South Africa - September 2025
We made it here yesterday to the Manyoni Private Game Reserve in the heart of Zululand. The location of the reserve is southeast of Johannesburg in an area called KwaZulu-Natal. The reserve is a beautiful refuge for animals both large and small. They all co-exist on 57,000 acres of rolling hills, deep canyons and hundreds of varities of trees which all are split down the middle by a meandering river called Msunduze. Outside the door of our cabin is a small lake where we have seen crocodiles, cheetah, warthogs, wildebeest, inyana’s and impalas. The vervet monkey is also a common visitor for a drink in the lake. There are at least 20 heronries at the top of trees with herons roosting comfortably on a gathering of sticks. There are many birds to see including Yellow-billed Storks, Great Blue Heron’s, and 50 intricately woven nests by the Southern Masked Weaver.
We have been on three game drives to view the animals in their natural habitat. We go out with a driver Mzamo who guides us down a network of dirt roads that he could drive with his eyes closed. We have seen so many beautiful animals and have been lucky enough to see many that are hard to find. It is spring here and it is mating season so we have also seen many young offspring of lions and one baby elephant. Mzamo drives a Land Cruiser that will hold nine passengers. We have only been with four other guests, six total which is pefect for being able to see the animals and also get a clear shot with a camera.
Our guide was able to find two lions and lionesses. One of the pair had three cubs. We were able to see her nurse and watch the cubs play together. On our afternoon game drive yesterday we saw a hunting cheetah. What a thrill!
Our guide was following elephant footprints and scat to track down a small part of the reserve’s herd. We finally found them on a steep hillside making their way up, I had to take the photo with my telephoto lens extended all the way to capature them before they dissappeared in the brush.
This rhino is missing his horn. Removing the horn is a practice that they incorporated to help with the devastating reality of poachers. If they de-horn them, then the rhinos lives are spared.
The bird is a Yellow-billed Stork which was feeding on the shoreline of the lake outside our cabin.
A beautiful giraffe caught between tree munching and the Msunduze River below. More on our trip soon.
The Manyoni Private Game Reserve has four separate lodging options on 57,000 acres. We were located at the Bayete Private Suites which were actually cabin-like structures with a thatch roof and screen windows that had zip covers like a tent. Nicest tent I have ever been in! As mentioned in my last post, we faced a small lake which was active with animals and birds and five crocodiles cruising around. The largest was 12 feet long and could jump out from the water the the full 12 feet! As a result, we were cautioned not to stand too close to the lake’s edge. No problem!!
Our view from our cabin. We were not allowed to go for a walk outside the perimeter of the four cabins and the lodge. One night at the end of the game drive when it was dark we followed a hunting cheetah to the lake in front of the cabins.
The Toyota Landcruiser Mzamo drove on our game drives. Mzamo had a talent for tracking animals and getting us close to where they were or had been recently. On one drive he took us down by the river and stopped abruptly. There were porcupine quills all over the ground. He was certain that a leopard had recently killed the porcupine in the location.
The common area where we ate our meals. Our chef, Bongoni, served us breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was very good and he didn’t like to see anyone go hungry.
This yellow-billed Crane could be lunch!
The game reserve is a delicate balance between predators and prey. There is also another cooperative balance of coexisting. Mzamo told a story of the Fig Tree which is native to S. Africa and how host specific fig wasps fly into the flowers and reproduce and nourish the fig’s tissues. The tree offers the wasps a safe place to breed in exchange.
A group of seven giraffes crossing the river. Vervet Monkey
Cape Buffalo
Curious Zebra and a Bush Buck
A sole Cape Buffalo by the river
The Red-Billed Oxpecker is another example of a mutal relationship. The Oxpecker sits on animals backs to pick off ticks which both feeds the bird and relieves the animal from pesky ticks.
It’s spring in South Africa and the trees are blooming and the animals are mating. This couple looks like this after mating. Mzamo said that they mate every 15 minutes to ensure that the lioness becomes pregnant.
Our guide estimated that this baby giraffe had been born just two hours ago. The mother giraffe would walk towards it and then stroll away trying to get the new born to follow her. The back legs of the new born were not even working yet. His height was approximately 6 feet tall, or about 2/3 of the mother’s front leg. She towered over him. It was amazing! A baby zebra was near by.
