South Africa, Zimbabwe & Zambia

Lions, Elephants & Giraffes, Oh My!

Africa. When I say that word what comes to your mind? The big 5? Hot weather? The tree that has leaves only at the top of it? The Lion King? If that's all you think Africa is, you need to take a trip here! My trip to Africa will forever be my favorite. Don't get me wrong, Italy was amazing, and I would tell everyone to make sure they get there, but Africa was the most amazing place I have ever been. If you can make this trip of a lifetime happen, you NEED TO DO IT! 

Africa wasn't really on my radar until my boyfriend and I started looking into Gate 1 Travels. Thanks to a friend that put me on to this company I was able to do some research, check out some tour plans, look to see what date options would work, and see if it was in our price range. Gate 1 has been a great company to travel with. They take care of you from start to finish, put you into some great hotels, including 50-70% of meals, flights, and transfers (if you want), and allow you to add on some incredible optional tours (for a fee). The tour guides are all locals and are full of information about their local country. They all also speak English, so the language barrier is non-existent! The tour groups are relatively small (20-25 people) which really adds to the experience. If you are ever looking to plan a trip definitely give Gate 1 a look. We ended up booking the 11-day essential South Africa with Victoria Falls tour (which you can find here) and it was worth every penny! 

Before leaving we needed to make an appointment with a doctor to make sure our medications and vaccinations were all up to date and appropriate for Africa. Because we were going to Zimbabwe, we needed to make sure we got Malaria medication to take with us. We decided to go on our African trip in the middle of February, this would allow my boyfriend to travel before work got busy, and I was able to sneak away from school for a week and some days. The weather in South Africa at this time is nice, between 75 and 85 degrees during the day and in the 60's at night. This made packing pretty easy.

We headed to the airport and boarded our flight. Our flight left from BWI and went to JFK. Then from JFK we flew to Amsterdam and then we got on the longest flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town, South Africa. The excitement of getting to visit a whole new place made those flights seem not horrible (because let’s face it, who really wants to fly for 21ish hours). When we landed in Cape Town it was around 10pm. We had been flying all day and night, so we met our tour guide, joined up with our group, and made our way to our hotel to get some sleep. The one thing about this company that I don’t care for is there is no such thing as sleeping in. Not even until 9am. We were up every day at 6-7am and finally got to bed around 11pm. The days were full of excitement and adventure. If you are a relaxer, or like me and enjoy sleeping in, then just make sure you plan ahead and are aware that you won’t be doing that on these trips!

Our first full day started off with a bus tour around cape town. Our tour guide gave us some great information, we got to make some pit stops and even got some ideas about where to eat for lunch and dinner. My boyfriend and I had already done some online exploring on top places to eat and top things to do so we had some ideas in mind (more on that soon). When we got in the night before everything was dark but waking up and driving around, we quickly learned that Table Mountain was a big part of this town. This huge mountain with a flat top that overlooks all of the city was beautiful. As the day went on there were clouds that rolled over the top (the locals call this the tablecloth) and it was really a beautiful sight to see. We were able to take the cable car up to the top of this mountain to explore. WOW, what a sight. Looking down at the city and the water it really was a beautiful sight. We learned that if you were looking for some adventure you could hike from the bottom to the top or vice versa. Too bad we were not prepared (and didn’t have that much time), it looked to be a nice hike.

The city of Cape Town is beautiful. Lots of colors, tons of plants, close to the water, and people walking around town. Our tour guide told us it was a safe area, just not to walk around at night so we made sure to follow the rules although I never felt unsafe. Walking around the V&A Waterfront there is plenty to do, live music along the waterfront, lots of shops to go in and browse or shop, restaurants and bars to grab a bite to eat or a beer, and even a playground for kids! As I said earlier, we did some research and found a restaurant called Karibu that we knew we wanted to check out. South Africa is known for their Braai which is similar to our BBQ (you can read about the differences here). They had Braai on the menu and Koeksisters (a twisted doughnut dessert) which was definitely on my list to try. The restaurant overlooked the V&A Waterfront and the wait staff was wonderful we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. The food was just as good as the view! 

We also were able to check out some fun bars. The Underground was a British-themed bar, with lots of London feels. We ventured into a Gin Bar which was through a chocolate store and got to go to the Lonely Hearts Club upstairs in the Gin bar, both were small and charming. Yours Truly was a local’s bar with simple cocktails and local beers. Tigers Milk was a lively bar with a bit of a hipster vibe. We had dinner there and it was pretty good.

