Adventure

Etosha ('great white place' in Herero, due to the bright sun) is one of the finest game reserves to found in Southern Africa and is a vital game reserve for the entire region. The park is home to 114 species of mammal, 340 bird species, 110 different reptiles, 16 species of amphibianand yet just one fish species... and all of this in the 22000 Km²that make up the park named adter the massive pan that covers the vast 5000Km², stretching roughly 120km from east to west and som 70 km across it at it's widest point.

The pan seldom boasts much water as it is fed by the rains rather than reliable rivers, and even when the rains fall hard, few areas fullup or flood due to the incredibly high rate of evaporation.

Etosha is best explored in your own car without a guide. The roads are good and the open landscape allows for excellent wildlife viewing, although there are sections that are thick, bushy and wooded. Gemsbok tend to congregatearound Etosha's waterholes. The rainy season signals the arrival of summer migrants in the form of mammals and birds. In good years the pan will be alive with thousands of flamingoes. The western of Etosha feature some unique areas, including the fascinating Morenga forest or Haunted forest, dubbed spokieswoud in Afrikaans. The Haunted Forest is littered with wierdly contortedmoinga trees which were, quite possibly, shaped by browsing herds of elephant and giraffe.

Etosha has three main rest camps with perimeter fencing and superb floodlit waterholes which can be visited 24 hous a day. The park walked tall as the world's largest game reserve untill the 1960's, when it's surface area was reduced by nearly 80%. Nonetheless Etosha remains one of Africa's largest and greatest game parks.

Robberg Nature Reserve along with kilometres of glorious beaches, edges the "Bay Beautiful" - Plettenberg Bay. Robberg has it all - spectacular scenery, unimpeded vistas of ocean and shore, uniquely adapted vegetation, a thriving seal colony, caracal, grysbok, porcupine, rock hyrax sunbirds and seabirds and funny little lizards (agamas) who watch you quizzically wherever you sit. On top of all this are its other secrets - fossils of unimagined antiquity under one's feet (if you know where to look): caves where stone-age man hunted and fished, lived and died; stories of shipwrecks more dramatic than any fiction, and of fishing tales from times when shoals of great game fish surged past its flanks. Even the rock faces have tales to tell of giant inland seas, rising and falling mountain ranges and sea levels - the birth and death of rocky beaches and quiet lagoons.

Walk high above the water and view schools of dolphins, gamefish or shark as they pass by. From May to November the peninsula offers excellent land based whale watching when the Southern Right Whale comes into the shelter of the bay to mate and calve.

Take one of three guided walks - especially tailored to suit your personal interests and fitness level.

Featherbed is a privately-owned, registered Nature Reserve and a South African Heritage site, No.59. It is a pristine piece of paradise situated on the Western Head of Knysna and is accessible by ferry only. This spectacular four-hour eco-experience includes a return ferry trip, nature drive and guided walk, ending with a sumptuous buffet lunch at the Food Forest Restaurant.

Featherbed Nature Reserve is a prime example of eco-tourism and in order to protect the splendour of the natural beauty, access to the Reserve is controlled. Numbers are limited and visits are only permitted in the company of the Reserve's specialist guides.

The Featherbed eco-experience starts with a 25-minute ferry cruise. Your local guide on board will share fascinating tales about the Lagoon, the early shipping industry and oyster cultivation.

On arrival at the Reserve, visitors can enjoy a drive to the top of the Western Head in a 4 x 4 unimog vehicle with trailers, stopping at a magnificent view point en route. Here unsurpassed views of the Lagoon, mountains and Knysna can be enjoyed, whilst our knowledgeable guides explain the history and ecology of the Reserve. After the drive, your specialist guide will take you on an optional 2.2 kilometre downhill walk.

This 4-hour excursion departs daily and reservations are essential. It is a wonderful outing for the whole family - for all ages and fitness levels. Good walking shoes are recommended and remember to bring a camera, with plenty of film, hats in summer and a warm jacket for the ferry trip.

In 1999, the Featherbed Nature Reserve was the only recreational outing chosen in South Africa by the Commonwealth Heads of State, and was a finalist in the Premier's "Tourist Attraction of the Year Award 2000".

Experts have dubbed South Luangwa as one of the greatest wildlife sanctuaries in the world, and not without reason. The concentration of game around the Luangwa river and it’s ox bow lagoons is among the most intense in Africa.

The Luangwa River is the most intact major river system in Africa and is the life blood of the park's 9050km2. The Park hosts a wide variety of wildlife birds and vegetation. The now famous ‘walking safari’ originated in this park and is still one of the finest ways to experience this pristine wilderness first hand. The changing seasons add to the Park’s richness ranging from dry, bare bushveld in the winter to a lush green wonderland in the summer months. There are 60 different animal species and over 400 different bird species. The only notable exception is the rhino, sadly poached to extinction.

