times. I have a SA visa in my passport again so all is well with the world.

Madikwe River Lodge, which is were Dad and I are staying, is very opulent. It’s not what I’m used to and for a good part of this afternoon I was thinking this is not my sort of thing. Here, you have designated game drives. You can’t drive yourself around and between game drives you sit by the pool and have “high tea”, (the iced coffee has Amarula in it and is to die for). However, my opinion changed when getting back from this evenings game drive, we were met by a porter with a glass of sherry to warm us up. I can certainly get used to this.

Dinner was 5 star all the way. South African singers welcomed us to dinner with some traditional singing (excellent stuff) and the menu was amazingly described, as was the food. Of course, Dad and I took the opportunity to order a bottle of excellent South African Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner. On return from the game drive, someone had closed the shutters in the chalet, turned down the beds, turned on the heaters, put little thank-you notes on the pillows and generally made the environment very luxurious - not what I’m used to at all.

The game drive was brilliant. As sunset approached the driver pulled over in the middle of nowhere, lions probably watching our every move, laid out a table of snacks and offered us beer/wine/other. An ice cold Castle beer was the choice for me as the sun set, along with some Wildebeest biltong.

The highlight of this afternoons drive was a lion kill. Three lionesses brought down a Wildebeest and we got to the site within 15 mins of the takedown. We watched as 14 lion cubs and the lionesses gorged on the carcass. I wish I could have recorded the sound of the feast, thrilling stuff.

On the drive we were joined by two other Australians from Adelaide, who were amazed at South Africa, it being their first visit. As a seasoned traveller here I was more than happy to give them some advice on getting around, and recommended they give Botswana a visit too.

Our driver will give us a wake-up call at 6:00am tomorrow morning, at 6:30 we shall be plied with coffee and cake and then taken on another drive. We leave to head back to Gabs tomorrow after “Brunch”.

Right now I’m going to hit the sack and listen to the truly african sound of lions roaring in the night. I hope you have something just as wonderful to listen to wherever you happen to be :D

Update: The game drive this morning was every bit as good as the one last night. This time we got to see not only the lionesses and cubs, but also two of the males (brothers). They walked right passed the vehicles, and having been in the park their entire lives paid no attention to us. The drive back to Gabs was via the Deerdeport border crossing, much less hassle than the Tlokweng border out of Gabs. I have a rest day tomorrow. I’ll attempt to upload some more images and do some catchup on the emails. Sorry to anyone trying to ring me. I have purchased a local sim card so am un-contactable on my Australian number. I’ll be looking to pick up another coat, Winter has caught up to me.

Tags: travel