As I've told people since we've been back, this trip was the rare combination of both the greatest adventure you'll ever have - seeing wild animals interract in their natural habitat right before your eyes - and the most indulgent, relaxing treat of a vacation.
Our guide called us at 6 am and we were dressed in all the layers and walking over to the main lodge to eat our breakfast snacks. Today's gluten-free muffin was some sort of cinnamon cake concoction that I would give a lot to be eating again right now.
We headed out with our guide, hoping to find a leopard for the kids or any other kind of big cat, but also just happy to see any of these amazing animals we had fallen in love with.
And we found a cheetah! Two cheetahs! Brothers, per our guide.
They were mostly just relaxing in the sunshine, but we did get to see them move positions.
I loved all the animals, but watching the big cats slink around their world really was incredible.
We came across a big herd of zebras, with lots of little ones.
Cheese!
Rhinos! I love them too. They always reminded me a little of Maggie. Something about their stalwart charm.
We stopped for our mid-morning-drive snack with hot tea, hot chocolate, and gluten-free goodies for me.
Hello Mr. Wildebeest
Once back at the lodge it was time for the big breakfast.
And then just some relaxation time (and/or lunch, which obviously my whole family ate all of 90 minutes after brunch but I skipped). I was going to work, but then just read and also took a little nap and it was lovely.
Some monkeys ran across my view at one point and the warthog mom and baby came by as well.
Then it was high tea, with more snacks (including mini gluten-free pizzas!), and then we were off for our afternoon safari, our final ride in Marakele National Park!
And we came across so many elephants!
Including these big bulls.
Love!!
I just remember really enjoying watching everything around us.
Then it time for sundowners!
I took so many pictures of animals that it's easy to miss that the surrounding views were absolutely stunning. Plateaus and mountains and lakes and sunsets... just gorgeous.
My peeps! Just as I truly can't overstate the animals and the views, I can't say enough how incredible it was to share all this with our kids. They were so fun- so interested and curious and delighted to be there... we didn't get to do much traveling in our 20's since we were both getting degrees and started our family so young, but man has it been wonderful to make up for it in our 40's!
Having them with us truly made it so much better- we spotted more animals, got to listen to our guide answer questions we might not have asked, loved recapping our day and laughing over dinner... I'm so thankful we were able to do this together.
The sun was quickly setting, but we spotted quite a few animals on the dark drive back to the lodge.
We had a great dinner by a roaring fireplace and then got to our canvas castle to discover a romantic little set up for our anniversary which was very sweet.
Cheers to 20 years!! Celebrating surrounded by elephants and rhinos, with our three grown kids in their own canvas castle... I can't imagine anything better.
Today was our first full day of safari'ing! Our guide called both our tents (I keep writing "tents," but it was a concrete and canvas structure that was basically a small glamping palace, so "tent" doesn't seem right. Maybe canvas castle is the right term?) at 6 a.m. to make sure we were awake.
We put on our warmest clothes (I wore fleece lined leggings I originally bought for Iceland, sports bra (roads are bumpy!), tank, my favorite cashmere wool sweater from Vince, a scarf, and my puffer jacket and I could have used a hat and gloves) and walked over to the main building where the staff had put out some light breakfast snacks and drinks to get our day started. All the groups and guides were there, it was maybe 20 people? They always had gluten-free muffins for me and they were SO good. As James said every day, South Africa has the best breads and baked goods!
We got in our jeep with Njabulo, snuggled under the hot water bottles and blankets he had waiting, and headed out with the sun rising over the bush before us! Some of us paid more attention than others in the cold early hours. (There's a Landon under there. Yes, Mr. "no one ever needs to wear pants" both wore pants AND admitted he was cold. It really was chilly!)
One of the things we ran into first was a lioness and THREE cubs!! It was such a lucky find - our guide, who somewhow drove the stick-shift jeep, looked out for the paths, pointed out very hidden animals, AND tracked paw prints in the dirt beside the car as we drove past, said he hadn't seen cubs in weeks.