Wildlife

If you’re staying at one of the Valley’s lodges, the guides will ensure you have every opportunity to see all that the valley has to offer of its wildlife, birds and varying vegetation and habitats. If you’re in your own vehicle, be sure to get a map of the park from the Crocodile Farm at the park entrance and follow the loop roads graded in the park, past dambos bursting with hippos, crowned cranes, grazing antelope and scurrying baboons. Further out on the plains you’re bound to see the large elephant herds, reaching up to 70 in number. Buffalo are abundant and spread throughout the valley.

The hippopotamus is one animal you won’t miss. As you cross over the bridge into the park there are usually between 30 and 70 hippos lounging in the river below and most of the dambos and lagoons will reveal many. There is estimated to be at least 50 hippos per kilometre of the Luangwa River!

Zebra can be seen running in small herds of about a dozen. The difference between Zambia’s zebras and those in the south and east of Africa are in the stripes. Here they are evenly spaced as opposed to broad light stripes with a faint shadow stripe in-between.

Thornicroft’s Giraffe, unique to Luangwa Valley should be easily spotted.

The park has 14 different antelope species, most of which are easily seen on game and night drives. Watch out for the elusive bushbuck, preferring to inhabit densely covered areas. The common duiker is not that common near the Luangwa river but inhabits the back country of the Luangwa Valley. The largest of the antelope is the eland, usually near the Nsefu sector of the park. The most numerous antelope is the impala, these gregarious animals can be seen in herds all over the park. Not to be confused with the Puku, of similar size but a much fluffier buck with a rich orange coat and also prolific.

Perhaps the most beautiful is the Kudu, with its majestic spiral horns and delicate face. Although fairly common, they’re not always easy to find due to their retiring habits and preference for dense bush.. Reedbuck, roan, sable, hartebeest, grysbok, klipspringer and oribi are all here but not prolific in the central tourist area of the Park. They tend to stay deeper in the remote parts towards the Muchinga escarpment.

Of the primates, baboons and vervet monkeys are prolific. More scarce is Maloney’s monkey. Present, but unlikely to be seen except on night drives is the night ape, and the nocturnal bushbaby.

Hyenas are fairly common throughout the valley and their plaintive, eerie cry, so characteristic of the African bush can be heard on most nights.

South Luangwa has a good population of leopard but they are not that easy to spot and tend to retreat when they hear vehicles. Many of the Lodge’s game trackers are skilled in finding leopards on night drives however, and often visitors are rewarded with a full view of a kill.

Lions are as plentiful in the Luangwa as anywhere else in Africa, but when a kill is made away from the central tourist area, the pride may stay away for several days and may not be seen by visitors on a short stay. Very often they roam in prides of up to thirty.

Of the other carnivores present but not often seen is the caracal, wild dog, serval and side striped jackal.

The Luangwa river also has an extraordinarily high number of crocodiles. It is not uncommon to see several basking on the riverbanks or even floating down the river tearing at a dead animal.

Night drives are fascinating in the Luangwa. Not only for the chance of seeing a leopard but for the many interesting animals that only come to life at night. Genets, civets, servals, hyenas, and bushbabies as well as owls, nightjars, the foraging hippos, honey badgers and lion.

Vaal Dam, completed in 1938, is the main water supply for the PWV and minding areas. Vaal Dam is the largest watersport area abounding with power and sail craft. It has the largest concentration of sailing boats in the country, as many as moor in all the parts along our coastline.

As the centre of island sailing, it hosts the largest inland regatta in the Southern Hemisphere, the LDYC Round the Island Race.The DAC Keelboat Week is the other major regatta among the many held here. There are two sailing clubs and two of the largest marinas on the dam.

The Reitz family weekend cottage is now St Peters, the tiny interdenominational church on the shoreline. It is a quaint, tiny & attractive historical building ideal for weddings.

Khol ruins await further exploration. The local library has an informative exhibition of Khol and early inhabitants artefacts.

The Castle Marina Ruins is a famous landmark and well worth the visit. For Sale. Deneysville is a peaceful and sage village with a host of restaurants, a croc ranch, gallery and art & craft centres. It remains the largest growing town in the Vaal complex. Close to Gauteng, it is an ideal weekend getaway and retirement village.

The Sentinel is the most northerly point of the Drakensberg and besides providing a spectacular view from the lip of one of the highest waterfalls in Africa, the Tugela.

The trail takes you to above 3000m on the plateau of the Amphitheatre in the Drakensberg via two successive sets of chain ladders. The scenic access road through Phuthaditjaba to the parking area winds up a part of the Drakensberg that forms the border between Natal and the Free State. From the parking area the trail zig-zags up the slope of the Sentinel to above the first cliffs. The trail skirts the Sentinel and then follows the contour of the Western Buttress, slowly ascending to the chain ladders.