Safari and Victoria Falls

Our African experience

Jonny spent his formative years in Africa and it somewhere we are drawn to whenever we get a chance.

We’ve been to South Africa and Kenya and Tanzania and witnessed the migration and Jonny has also toured around Botswana and Namibia and Zambia before, so this time we headed off to Zimbabwe and to Hwange national park in search of lots of Elephants.

We flew into Johannesburg and started our trip at Victoria Falls.

It’s 100% worth visiting even in the low season. Our favourite is Victoria Falls Hotel which oozes old school charm and serenity.

We took a guided tour of the falls; it’s much more interesting than doing it alone.

We then visited and stayed at Zambezi Sands which is a beautiful place to do some gentle whitewater rafting and spot some lions!

We travelled further into the Hwange National Park and on to Imvelo Gorge’s lodge with its outstanding views and then took the Elephant Express onto Camelthorn. You need to watch out if elephants start to flap their ears! Camelthorn Lodge is a very comfortable lodge run by Imvelo.

Imvelo is very charity focused and support the local community and schools. We gave some children a lift to school in the landrover and went into the classroom.

Later we watched the elephants play from the hideout near a waterhole, you could look into their eyes they were so near.

A herd of Buffalo came down to the waterhole when we went out on our evening game drive. They are seriously big beasts!

Tented luxury is the style of Imvelo camps and our final stop was Nehimba Lodge, where we dined under the stars. In the morning the elephants came right into camp. There was one baby with them who was so cute, only born a couple of days before.

We found a lone lioness strolled a few metres away from the landrover and our camp the next morning! After another exciting day and supper with the Ellies it was time to say goodbye until next time.