Arzhang booked a 2 week family safari to South Africa with Far & Wild Travel in February 2019 for the school summer holiday. British summer means South African winter, but this turned out to be a fantastic time to travel for this active family of 5, with 3 kids aged 16, 13 and 10. They began their stay at More Quarters in Cape Town, before self-driving in the KwaZulu Natal Eastern region of South Africa, staying at Ghost Mountain Inn, having a full blown private game reserve safari at Amakhosi Lodge and ending on the beach at Lalaria Lodge. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the Amakhosi safari, though each day offered so much variety.
To find out more about planning a family safari holiday, take a look at our favourite family safari ideas and planning tips.
We got a lot out of it...
The kids, and us adults, got a lot out of it. It was a brilliant trip.
If anything, we may have put on weight because the food portions were huge and it was so good! Aside from the wildlife, location, service and expert guiding at Amakhosi, we loved the cultural walk at Ghost Mountain Inn where we walked to a cliff edge and learned of the history of Zulu culture and lifestyle.
Boulder Beach Family Photo
It was exhilarating, surrounded by elephants...
The video below shows just how close Arzhang got to a herd of female and young elephants, filmed from his phone!
We were going in search of a leopard and knew that there was a possibility we might see elephants and could hear them crushing through the forest.
Then suddenly two elephants crossed the path, so our guide slammed on the breaks and he did a massive loop to get in a position where he and the excellent tracker at the front of the vehicle knew the elephants would then walk towards us, essentially surrounding us.
Both my sons were petrified that it might go wrong, but we were told to just stay quiet and it will be OK. Sure enough, afterwards they said it was BRILLIANT, exhilarating and our hearts were in our mouths!
We didn’t end up seeing a leopard, but our guide Rowan posted a photo of one on Instagram he tracked just 2 days later!
Our guided hike up table mountain was another true highlight...
Right at the start of our time in South Africa we hiked Table Mountain. Our guide Kathy was excellent and she took a picnic of snacks and drinks up for us to enjoy too. It took us just over 4 hours to walk up and about 5 mins to get down in the cable car! We started very early in the morning. Charlotte has a fear of heights, but there was only one place that she needed some encouragement, it was very accessible.
The sky was crystal clear, we had beautiful sunshine, pleasant temperatures and since it had rained a lot the day before, lots of waterfalls made it even more fantastic
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