safari, greater kruger national park, south africa.
besties on our flight from johannesburg to hoedspruit.
april 2024
it’s finally here! the final post from our trip to south africa, and the part of the trip that everything was planned around. sometime in the first year of the pandemic, while we were having a virtual hangout with our besties, we started talking about doing an african safari together. when it finally happened last year, we were SO. EXCITED. this post has photos from our experiences at the lodge as well as my very favorites from the game drives, but i have a much larger collection of wilderness-only photos here.
we spent four nights at royal malewane’s waterside lodge and stayed in the two bedroom baobab suite. this was unquestionably the most luxurious accommodations james and i have ever stayed in and they really spoiled us.
walkway to the baobab suite.
baobab suite common space.
our room.
after some lunch and getting settled, we went on our first game drive. a benefit of the suite we booked was that we had a private vehicle for all of our drives. a few years ago, james and i did a wildlife safari in grand teton and yellowstone national parks, so i thought i sort of knew what we were getting into, but i was completely taken off guard by how special this entire experience would end up being.
james is ready!
on our very first game drive we went to the site of two lion brothers who had just gorged themselves on a kill. they lumbered within twenty feet of our vehicle (panic!) before plopping down to digest and cuddle. we sat and watched in awe and amusement, while our guides told us about the special bond between lion brothers of the same litter, as well as how these particular brothers (along with two others) were growing their territory. i found the social structure of lions in the area so interesting, and i’m pretty sure that i quizzed our guides non-stop about the social hierarchy of every single animal we came across afterwards.
we also found out that on each game drive we would stop to either have sundowners or morning coffees. i particularly enjoyed these moments when i could get my feet on the ground and really take in the sounds and smells of the environment. our first sunset was magical and made us feel like we’d finally arrived after all the years of dreaming and months of planning.
sundowner setup.
besties!
pure magic.
we were up before the sun for morning game drives and they had their own special magic (yes, i keep using that word because it’s true and i don’t have a better one). shoutout to our guides andi and bradwin and our tracker jeffrey. throughout our drives they were so patient and generous with their knowledge and their time. our little group of four are not always the easiest to keep happy but they took great care of us.
sunrise at waterside.
first, and cutest, hyena sighting.
our guides and tracker during a coffee break.
between the morning and afternoon game drives, we would be served both breakfast and lunch back at the lodge, and could just use the time as we pleased. we took advantage of both our private pool as well as the spa for massages and other treatments.
post-game drive refreshment.
our private pool.
baby elephant cuteness.
unquestionably the most beautiful sunset i’ve ever seen.
there was something enchanting about the south african sky. i had already seen a hint of that when we were in cape town, but being out in the bush was it’s own experience. every sunset and every sunrise was breathtaking, the sky just felt bigger, and both the light and air had an indescribable quality to them.
fancy bush dinner.
mama and baby rhino.
we had so many great sightings and interactions on our game drives. a leopard in a tree with its kill, a standoff between a mother rhino with two of her offspring and an interested male, a curious elephant sniffing us, a whole pack of hyenas on an airstrip, and even being “attacked” by some juvenile elephants pretending to be tough before they slink off in embarrassment.
waterside lunch.
one of my favorite moments from the whole trip was a small bush walk we did. it was so different being out of the safari vehicle, watching our guides and tracker interact with the environment, learning about the local flora and seeing tracks up close. we even saw a rhino during this walk, thankfully from very away, but it was way more adrenaline-inducing than seeing them from the vehicle!
on a bush walk!
learning about tracks.
a special setup for our final sundowners.
there were special touches for meals throughout our time at the lodge, but our last sundowner was a particularly lovely moment and setup. it was perfect and bittersweet.
chips and dip, and warthog carpaccio.
a hyena walk-by.
with my bestie, who made this all possible!
cozy final dinner back at the lodge.
of course we squeezed in one final game drive on our last morning, and while we kept our expectations low, the bush surprised us again with some amazing sightings. a pride of sleepy lions, including some adorable cubs, plus a curious greeting from a young elephant as its herd meandered by.
lion cubs!
i’m not exaggerating when i say this trip was life-changing. for months afterward, my brain kept trying to figure out how to get back there and the whole experience feels deeply ingrained on my soul. i still miss it and think about it every. single. day. and while i don’t know when i’ll be able to go back, i already can’t wait.
final coffee at waterside.
heading back to johannesburg.
anyhow, i took way too many photos during our game drives for a single blog post, so you can see that whole collection here.
