I departed late Thursday and arrived in London after lunch on Friday. The layover was about six hours until the connecting 11 hour flight to Johannesburg arriving early Saturday morning. I hopped on a cab upon arrival in London and drove to Godstone, Surrey, about 40 miles South, and where my Grandfather Stephen Attrell was born and lived until about age 9. It was very special,to walk the same streets that he did and I am pretty certain that I found the house he was born in. The owner just happened to be home and we visited for awhile before returning to the airport for my flight to Johannesburg.
I arrived at my Hotel in Johannesburg early Saturday morning and booked a 10:00 am taxi trip to tour the Cradle of Humankind about an hour outside this city of 10 million people at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
On Sunday morning I flew to the Mala Mala Camp in the Kruger Game Reserve. Upon arrival we went on our first photo safari which finished after dark with two lions and featured a wide variety of wildlife.
On Monday morning we met early and found hyena’s feasting at the river. After an outdoor brunch in the brush we continued our search for wildlife returning to the camp after lunch. At 3:00 pm we left again for about 4 hours which featured lions, leapords, rhinos and giraffes. The three days in this camp were my favorite of the trip.
I visited the Mashuta game camp in Botswana next and spent two nights there getting a different view of the wealth of wildlife in this area of South Africa. The highlight was a walking safari through the bush with two guides.
Then I travelled to the Xakanaxa Camp which required an overnight back in Johannesburg and a flight to Maun in Botswana. The two days in this camp gave me yet another view of the countryside and wildlife and the accomadations were in an above ground canvas tent.
My final wildlife and Africa experience was at Victoria Falls in Zambia where I visited a local village, flew over Victoria Falls, and cruised the river to watch the sunset.
The return home was very long (24 hours on a planes and 8 hours in waiting rooms) but enjoyable.
