Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2017 | Page 59

Travel
My late Mother was born in Cape Town in
1923 where she lived until she was eight
years old until Grandfather decided to
return to England, having served as an
Officer in the South African Police Force
under the Dutch Government.
Clearly times were very different then
but my Mother had always spoken fondly
about her school days and her real love of
the African people. Just twelve months
ago I was presented with the most
wonderful birthday present from my wife
and family to celebrate my 70th birthday,
they all sponsored a surprise trip to South
Africa in the hope that I could locate my
Mother’s school in Cape Town which had
always been a personal desire.
However, this was to be no ordinary trip!
The itinerary commenced with a flight
to Johannesburg where we boarded a
light plane to the Kruger National Park
area to go on safari and then return to
visit Pretoria to pick up the famous Blue
Train and journey down to Cape Town
where six days were set aside for me to
explore the area.
This was a most exciting prospect for me
as my family knew that I had talked about
the prospect of a safari and even the
possibility of a trip on this famous train.
The flight to Johannesburg took over
12 hours with the bonus being that jetlag
wasn’t so much of an issue with the time
zone difference of one hour from London.
I was fascinated by our arrival in
Hoedspruit Airport in the Kruger National
Park area aboard a light 50 seated aircraft
from Johannesburg taking 1 hour to be
met by a local Ranger with his tractor
to collect our luggage and without any
formal check in. We were then taken by
car to the Thornybush site which boasts
12 miles square of safari and following
a brief welcome drink at the reception
outpost we were then collected by a large
safari jeep to take us to our destination,
which consisted of just four lodges
accommodating a total of eight people.
I was taken back by the quality of
the accommodation and the beautiful
setting surrounded by rich foliage and
flowers and its own private dining area
and waterhole to observe the animals
from an open dining and decking area.
The following four days can only be
described as an awesome experience
and with us seeing the ‘big five’ on
two occasions; these being elephant,
lion, rhino, buffalo and leopard. Our
encounter with a leopard was around
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