Natasha Allan prepared a trip for her repeat guest, Ronald Meckler, who stayed over at Arathusa Safari Lodge and Londolozi Varty Camp in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve of Kruger. Rob shared the following guest feedback:
“Good evening…As expected, we had a fabulous time. Our days in Cape Town were excellent but it was windy. We went to Hermanus again for whale watching and saw quite a show from whales.
Managed to get from Nelspruit to Arathusa without getting stopped by Mpumalanga Police for going too fast! 🙂
Arathusa was very nice again, the 5 other people who drove in our Land Cruiser were all so nice, too. We saw 3 packs of wild dogs in 2 days, that had rangers and trackers all excited, as well as those of us in the vehicle. We saw mating lions, leopards on hunt, birds, hippos, lions resting after a buffalo kill feast, jackals, wildebeest, buffalo,etc. Staff was nice, polite and helpful. I have no complaints except that the Hippos woke us up at night but then, that’s what we visit for, isn’t it? We will definitely return to Arathusa again.
Londolozi was simply amazing. More luxurious, a step ‘above’ Arathusa but that does not mean Arathusa is not superb. Arathusa is a bit more rustic but yet still amazing quality. Londolozi game viewing can not be better anywhere else. We saw Cheetahs and Pangolin in same game drive on first day. The Pangolin sighting created such havoc because it had been 18 years since the previous sighting of a Pangolin. Everyone was frantic to get to the Pangolin sight before it disappeared. Most rangers and trackers had never seen one in their careers. We also were present for a showdown between a single male Rhino and a mother cheetahs and her 2 cubs. Rhino sauntered upon cheetahs lying in open field. Mother Cheetah scanning but uninterested in Mr. rhino until he wandered close and saw them. His curiosity brought him within 15 meters. Mother stood up and started hissing at Mr. rhino. Cheetah stands no chance in the fight with rhino, So Mr rhino gets very close while mother cheetahs defensive. The 2 cheetah cubs were still lying close by and don’t know danger from rhino.
I got some good photos of entire sequence of rhino/cheetah interaction. Mr. rhino figured that cheetahs weren’t edible so he wandered around and found grass to graze. The cheetahs stayed on guard, but stayed around until impala came close to chase.
List goes on for fun things. We watched 6 Lion cubs with 2 females, were approached by 12 elephants, got closer to lions than they wanted, so they roared at us, were growled at by female leopard when we got a bit close, etc. We had a close encounter with a Boomslang, but tracker got it before imminent danger.
Its never the same no matter how many times you do this, so we had fun. We went back to Jo’burg for a few days, to relax and had fun there too. Any place is safe as long as youre careful, but we will return. When I figure out how to send photos, I’ll send a few. Or I’ll get a disc made and send it to you.
One thing you can look into for us is details about a possible visit to Tiger Canyons. From what we understand, one of the Londolozi/Varty family members is reintroducing tigers back into the wild in central South Africa. Tiger Canyons is the camp for visitors to view tigers in the wild. I requested information from Londolozi when we were there but they haven’t provided it yet. NO RUSH… this is for future travel planning.
Please let me know if you have questions. We appreciate your assistance.
Thanks and Best Regards,
Ron Meckler”
