South Africa

Self-drive / Family / Walking / Romance / General Tours / Specials
Camping Tours / Wildlife Training Courses / Victoria Falls

Southern Africa Safari Tapestry
(Jan - May, 2010 )
from USD 5995* + $360 Fuel surcharges + $200 TAXES

 

Day 1 - Depart from New York or Washington, DC for your flight to Johannesburg, South Africa on South African Airways.

Day 2 - Upon arrival at Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo International Airport, you will go through immigration and clear customs. You will be met by a representative be transferred to your hotel.

The majestic Michelangelo Hotel towers over the heart of Nelson Mandela Square, the perfect vantage from which to observe the entertainment and corporate capital of Africa. Set in the renaissance-styled Nelson Mandela Square shopping center, the hotel has 242 beautifully appointed suites and rooms, each with en suite bathroom in terracotta marble, a spacious lounge, satellite television, telephone, fax, and model lines, mini-bar and individually controlled air-conditioning. Savor drinks in the Il Ritrovo Bar, light snacks and tea in the Intermezzo Lounge and meals in the Piccolo Mondo Restaurant overlooking the bustling square. Le Salon De Champagne is dedicated to serving truly great champagnes by the bottle or glass. Other amenities include same day laundry service, a health and fitness center, a covered pool with grassed sundeck and easy access to Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square. Accommodation: The Michelangelo Hotel (B)

Day 3 - After breakfast you will be transferred back to Johannesburg Airport in time to check in for your flight to Maun. After arrival in Maun, you will be met and assisted with your air transfer to the Kalahari Deserts Central Khalahari Game Reserve and its newest camp, the Kalahari Plains. The Kalahari Plains Camp is located in a new concession within the productive and diverse area of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Kalahari Plains is at present a private Explorations-style camp, containing 6 spacious Discoverer Meru-style tents with a central main canopy tent that provides shaded comfort, couches, a reference library and central bar. The tents are spacious and designed to recreate the style of the early explorers - richly coloured wooden furniture, pure linens of heavy cotton, en suite flushing toilet and shower and comfortable camp features all adding to the atmosphere. Enjoy an afternoon game activity.
Accommodation: Kalahari Plains Tented Camp (B, L, D)

Day 4 - Start the day with a game activity before returning to camp for breakfast and some relaxation time. Within this massive Game Reserve and as a result of the diversity of habitats, healthy game populations move seasonally between dune and valley depending on the season. During the summer months though (November through to end April) the northern part of the Reserve, where Kalahari Plains Camp is situated, offers some of the best wildlife viewing in Botswana. At this time of year these verdant flatlands are alive with aggregations of gemsbok, springbok and blue wildebeest. As a result of these aggregations on the fossil riverbeds, predator concentrations are also high. At other times, the Kalahari is more typically a desert-type system: warm and dry. Game viewing remains productive and moves into the vegetated dunal belt and pan systems surrounding the valleys – a series of ecologically placed waterholes further ensuring that game viewing remains interesting.

The big game includes the sensational black-maned Kalahari lion, as well as one of the highest concentrations of cheetah in southern Africa, leopard, brown hyaena and even caracal. Small predators include meerkats (suricates), Cape fox, honey badger, black-backed jackal and a myriad of mongoose species. General game viewing is fantastic and this is a premium desert game location year round. Enjoy another late afternoon game activity. Accommodation: Kalahari Plains Tented Camp (B, L, D)

Day 5 - After your morning game activity and breakfast you will be flown by light aircraft to the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta represents the extreme contrast of a water-filled world in an otherwise arid desert: abundant water, sunlight and soil combine to form a paradise bursting with life. The difference between the Kalahari and the Okavango becomes amazingly clear even as we fly from the one to the other. Accommodation on this leg of the trip is at either Jacana or Xigera Camp, both situated in the heart of the Okavango Delta’s myriad waterways.

Jacana Camp is situated just west of the Moremi Game Reserve and consists of 5 Meru-style tents nestled discreetly into lush vegetation on a seasonal island. Each tent is on a wooden deck overlooking the floodplains and has an en-suite bathroom with flush toilet and shower. The bathroom is enclosed but roofless allowing for showers by starlight. The camp has a plunge pool for cooling off from the midday sun. The main dining area is on an elevated wooden deck between two magnificent sycamore fig trees and surrounded by dense wild date palms. Downstairs, there is a cosy bar and lounge with an area for an open fire under the stars.

Xigera Camp (pronounced Keejera) is a private luxury tented camp situated in the Moremi Game Reserve and consists of consists of 10 luxuriously furnished tented rooms with en-suite facilities and outdoor shower. Each room is raised on a wooden deck offering superb views of the seasonal floodplain and lagoon. Meals are enjoyed under the thatch of the raised lounge, pub and dining area overlooking a permanently flowing channel.