They were adorable - like big giant kittens and they played and romped while mama lounged and watched. Our guide said they were close to a year old and at that age, with a living, healthy mother, they should survive to adulthood.
We saw more zebras, which I love- their coloring is just so gorgeous to me.
Including this guy, who was a pretty fast little runner!
And this one whose smile reminded me of Donkey from Shrek.
Giraffes were plentiful- we came across a large herd with babies, including two with the umbilical cord still attached!
We watched some toddler giraffes playing tag and it was crazy to see their long spindly legs gallopping around while their moms watched.
Seeing giraffe heads pop up between trees became one of my favorite things to spot as we drove around- they're such cool, awkward yet graceful gentle giants.
I love them.
The animal I was most excited to see in Africa was an elephant and I was so delighted that we came across MANY on this day.
Including a mother and baby who was ADORABLE.
Mama got irritated at our jeep being too close, but we'd been parked for some time to observe and she basically walked in front of us. Our guide wasn't concerned, just said she's being protective, waved his hands and yelled and then reversed, and she quite literally flipped her ears over her shoulders like she was doing a hair toss and huffed off, nudging her clumsy squishy baby along.
At the end of our morning drive we got to board Miss Mara, the lodge's boat that sails along part of the river in the reserve. They had food waiting for us (of course!) with two plates of gluten-free options for me.
We got to see a whole bloat of hippos, just chilling in the water and then we even saw two fully out of the water, which was pretty rare to see during the day!
The boat was a cool way to see the land and animals from a different perspective and I'm glad we got to experience it!
After that we headed back to the lodge where we could order a full breakfast (it was now nearly 11 a.m.) and then James and I got massages on the back deck of our room, which was lovely.
Lunch was served from 12:30-2:30, which I skipped, but everyone else ate. Now that we're home we all miss the constant availability of incredibly delicious food!
High tea was with lots of treats was served at 3 (I cannot emphasize enough how much you are fed; Landon was in heaven) and then we met our guide back at our jeep at 3:30, now with an overnight bag for James and me. As an anniversary treat, we planned to spend a night in the Marataba treehouse!
Our guide drove there first so we could drop our bag and the kids could see it.
It was so cool.
Downstairs bathroom:
The staff would be delivering our dinner to the treehouse so James and I could have a romantic dinner date after the game drive, and then the guide would drive the kids the rest of the way back to the lodge to have their dinner and go to bed.
The kids weren't at all concerned about being alone in their separate canvas castle, but Claire was VERY worried that we would be eaten by a lion in the dark in our treehouse. Our guide assured her that would not happen, but Claire was unconvinced.
We drove off for the rest of our sunset drive.
Kudu! Love their crazy horns.
I never took many pictures on the evening drive because my iPhone struggled with the lighting and we all spent long intervals just enjoying watching the animals and chatting with our guide. I know we saw many things, including more elephants and giraffes and hippos out of the water!
We stopped for our "Sundowners" snacks and drinks. Such a fun tradition.
I'm going to be at work today wondering where my gin and tonic and gluten-free snacks are right about 5 pm.
After we saw more sunset animals, our guide dropped us at our treehouse. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but the guides all have a loaded rifle with them as we drive and they carry it any time they step out of the car. So that's how we were escorted up to our temporary home. Our guide said in 7 years he'd never had to shoot his rifle, though they train on it every month and are tested with moving targets every 3 months. In his words, "if you know what you're doing and don't push the animals, you should never need it." But of course, they're ready just in case.
James and I had a great dinner sitting out on our treehouse. We checked off a previously unknown bucket list item of mine to play parcheesi in a treehouse under a sky full of stars. We snuggled. We decided we missed our canvas castle and radio'd our guide to come get us at 8 pm.
Honestly it was a pretty perfect night. Especially because we were given an incredible gift on our short drive back to the lodge area -- a leopard!!!
She was so gorgeous.
We sat for a while to watch her, just feeling so lucky.