We left Manyoni Private Game Reserve yesterday and drove the seven hours back to Johannesburg to catch a flight to Cape Town. Along the way were sugar cane fields, then a mountain pass with evergreen trees, and large agricultural areas. We also traveled through little villages where school kids were walking back after school. Every five miles the children wore a different color uniform. The Jacaranda Tree dotted the hillsides in this beautiful shade of purple blossoms. We learned that in Pretoria the locals celebrate the blooming of the Jacaranda Tree by wearing purple and having a Jacaranda Festival.
We arrived in Cape Town after a long drive from Zululand and a flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town. We stayed at the Dolphin Beach Hotel on Ocean Drive across the ocean from Table Mountain and the busy side of Cape Town. We would walk for coffee at a cafe called The News Cafe – Table View. The restaurant picture of us is the Blowfish restaurant that was a few steps away from our room. The News Cafe was a 1/2 mile walk and since we were not staying in the tourist area we passed joggers, dog walkers and locals going to work on our walk.
Breakfast at the News Cafe was delicious and we were able to feed our espresso addiction easily in Cape Town. There were many cafes and bakery/espresso places to visit there. After breakfast at News Cafe we took off in our rental car to take the gondola up Table Mountain. You can see Table Mountain easily everywhere in Cape Town and that morning it had a thick layer of fog sitting on it’s top. We decided to go up the gondola later in the day and drove to Hout Bay. We stopped to look at the beauty of the area and then went to tour some art shops. The owner of a shop, Isabella, gave us the name of a restaurant with a beautiful view called the Dunes. She also suggested that we go there and have a glass of champage so we did!
The views from Table Mountain were breathtaking! We went to catch the gondola on a Monday thinking that it would be less crowded. The street was lined with cars which surprised us. Once on top the fog moved in again and it was very cold. I had brought gloves and was so happy to have them! We ducked into the restaurant and had coffee and hot chocolate and waited for the fog/clouds to lift. The gondola holds 50 people and rotates around so you get views in each direction on the ride up. After the amazing experience of going up the gondola to Table Mountain we met with our amazing friends Jeni and Rocky Martinez for lunch at Mount Nelson Hotel.
Jeni and Rocky have been our hosts on international retreats to Spain, France and Greece. We have enjoyed the trips with Jeni’s Global Yoga Trips immensely. Yoga is offered in the morning to ease your mind and body into your day with a relaxing class at the end of the day. All the trips are filled with exciting excursions with a thoroughness to every detail that ensures a wonderful experience. To find out more about Jeni and Rocky’s business visit https://www.globalyogatrips.com
The following day we drove an hour to Boulder Beach to see the African Penguins. We walked a boardwalk with incredible views of the Indian Ocean. This area is where the penguins eat, swim, sleep and breed and is within the sheltered waters of False Bay.
We left Capetown on Tuesday afternoon after having lunch with Rocky and Jeni. Our destination was on Sir Lowry pass where we were scheduled to stay at the Lalapanzi Lodge. Lalapanzi is an African name of Ndebele and Xhosa origin meaning “to lie down” or “sleep” often used to convey rest and relaxation. To enter Lalpanzi Lodge you drive up a two mile long brick road. However, before you can enter the road you enter through a gate. We were sent a QR code and were preparing to scan the QR code on a digital screen when the screen displayed “cannot recognize Patricia Hawley”. That was because Aaron was driving and the gate security had facial recognition. Amazingly high tech!!! Our room has a glorious view as seen in the picture next to the lodge. The view is across the Indian Ocean to the opposite side of False Bay. We can see the flashing lighthouse that is at the Cape of Good Hope from our deck at Lalapanzi Lodge.
There are four marked trails at the 600 acres that surround the Lalapanzi Lodge. Each morning we take off from the lodge to explore another area of the property. There are beautiful flowers everywhere and a large mountain range called Hottentots Holland Mountains. The iconic Sir Lowry’s Pass travels along these cliffs. We can see the road cut into the mountain from our deck.
Lalapanzi Lodge is in the Somerset West wine region. Today is Thursday and after breakfast we headed out on one of the four hiking trails that are on property. We hiked out to a small body of water enjoying the flowers and the birds along the way. After our hike, we drove to visit two wineries. Both wineries were perched on top of a hills with a fabulous view over the Indian Ocean looking across False Bay at Boulder Beach and the Cape of Good Hope. The wines are good here and a lot less expensive then wines in the U.S. The red wines, at least in this region, tend to have high tannins which we are not used to. The whites are very fruity but not sweet. We are traveling with carry-on luggage only, so we can’t take any home with us. Bummer….We move out of the lodge today and drive 10 miles away to the Stellenbosch wine region.
