Kenya - Isa & GeneDecember 2, 2013
Dear Linda,
Just a note of appreciation for the splendid job you did in setting up our anniversary trip to Africa. We had a ball!!!
Cape Town was fabulous, and we did manage to get in my Great White Shark Dive. We were not able to get to Table Mountain due to weather, but we ate marvelously and drank copious amounts of good wine.
Victoria Falls was interesting. Having seen Niagara and Iguazu Falls we enjoyed Victoria as well. The hotel was very nice.
On to Botswana which turned out to be exactly as expected and more. The lodge is so unique. With the tents, the main building and its own water-hole, it looked right out of a movie. The game drives were fantastic and as you had predicted we saw plentiful animals and elephants by the hundreds. The highlight was the surprise anniversary party you so kindly arranged for Isa on our last night at the lodge, where the whole staff sang and danced around our table, set out in the open near a bonfire with a complimentary bottle of wine, and presented her with a cake they baked and decorated specially for the occasion. She was in heaven.
Enter Kapama; and another world. What a beautiful place. You upgraded our room to a gorgeous suite from where we had an uninterrupted view of game most of the time, even from our twin showers of bathtub. Here too, we found a complimentary bottle of bubbly. The food is above average and the service extraordinary. Our waiter named Michael, appointed himself our only, and babied us the whole time.
The reserve does not have a lot of animals but since it is private, the vehicles can go off-road and follow the few there are wherever they go. So here we saw the 2 things that will forever stay vividly in our minds. The first was a lion kill and subsequent devouring of a warthog right in front of our eyes. We could not only see it rip the pig apart but also hear the flesh tearing and the bones crushing. A bit gory but we could not take our eyes off it. Most impressive.
The next day our vehicle was charged by a BIG female elephant with a calf in tow, which apparently felt her baby threaten when our Ranger, in an effort to get us as close to the action as possible parked a bit too close to where they were feeding. Big Mama stopped 3 feet short of the Land Cruiser, ears flapping back and forth, stuck her trunk out at me about 6 inches from my chest, and spent what felt like an eternity smelling me. Isa kept telling me to take pictures, but frankly, I could not move. Picture a locomotive with an industrial size vacuum cleaner coming your way. Now she calls me Chicken of the Jungle.
And finally Joburg. The hotel,™s location is ideal. We found all the things we wanted to buy and grabbed a couple of great meals around Mandela,™s Square,
The flights home were uneventful. Overall it was a great trip and we are grateful for all the attention to detail you put into the planning and scheduling of it. Having been to 87 countries over 40 years of traveling I speak with a bit of authority when I say that this one was one of the best ever put together. You have us for life and we are looking forward to the next.
Sincerely,