We enjoyed all of these bars but the one that stood out the most was Kloof Street House. Seeing this bar from the outside it just looks like an old bed and breakfast but walking into the place is like no other. The old Victorian-style house brings so much character, with cute chairs and tables set up outside to grab a drink, or inside where no chair is the same. The bar is set up in one room with chairs at the bar but what makes this place is the other 4 or 5 rooms where you can sit back and enjoy the company, you’re with. It really felt as if I was having a drink in someone’s house. The cozy ambiance feeling you get when you relax in this “house” is like no other. It really was magical, take a look and decide for yourself:

The main reason we came to Africa was to see animals, of course! So, when that day came, and we flew into Johannesburg and loaded up in the bus to head to our hotel out in the wilderness my excitement started to build. We headed out on a 2.5 hour drive (or nap for some of us) to the Mabula Game Lodge. When we arrived, it was nothing as I had ever seen before. With a beautiful, relaxing, “in the bush” feel, this hotel really set the tone for this part of the trip.

We checked in, checked out our room, and met back at the entrance to go on our first game ride! We loaded into the trucks and made out way out. There were 5 trucks that went out, each of us going our own way. The safari drivers had walkie-talkies so that we could keep in touch if something awesome was to come up. The peacefulness that came from this game drive was like no other. It was quiet, the animals were in the wild, doing whatever they wanted to do. It was almost like they were carefree, not locked up in a cage. We had to stay still and as quiet as possible when we were out on these drives. The first thing we saw was a Zebra (pronounced like Debra, but with a Z). Everyone on the truck got excited and made little squeaks and awes and the Zebra pranced off. Glad we learned our lesson quickly, especially with other big animals to come. We also got to stop to have a happy hour drink on our afternoon drives. Having a drink, in the middle of the bush, with live animals around us was pretty cool. During our time here we went on 2 drives a day. One at 5am and one at 5pm. Getting up at 5am is hard, but seeing the beauty of everything waking up, the sun rising, the quietness, and the fresh morning dew on everything was a sight worth waking up for.

On our last full day at the lodge, we decided we wanted to cross off a bucket list item of ours and go for a hot air balloon ride. Not only was it a hot air balloon ride, but it was over the bush! The night before our ride our concierge told us if we were doing the hot air balloon that we needed to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 4am. We double checked with her to make sure that was the correct time, stating that our tour guide said 5, but the concierge insisted that it was 4am. We got up early, met in the lobby, and waited. Come to find out, the concierge was wrong, and it was 5am. It was a rainy morning and our hopes of taking our hot air balloon ride were slowly becoming less and less. We finally received a call from our tour guide saying that it was too wet and windy for us to go at the moment, but he wanted us to go on our game drive and if it got nice, he would call our drivers. Sadly, it didn't look like we were going to check this off of our bucket list. We headed out on our games drive, making our way over to the lion area, hoping to find them as well as get the call that the balloon ride was on. We got to the lion area, patiently drove around (by patiently I mean anxiously and nervously), and started hearing leads on the walkie about where the lions might be. Our driver was amazing and put us right on the lions. They were beautiful, mesmerizing, majestic, and just WOW! I would think that we sat there watching them sleep for at least 20-30 minutes when our driver told us that he had gotten a call from our hot air balloon guide telling him to meet him at the drop-off point. THIS MEANT WE WERE GOING ON A HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE! The excitement was like no other, this was something that a majority of our group had planned on doing, received the news that it probably wasn't going to happen, and then at the last minute possibly got told it was a go!

We got to the hot air balloon got dropped off jumped in the baskets (as we only had a short amount of time to get into the air) and up we went. It was amazing. The experience is like no other. I’ve been skydiving, been in helicopters, and been on airplanes big and small, but this was peaceful. There were no sounds other than the fire here and there to keep the balloon up. We went up and down in between the clouds spotting wildlife as we went low and feeling the wind and clouds as we went high. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND HOT AIR BALLOONING! I even got to fill the balloon with flame. It was a pretty cool experience. As we headed to our landing spot, we could see some of the hot air balloon helpers on the ground driving the truck that had the landing platform on it. Our balloon pilot said most drivers try to get their balloon close and then put it on the platform after they have landed. Our pilot said he was going to try to land it right on the landing platform. He did just that. It was incredible, he lowered down slowly, moved correctly with the wind, and plopped right down. He had us jump out and grab a glass of champagne to celebrate. The whole experience was a dream come true and I would gladly pay for it again and do it again in a heartbeat.

After our time was up at the Mabula Game Lodge it was back to Johannesburg to say goodbye to most of our group and then on a plane to Zimbabwe!  After a short how and a half flight we headed to our hotel to put our things down and got back on the bus to go to our sunset river cruise.  The river cruise was nice, with bottomless drinks, finger foods, and a great view of not only the sunset on the Zambezi River but all the hippos out and about.  The next day we checked out a restaurant called The BOMA a buffet dinner and interactive drum show.  When we entered The BOMA we received a sarong, got our faces painted, and picked out our drum to take to our seats.  There were tons on the buffet to eat, meats, veggies, sides, and desserts, but the thing that caught my eye was a stand where a group of people was standing and laughing.  We went over to see what was going on and I wish we wouldn't have; people were eating worms, a Mopane worm to be exact.  I decided since we were in Africa I might as well do something crazy and try one.