As we exit the road from Lalapanzi we enter a two lane highway that takes you through the Sir Lowry Village. There were always children playing on the grasses and adults moving around amongst the village. We drove north to Stellenbosch wine region to find our next place to stay. We are scheduled to stay at the Van der Stel Manor in Stellenbosch. We were surprised when we entered a neighborhood for our stay. Our reservation was over the weekend so the manor was full of guests from all over the world. The manor is a beautifully restored 1910 Cape Dutch homestead with fifteen rooms. Our room is on the ground floor with a nice patio accessed through a sliding glass door. Through the window on the west side is a bench between plants, flowers and trees with a bird feeder. This made me very happy!
On our first day we visited Spier Winery. I had been to Spier in 2010 when I went to South Africa for my niece Holly’s wedding to Nigel Keur. The picture of the resting (maybe intoxicated) statue in the water is at Spier. We traveled to Vergelegen Winery next which had the most amazing grounds. Really, all of the wineries were beautiful with flowers, water, trees and foot paths through to enjoy the properties. Vergelegen had a rose garden of 100 plants. Not one had black spot, a disease that is specific to the N.W. I was jealous of their shiny leaves but know that it is the western cape sunshine that keeps them looking so good.
The picture above that is taken through a window was photographed at the Tokara Winery. The winery has a spectacular panoramic view over the Stellenbosch valley. You can see in the picture that the winery is setting up for a wedding. We were told in lasts year’s wedding season 14 baboons jumped over the bushes and spent an hour tearing up the meticiously set up wedding venue. In the U.S. we worry about the crazy relative or the food being substandard but here it is a baboon attack!! Below the winery pictures are photographs of the manor including where they serve breakfast each morning, their lobby area and the patio outside our room.
Our second day in Stellenbosch wine country we went to lunch at the Post Card Cafe. I had heard this restaurant had excellent food and of course scenery. The women in the photo were dressed up for the day in their doek’s and traditional fabric tops. They were clearly having a celebration and I wanted to capture their beauty with my camera. I asked if I could take their picture just as the dutch woman in the center jumped into the picture. She seemed to be enjoying photobombing them!
The flowers and the flowering trees are stunning here. It is springtime so everything is in full bloom. Today we took a walk a few blocks through the neigborhood where our hotel is. The manor is very close to a park called Brummer. We walked along the Eerste River. Once we left the park we crossed over the river on a suspension bridge and entered property that is managed by Stellenbosch University. It is an experimental farm and a road takes you past the plantings and up a steep, long road that climbs up the mountain. Aaron and I climbed the hill and the views from there were spectacular! On our hike back we passed a couples yard that bordered the trail. They had two very large curved feeders containing nectar. They were out in their yard so I asked them if the feeders were for Sunbirds. Sunbirds are S. Africa’s hummingbirds. They are much larger then hummingbirds ranging from 6 – 9 inches. However, in some cases the measurement includes a very long tail. I was fortunate to see 51 species of birds in S. Africa that I have not seen before on my birding trips to Texas, Belize, Ecuador and Costa Rica. I am surprised and thrilled!
Today is Monday and we are starting our journey back to Washington State. We calculated that since our flight left Cape Town late in the evening today we would have time to make the trip down to the Cape of Good Hope. It is a two hour drive from Stellenbosch to our destination so we packed up and took off right after breakfast. Once you arrive at the main gate and pay the entrance fee we drove for two miles through a dry, flat and arrid area to reach our first stop at the Cape Point. We hiked up a steep trail that is cut into the rock to reach Cape Point. Cape Point is a high, dramatic promontory with a lighthouse at the top. The views were breaktaking of Diaz Beach and where both oceans merge, the Indian Ocean on one side and the Atlantic on the other. On our hike back down from Cape Point we saw three Common Elans resting in grass. They are the second largest anetelope in S. Africa. Next we drove to the Cape of Good Hope which is at sea level. You drive next to the ocean and pass beautiful Maclear Beach. This is the widely celebrated location where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet. However, Cape Agulhas is the true southernmost point of Africa. Cape Agulhas is 100 miles southeast of Cape Point. At the Cape of Good Hope we saw osterich feeding on bugs in the grass next to the rocky reefs and crashing waves.
We arrived home after 25 hours of air travel to a very happy Weimaraner. Unfortunately she has taken over our bed. Now it’s time to conclude our wonderful trip to S. Africa. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. Adventure waits!
