Our Last Full Day of Africa

by | Jul 26, 2025 | Uncategorized

I knew this day was coming. Our last full day in Africa. We had two more game drives today, followed by two days of flying, and then we would be home. This was it. If we were going to get any more of the Big Five or the Magnificent Seven, it had to be today. So again, we were up and out before dawn looking for rhinos, leopards and African wild dogs.

Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.

After lunch, we did it all over again. I wish I could say that we found the elusive leopard, but we didn’t. I guess I will have to go back—NOT! And to be honest, it was our worst game drive of the entire trip. We pretty much saw nothing. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Two photos. Just two usable photos. It was a somewhat sad way to leave, but it had been a great trip. Tomorrow, I will sum things up and give you an actual review. Stick with me—only one more post. I guess it’s only fitting that this was the end of the day. I should add that some of the others went on a game drive the next morning, on the day we were supposed to fly, but my cold had worsened, so I skipped it. I would have been really disappointed if they had found a leopard, but they didn’t. They did spot a male lion, and I missed that, but with over 40 hours of flying and airports ahead, I’m glad I made that call. I’ll be back tomorrow with a final round up and review.

Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman

 

 

Tintswalo Two

by | Jul 25, 2025 | Uncategorized

As I explained yesterday, our two full days at Tintswalo were identical. Up early (5:30 wake-up call), meet in the main lodge for coffee and snacks, jump in the bush cruisers and drive around looking for game for a while.

Then breakfast, a break, and back out to do the same thing from 3:30 to 7:00 or so, and then dinner and sleep. Sounds pretty easy.

But there are a couple of things to mention that you might not have realized. First, the temperature. When we arrived at Tintswalo from the airport on our first day around lunchtime, it was a balmy 78 degrees. During the days, the temps were in the high 70s to the low 80s. Since it was the dry season, we never saw a single drop of rain, which was a good thing since there were no tops on the vehicles. We asked the guides what they did in the rainy season, and they said…ponchos. No, thank you. Driving around, soaking wet for three hours? Not me. I was glad we were there in the dry season.

But the 70s and 80s in the sun do not translate to the 60s and 70s in the dark. Unlike a city, the bush has no concrete or blacktop to soak up the sun. And it gets cold quick, just about as fast as it gets dark. You know all those pretty African sunsets I have been showing you? Did you notice there were very few mountains (none at all) or hills? That means when the sun goes down, it goes from light to dark very quickly. The same thing happens every morning. The sky would get a little light and then BANG! Full sunshine.

But the coldest ride of the day was always the first one in the morning. With no sun for eight hours, we were already cold when we got out of bed, but leave it to the wonderful folks at Tintswalo. When we arrived at the trucks, every seat not only had a blanket but also one of the biggest hot water bottles I have ever seen. And it was HOT! In fact, it stayed hot/warm until we came back three or four hours later.

I tell you all this just to let you know that when you go on safari, you need to layer up. I would start with a sun-protection long-sleeved shirt, a sweater/sweatshirt over that and my windbreaker on top of that (and yes, shorts on the bottom—my legs never get cold). Then you shed those as the sun gets higher. Worked pretty much that way every day. And a hat and LOTS of sunscreen.

I also need to mention how lucky we were to be there in their winter. Not only does it not get as hot during the day, but the days themselves are shorter. We didn’t have sunrise until almost 6:45. If we had gone in December, it might have been raining, but we would have definitely had to get up more than an hour earlier for the game drive because the sun rises before 5:00 am in their summer.

So, enough of the weather stuff, how about some photos? Here’s the morning game drive on our second day in Tintswalo. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. If you can’t read the caption while watching the slide show, click the little i in a circle below the photo, and you will be able to see it.  And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the drive, it was back to the lodge for breakfast, a nap for most (AJ worked out, and I worked on photos), and then a late lunch that Tintswalo called “Substantial High Tea” at about 2:30 (which looked like lunch to me). Then, it was off on the afternoon game drive by 3:30. And here are the photos from that one. It was not our finest hour so I had to embellish with some deck shots taken during tea.

As you can see, the afternoon/evening game drive was a little bit of a bust that day. It seemed to me that there was one animal that stood out during each game drive (except this one). The day before we saw the cheetah, we had lions and our first zebras this morning, although there were fewer animals in the afternoon. You will have to come back tomorrow to see what we got on those two runs. I can tell you the best ones by the number of photos I took. For most, it was around seven to eight hundred. For this one, I barely got 100. You can’t win them all.

One more thing. I wanted to show you how many animals we could see just lying in bed. Seriously. But for some reason, when I was in bed, I never seemed to have my camera with me ?. So here’s one I shot out our window while sitting on the edge of the bed. Take a look at what our view was like most days. Always something out there hanging around. Mostly tiny monkeys, elephants, Cape buffalo moving by or baboons. I think the baboons bother me the most. You never know what a baboon is going to do, and they seem to be the least phased by humans.

I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy. – Ernest Hemingway

 

Game Drive for the Big Five

by | Jul 24, 2025 | Uncategorized

When you go on safari, much of the activity is centered around game drives. This means you go out twice a day to look for game (you know, wild animals). That’s what life was like during our stay at Tintswalo. We got there around lunchtime, ate, had half an hour to unpack, and we were out the door on a game drive.

And what were you looking for on the game drives? Mostly, you were looking for the Big Five. If you have never heard that expression before, the Big Five are the five most dangerous (to man) animals you find on an African safari. We also found out that there is a Magnificent Seven (not to be confused with the western films) to look for as well. Your goal on safari is to see (or, in my case, photograph) the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, Cape buffalo, and elephant. According to the folks at Tintswalo, there was also a Magnificent Seven, which consisted of the Big Five and two additional species: the African wild dog and the cheetah. I will let you know right now that we didn’t find the Big Five. Of course, we (those of us on this AmaWaterways trip) had already seen three of the Big Five while we were in Chobe National Park (elephant, Cape buffalo and lion), so we were more than halfway there. We just needed the rhino and leopard for the Big Five and the African wild dog and cheetah to complete the Magnificent Seven. I won’t keep you in suspense. We never saw a leopard. Darn ?!

But there were other animals we hadn’t seen yet, and we would see many of them on our six possible game drives. I will pause the story for now to include our first game drive, which took place around 3:30 pm on our first afternoon at Tintswalo. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it using your arrow keys or by swiping. And please, don’t view my photography on a phone. Please…

That’s day one at Tintswalo. We had found another of the Magnificent Seven and only needed a rhino, a leopard (we never got), and an African wild dog to complete the set. More game drive news tomorrow. See you then. I leave you with another incredible African sunset.

Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman

 

On to Tintswalo

by | Jul 23, 2025 | Uncategorized

Our final stop on our African odyssey was Tintswalo Game Lodge, situated in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve, directly adjacent to the world-renowned Kruger National Park. That means LOTS MORE ANIMALS!

After our night of discussion in Johannesburg, we were off to the airport early in the morning for our shortest flight of the trip to Hoedspruit, South Africa, which is the home of Eastgate airport—the gateway to Kruger National Park. It was a very short flight on Airlink (which seems to be the go-to airline for getting around within Africa). They are a very nice airline that primarily flies smaller jets (four seats to a row—we flew all our flights with them in Embraer E-90s, which we liked.) This flight was the shortest flight we have ever taken. We were in the air for less than an hour. If you don’t count the time spent taxing on runways, it’s around 35 minutes. It’s a short flight.

One funny thing did happen on the flight. They actually serve food on these very short flights—to everyone, even those in the cheap seats. On the way to Hoedspruit, the flight attendant comes on and says, “We will shortly be coming around with drink service…and your choice of a cheese bagel or (are you ready for this?) a Krispy Kreme donut. Seriously. When he said it, the plane erupted in a combination of cheers and laughter. Sure enough, they came down the aisle and handed you a tiny box with a single Krispy Kreme donut inside. Just cracked me up.

I should mention here that when we left Johannesburg, we also left behind the amazing Delia, our guide through the entire trip. It was a sad parting, marked by lots of hugs. She is a gem among travel guides and humans. I would not have wanted to do this trip without her. She would not need to accompany us to Tintswalo, as we would be completely under the lodge’s care while there.

We were met at the airport by Welsent, our driver. (Isn’t that a great name for a driver that was sent to pick you up??)  After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at Tintswalo. If you have been following this entire trip, you know we have had some amazing lodging experiences, and this would pretty much be the topper. Tintswalo is not a hotel but a beautiful main lodge connected by raised boardwalks to six individual lodges, each housing one or two people. Walking in is an experience you’ll never forget.

Not because the front door looks like this, but because you walk through to the deck that sits behind the door, and you see this. (Full disclosure, I stole the photo above from the lodge because I was not happy with any of mine.)

Just outside the back door of the lodge were (at that time) probably 8-10 elephants. The lodge leaves a hose hanging from a tree and turns it on in the afternoons. If you would like to see these elephants in person, Tintswalo has a webcam pointed directly at this spot 24/7. You have to figure out what time noon is in South Africa because they are pretty much just there in the afternoons. You can check it out by clicking here.

Elephants come and wiggle their way (in one case, a young male bullied his way) to get a drink from the hose and just generally frolic around under the running water. If you want a site to greet you when you arrive at a lodge; this one tops them all. At this point in the trip, I thought I had seen all the elephants I could ever want to see when we were in Chobe, but I guess that wasn’t true. This small herd would return almost every day we were there, along with other animals that walked through, including Cape buffalo, impalas, wildebeests, and others.

During our stay, we would eat out on this deck numerous times. I would sit and work on photos and write posts while the elephants drank, and other animals walked by. It could be very distracting.

I’d like to show you around, so here are some photos I took upon arrival with both my Nikon and my iPhone. Enjoy.

We sat down to lunch and when we were done, it was time to see our private lodges. Each was named after a famous African explorer. We were staying in Speke named after John Hanning Speke. I love a good, stupid joke, so if someone called on the phone, I would just say, “Speak,” because that’s how his name is pronounced. ?

Here are a few pics I took of the path leading to our lodge and the inside as well. One thing to know about the path. You were not allowed to use it at night without calling the Night Porter. He would sit up all night in the main lodge, and when you called, he would come down and get you to bring you to the main lodge. The main reason for this was that elephants could walk right up to the walkway. When we arrived on the first day, they were fixing an electric fence that a rogue elephant had knocked down the night before. On our last morning there, the staff informed us that the same elephant had returned the night before, and they had to rouse the staff who scared it off by beating pots and pans. However, it still managed to damage more of the fence and a couple of trees. The night porter became our friend when he removed what we thought was a HUGE spider from our bathroom.

I was going to delve deeper into the rest of the first day, but this post is already quite lengthy. Our first major activity was going on a game drive. More about that in my next post. Keep a sharp eye open for it coming soon.

In Africa, you have space…there is a profound sense of space here, space and sky.  – Thabo Mbeki