We’re back from our Safari and I can’t begin to tell you what an amazing 3 day trip this was! There aren’t words to thank Ngaire for putting this all together for our group. She did a fantastic job and we will forever be greatful for such an unforgettable trip.
Mateya was wonderful and exceeded all our expectations. Everyone who stayed at Madikwe Hills raved about this camp too. We went there as well and walked around and it too looked wonderful! Mateya is luxury at it’s finest. The rooms are large in fact our bathroom was larger than our entire Voyager cabin! The staff and food was fantastic. This lodge was originally built as a private residence for the owner and her family and friends to visit. . It took 2 years to build and it was only 2 years ago that they began renting it out and using it as a camp.. I think it’s the fact that it was built as a residence with just 5 large cabins and loaded with the most gorgeous décor (art work, sculptures, furniture etc.) that made it so elegant and personal. We’ve stayed at many fine hotels around the world….Four Seasons, Peninsula,, Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong, Shangra La in Bangkok, , etc. but Mateya is the nicest place we’ve ever stayed.. Everyone who stayed at Madikwe Hills raved about it as well so we can’t go wrong with either camp on ROAR 2! We overlooked a water hole which was so much fun watching all the animals come and go through out the day and nights. I took a picture laying on our bed and purposely got my toes in the picture with all the animals at the watering hole in the background.
Our first ride in the first hour was definitely a white knuckler! We saw a whole herd of elephants with several babies. As we were taking pictures of them all, especially one of the babies, the Mother got VERY upset. She started walking towards our range rover and the next thing we knew she was galloping and charging towards our rover! This was soooooo scary and luckily our guide was a real pro and threw it into reverse and floored it full speed to get us out of harms way. This was really a scare… “Welcome to the jungleâ€. Luckily after this one incident the rest of the game drives were just wonderful with so many animal encounters but nothing scary again.
The first night we went to a watering hole and there were at least 100 elephants there. That was so fantastic. We also were close enough to lions that you felt like you could reach out and touch them….of course we didn’t!! I especially loved all the giraffes too and their babies.
Today we were in Richards Bay (Zulu land) and went into town. Tomorrow we’ll be in Mozambique.
I don’t have a fancy camera these are just amateur shots. I took over 300 pictures but I’ll post some below. I’m now understanding how Africa can sure get in your blood
This was when we started taking pictures of the Mother and baby. At this point everything was fine.
[img]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/marciematassa/aperfectsafari-11.jpg?t=1170868289[/img]