And then we were back in our canvas castle, after popping by the kids' to tell them we were back, and got ready for another day in safari paradise tomorrow!
After 3 great nights in Cape Town, we were up early to fly to Johannesburg to start our safaris!
We really loved Cape Town- I'm so glad Kaleigh encouraged us to spend a few days there. I actually think we could have spent another to explore more of the cool little towns all along the peninsula and hike Table Mountain, but our itinerary didn't have room and I have zero regrets that we moved on to safaris when we did. It's just a note that I could absolutely see going back one day, maybe post-retirement, with just James and me.
Taking a domestic flights within South Africa was pretty easy- you can even carry on water or bottles of wine! Check-in and security were quick and then we waited to board a bus that went to the plane we'd take. The flight was 2 hours and we were met by a new guide and driver as soon as we landed to drive to our new home for 3 nights: Marataba Safari Lodge.
The drive took about 90 minutes (?) and we saw so many animals along the way! Baboons! Giraffes! An ostrich! Plus springboks, impalas, and even a rhino! We were clearly in a new part of South Africa.
Once we arrived at beautiful Marataba, we had a quick check-in, met our safari guide Njabulo (he'd be with us for the entirety of our stay, which was awesome), and then walked to our "tent".
It was SO much larger and more luxe than I ever imagined.
The kids' had one right next to ours- Landon took the big bed and the girls shared the bunks in the adjoining room.
The big copper tub was glorious and I took at least one bath a day while we were there.
I also used the outdoor shower. I am pro-hot water covering me in any format.
The lodges are surrounded by an electrified fence, but monkeys, warthogs, and tons of impalas come in and mingle with each other along the paths. We felt very safe, but there was always someone to walk you to your room any time you wanted accompaniment and someone always walked with us from the main room to our tents at night after dinner when it was dark.
This mama warthog and baby are in the photo above. I loved the warthogs - they ran with their tails high in the air, which cracked me up, and their faces and waddle-runs always reminded me of Maggie.
Pumba!
We got a little distracted with our incredible rooms, but Njabulo was waiting for us to go on our first sunset safari drive as soon as we were ready! The weather was beautiful and almost-warm, so kind of underestimated how much temperatures would drop as the sun went down.
Because soon, it was *freezing*. There were blankets in the jeep and we each brought our puffer jackets, but we bundeled up a lot more on future drives.
But the chill was largely forgotten as we immediately came across animals. Like hippos!
One showed off his big big mouth for us.
And giraffes and zebras too!
After the sunset our guide drove us to a bush dinner! (Another reason we should have bundled up, but we sort of missed the "dinner would be outside" detail in our welcome, probably because I was distracted by the giant bathtub.)
We came across a giant rhino next to the path as we drove with our red spotlight (red because it doesn't hurt the eyes of prey who see well at night). It was crazy! He almost looked fake until he ran off through the bush.
The chef was outside grilling tons of meat over an open flame and there were great salads and sides and bread to go with it. Our guide sat at our table with us and we got to hear all about his background and experience and the cool things he'd seen in Marakele. It was really lovely, and the stars were incredible, but man was it cold! I didn't take any pictures, even though it was so beautifully decorated and lit with candles and lanterns, but here's one of Cora staying warm.
We got back to our tents where I took the first of many baths in that magnificent tub and then we snuggled into beds -- beds we discovered the staff warmed with hot water bottles under the sheets! A delightful treat we discovered would continue in the jeeps for the morning ride. Our guide would be calling at 6 a.m. to wake us up and then we'd be off on our first sunrise drive!
"Lag liv," imperfectly translated, means "law life" in Swedish. I'm half Swedish and I was in law school back when I wrote my first post in 2006, so Lag Liv I became and Lag Liv I still am!
Now I'm a full-time attorney and all-the-time wife and mom of three. We live a busy life in Dallas, Texas. You can read more about me and my cast of characters in the About Me and My Blog page. Happy reading and if you'd like to contact me, my email is lagliv [at] gmail [dot] com.