It was crunchy and chewy all in the same bite. I didn't taste much of it, but from what I did taste it wasn't good. After our real dinner (not the worm) we settled in, grabbed our drums and followed along with the lead drummer. It was a fun place and I highly suggest going if you are in the area. A bit pricey (30-40USD), but worth it.

On our last full day in Zimbabwe we decided to do something crazy: swim on the edge of Victoria Falls. This was something I had looked at doing before we went to Africa (not with our Gate1 tour), and something that, again, might possibly not happen. In order to swim at the edge, the water levels have to be correct, if the water level is too high you can’t get to the spot where you need to be, the water has to be at a low level. This all depends on how much rain parts of Africa get. It was a bit nerve-racking checking the water levels daily just to have a chance at going and checking the weather to make sure it was going to be right to go. But the day came, and our adventure was on, so we met our driver at our hotel, loaded up into the car, and were on our way. Our guide had to drive us from Zimbabwe to Zambia, it was really sketchy, he stopped at the passport control, took our passports, and went inside to get them stamped. Meanwhile, we were in the car watching people walk through passport control, show the armed guards their stamped passports, and the guards opening the gate. Lots of homeless and beggars around this area, so it was a bit scary. The driver came back, gave us our passports and we were on our way. We ended our drive at this beautiful hotel (The Royal Livingstone) walked through the grounds and met our boat drivers. They handed us our life vests, and we jumped in the boat and were on our way. This boat was a little tugboat with a motor basically, as we were driving with the current, I just took in everything but as we got closer to the falls panic set in as we had to turn the boat and go across the current. Being that close to the end of a river is a bit of a stressor, but it was about to get even crazier. We walked through a forest to a building that had some chairs and tables sitting out. Our guide asked us to take off whatever we didn't want to get wet use the restroom if needed and then we would be on our way. We got lucky, most tours have 6-10 people on them, our tour was just us and another couple (who ended up not even wanting to get in the water, so they just walked with us) which was really nice. We headed down a pathway, started to get misted, and began misting harder and harder as we got to the edge of the falls. It was definitely an adrenaline rush, standing close to the edge and seeing the water rushing down, with no end in sight. Then our tour guide jumped into the water, helped us into the water, and placed us close to a single thin rope. This rope was the only thing holding us from going over the edge, talk about a heart attack! We laughed, we took at the moment, we got some pictures, and then made our way out and back to the building where our stuff was. After all of the excitement for the afternoon, we headed back to Zimbabwe, took a tour of the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls (we could just barely see where we swam, we were really crazy), and headed back to our hotel to get a good night's sleep.

It was bittersweet having to pack up and leave Africa to come home, but before we started to make our journey back we got an opportunity to go on a once in a lifetime last minute excursion: Walking with the Lions!  I could tell you the details of how we got there, but it's the same as everything else has been, meet the guide, jump on a bus, get to the building, and get directions for what we are going to do (the boring part), but I'm sure you'd rather hear about the lions!  This excursion was like no other.  We got our walking sticks and headed off to meet the lil' guys.  Shakka and Kion were both “cubs” that were born in the Lion Encounter.  We were able to take them on one of their daily walks.  They laid down every 5 minutes which allowed us to get up close and personal and get some awesome pictures.  At one point they posed perfectly and our whole group got an awesome picture with the cubs.  This was amazing, watching them walk and play and interact with each other.  I never felt like these guys lived a bad life, nor did I ever feel that this company was trying to harm these animals.  It felt very safe and civil.  Listening to what the tour guides had to say about this company, I felt that my money was going to a good cause.  After the lion encounter, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport. 

Africa was such a special place, not only for the excursions we did and the food we ate but the people and culture.  It really was a mixing bowl, a little bit of everything and I can’t wait to have that mixing bowl back in my life (hopefully sooner rather than later).

My DO’s and DON’T’S for Africa:

DO figure out what part of Africa you want to go to. Each country is known for different things.

DO try to get to Cape Town, it is a beautiful city- if you are able to do a tour in Cape Town that’s a great way to see the town.

DON’T be afraid to explore the culture and eat the weird food, some of it might end up being your favorite!

DON’T let the flight time from the US to Africa scare you, break your trip up if needed (Amsterdam is a great layover spot)

DO check out a safari.  THIS NEEDS TO BE ON YOUR LIST!!

DO check out the local bars and get a local drink. We had some delicious local beers and their Gin & Tonics were 2-4-1 and usually super cheap ($4 or less!)

DO plan ahead and make sure you get all shots and medication needed. This is a process and takes some time!

Check out this video I created from our trip: