Zambia Safari 1 : Botswana first

After a few days in Joburg, we were back at the farm, packing and sorting the caravan for Zambia 2019.

Luckily, we had a fun weekend at the farm too, a farewell for Tommy and Mandy.

leaving Maizefield

Tuesday 9 April 

After meeting Danie and John in Modimolle, we head to Matamba Bush Camp. It's a lovely place for the start of any trip heading through Botswana, a night to get everything sorted.

Wednesday 10 April

Drive to the Platjan border. Easy, peasy through this border. We head to Molema Bush Camp in Tuli Block. The private campsites on the Limpopo river are really great and they do also have some bungalows.

Thursday 11 April

You can self drive, it's strictly 4 x4 though, but we opt for an organised game drive with a guide the next morning. We had almost given up tracking the lions and stopped next to the river at Eagle Rock. I asked if I could jump out of the vehicle for a wee. Just as I was about to climb down, KB, our guide decided to check first. Next thing he comes running around the bush, white as a sheet,  "There's Lions! " Two big males behind the bush I was going wee behind! That was a close shave and I suddenly didn't need to go so urgently. It's a stunning place and we will be back.

Friday 12 April

It's quite a bit of driving to Elephant Sands, outside Nata, another favourite overnight stop when heading north.

Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 April

The campsite at Chobe River Lodge, just outside Kasane, is also on a river and some sites are nicer than others, so it's the luck of the draw. The great thing here is that you can use all the hotel facilities and the pool deck has awesome sunset views over the river. Order you GnTs from the bar and it's easy to stay from lunch till dinner.

The other highlight is a cruise on the Chobe River for game viewing and birdwatching. The lodge had some bigger booze cruise boats. The upside is the comfort and bar service, the downside can be the noisy co-passengers. Stay a few nights and switch it up with a private boat cruise and a game drive into the Chobe National Park.

Amazon Adventure

We flew to Manaus and spent 2 nights at the wonderful downtown oasis, Hotel Villa Amazonia. We needed a chill day and we got it. Let's face it, Manaus is just another ugly, Brazilian city that doesn't warrant much of a stop. They are trying to gentrify the colonial centre but we were done in an hour or 2. We did enjoy dinner at Caxiri Manaus and on the second night we ate at Fitz, our hotel's on site restaurant.

Finding the right Amazon tour is tough. Many of the lodges closer to the city aren't even in the jungle anymore and lower end boat trips have you sleeping in hammocks or pitching tents.

In the end we paid quite a bit for Juma Jungle Lodge but it was worth it. Boat, Bus, Boat to get to the wooden lodge,  built on stilts in the river.  We loved our room and the view. The food was good, as were the cocktails. We did our birding and sightseeing trips by boat, loved seeing the river dolphins, including the pink dolphins and enjoyed more piranha fishing. The jungle walking was also good. The tour to a cultural village was condescending and we skipped the night caiman spotting trip. Back to Manaus for a night, then on to Sao Paulo and back to Johannesburg.

Foz Iguazu and the Pantanal

We hit the road again, this time heading towards Foz Iguazu. We stayed overnight in Fransisco Beltao at the Palace Hotel and arrived at Foz Iguazu by noon the next day. Once again, the downtown had no appeal at all. We stayed at San Martin, the closest resort to the National Park. Very nice, with grounds for a bit of birding and a good pool. And buffet meals! We survived. It's super value at less than 100 USD per night.

Early next morning, we walked up to the falls. It rained on and off all day. The whole place is super touristy and it gets crowded so we were lucky to arrive early. You catch a bus from the entrance to the Falls, where there are various stop offs. Most people follow the same route, so we did the opposite and virtually had the Falls to ourselves for the first hour. These falls are truly spectacular, not as high or as wide as Victoria Falls but with many cascades.

 Viewing platforms allow you to get very close. When walking along the paths against the flow of tour groups got too crowded, we bailed and headed up to the Belmond Hotel. This is an iconic, old hotel with wide verandahs and comfy cane furniture. It's the only hotel within the National Park park and a room would have set us back over 500 USD a night. We drank great wine and had a lovely lunch on the terrace, watching birds with a view of the falls in the background.

On 15 March we drove to Bonito. This is a town that offers lots of adventure activities and is popular with backpackers. We enjoyed the birdwatching, especially the parrots and toucans.

After a night in Miranda, we were to transfer to Pousada Sao João for our Pantanal Safari. Being the wet season, we expected a 4x4 but instead were met by a lady in a VW Polo, who already had 2 tourists in her car! We loaded up our SUV and followed her all the way to Passo de Lontra, in the Pantanal. We were left here to wait for the Pousada truck, which we then followed all the way to the farm. There's a major drought this year, so the roads were easily passable.

The Pantanal is really beautiful. It's the largest wetland in the world, about the size of Germany. It's a protected wildlife area with strict conservation rules but all the land is privately owned ranches. 13 million head of cattle are farmed here. Some ranches, like Pousada San João, where we stayed are tourist lodges. A 3 or 4 night stay includes game drives and walks, boat cruises, horse riding, night walks and piranha fishing. Home cooked meals are provided and luckily we had our own wine with us. 

The bird watching was awesome, the capibaras and caimans were plentiful but the rest of the wildlife was quite scarce.

We drove back to Sao Paulo with a stop in Presidente Prudente.

Paraty and the Sierra Gaucha

Another World Heritage Site, on the coast and 5 hours drive South of Rio, we spent a night at Pousada Arte Colonial, an historic guest house in old town Paraty. The cobbled streets are car free and at high tide some streets near the estuary flood. So we find ourselves driving our Hertz SUV in a "canal" to find the nearest carpark. The afternoon heat and humidity are unbearable as we drag our wheely cases over the cobbles. As charming as historic buildings and antique furniture are, ancient,  drippy aircon units blasting warm air are not. 

Out in the streets there's no breeze at all but we wander happily from bar to ice cream stand. It's a really quaint seaside town and we'll worth a stop over. We find a pirate themed restaurant with outside tables and live music for dinner. 

The drive the next morning is beautiful. Driving South we waste at least an hour in slow traffic through the outskirts of Sao Paulo, and after a full day of driving through amazing forests and greenery, we make it as far as Curitiba and the Rio Hotel.

Another full day of driving and we roll into Bento Gonzales by sundown and a day ahead of schedule. This is the main city in the Sierra Gaucha, the premier wine region of Brazil. It's ugly and souless and like most of Brazil's cities can be avoided. The Pousada Cantelli in the hills outside town, however is charming and comfy.

They have a restaurant but we are served home-made pasta in our converted loft apartment for dinner. This area has a great Italian influence; Italian immigrants planted the first vineyards here.

It's easy to cover the different sections of the wine region in one day. The most picturesque area is Val de Vinhedos and there are lots of places to do wine tastings and have lunch.

 Our first stop is at Salton, a fairly large and commercial operation. Next we visit Giesse to taste their bubblies and we end up at Casa Valduga for a wonderful lunch; an extensive pasta tasting menu. This vineyard has some award winning wines, so we stock up with a few bottles for our journey.