Activities at the two camps feature excursions on the water in both mekoro and motor boats as well as game drives. Birding is excellent, with specials like Pel’s Fishing-Owl, Slaty Egret and Wattled Crane to be found. This afternoon you’ll be taken on the first of your game activities in this area. Accommodation: Jacana Camp or Xigera Camp (B, L, D)

Day 6 - Today enjoy two game activities and spend the balance of the day relaxing, taking in your surrounds and perhaps learning more about the animals you have encountered so far. In contrast to the Central Kalahari, game viewing here features the water-adapted red lechwe, occasionally amphibious elephant and the small herds of tsessebe and greater kudu resident on the larger islands. Predators such as lion and leopard may be encountered. Accommodation: Jacana Camp or Xigera Camp (B, L, D)

Day 7 - Your last day in Botswana – make the most of today’s two game activities! Accommodation: Jacana Camp or Xigera Camp (B, L, D)

Day 8 - Today, depart by aircraft to the Kwando airstrip from where we enjoy a boat ride on the magnificent Kwando River to scenic Lianshulu Lodge situated inside Namibia’s Mudumu National Park. Lianshulu Lodge accommodates guests in 9 twin rooms and 1 family room, each individually styled and tastefully furnished, with en-suite bathroom and secluded viewing deck. The camp is shaded by a fringe of dense riparian forest and overlooks the tranquil Kwando River. The airy thatched dining, lounge and bar areas open onto spacious, split-level wooden decks, affording sweeping views over the Lianshulu Lagoon. Breakfast, brunch and congenial dinners by candlelight are served on the deck. Two indulgent fireplaces, scenic outlooks and a secluded swimming pool create idyllic places to relax in the natural surroundings. The area is once again a contrast to the tight waterways of the Okavango Delta and opens into lush wilderness of riverine forest, marsh and open woodland.

Activities here include morning or sunset boat cruises, nature drives in the Park and visits to the Lizauli Traditional Village, a model homestead where members of the local community give fascinating insights into their way of life in this remote corner of Namibia. Accommodation: Lianshulu Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 9 - This morning enjoy one of the game activities on offer. Many typical savannah species occur in the area including buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and waterbuck with elephant and hippo being particularly abundant. Predators are sometimes encountered and around 400 bird species have been recorded in the East Caprivi. Hippo, crocodiles and fish such as bream, tigerfish and catfish can be seen from the lodge’s deck. Accommodation: Lianshulu Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 10 - After a light breakfast, you depart by road to Livingstone, Zambia. This interesting 5-hour drive takes you across the Caprivi Strip and into Zambia via the border town of Katima Mulilo in Namibia. After crossing into Zambia, you will drive through beautiful teak forests and African villages, stopping to visit the old cathedral of Mwandi. Arrive in the early afternoon at the new Toka Leya Camp, situated on the banks of the Zambezi River in the eastern sector of the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, upstream from the Victoria Falls.

This is an area of spectacular scenic beauty: from the Falls themselves to the broad, picturesque course of the Zambezi River upstream, the rainforest adjacent and the stark jagged gorge downstream. At 1708 metres wide, Victoria Falls is the most expansive curtain of water in the world and drops more than 100 metres into the sheer Zambezi Gorge. The Tonga and Makalolo peoples lived here for centuries before the Falls were ‘discovered’ by David Livingstone in 1855, who named them after his queen. Its local name – after which the national park is named – is Mosi-Oa-Tunya, “the Smoke that Thunders,” which accurately describes the huge spirals of spray. This afternoon enjoy a nature drive in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya Park. Other activities on offer in the area at an additional charge include sunset cruises, helicopter flights, micro-lighting, canoeing, jet boating, white water rafting and fishing amongst others. Accommodation: Toka Leya (B, L, D)

Day 11 - The grand finale is a guided tour of the Victoria Falls, one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World. Later, transfer to Livingstone Airport and check in for your flight back to Johannesburg, where you will connect with your flight back to the USA. (B)

Day 12 - Arrive in New York or Washington, DC with a lifetime of memories!

Please note:
*The USD $5,995 rate is valid for March and April, 2010. Fuel Surcharges of USD $360 and Taxes of $200 are not included in package pricing.

This package is also available at other times of the year at the following rates:
Jan - Feb $6,499
Mar - Apr $5,995
May $6,499

Rates are per person based on double occupancy.
There is no single supplement fee if there are at least two passengers traveling.
For only one passenger, the Single Supplement Fee is: USD $1,090

INCLUDES:
Round trip international economy airfare from New York or Washington, DC to Johannesburg
Domestic flights as indicated in itinerary
All services as specified
10 Breakfasts
8 Lunches
8 Dinners
Game drives as specified in itinerary
Accommodation in standard rooms
Transportation in luxury air-conditioned vehicles including qualified drivers
Sight-seeing as per itinerary led by qualified English speaking guide
Entrance fees for sightseeing as indicated
Meet and Greet upon arrival

EXCLUDES:
Items of a personal nature such as laundry, telephone calls, etc.
All other services not mentioned
Gratuities/tips for game rangers, tour guides, and drivers
Costs of obtaining passports and/or visas
Applicable Taxes
Trip cancellation insurance