ELF Travel To …

The Dylan Lewis Studio and Sculpture Garden in Stellenbosch is stunning and needs more that one visit as there are over 60 sculptures and 4km of paths. As the pamphlet aptly describes, the sculptures are displayed “within a landscape that both conceals and reveals”.

Dylan Lewis is recognized as one of the world’s foremost sculptors of the animal form with an initial focus on leopards. Dylan’s garden project began in 2009 and took two-years of earthworks to transform the 7-hectares of flat farmland into the hills, valleys and water features and another six-years to complete the project. The gardens are breathtaking and compliment his sculptures.

Some of the sculptures were huge so it was interesting to know how the large sculptures were created. The information pamphlet states “Dylan sculpted the image from polyurethane foam, then clad it in fibre-reinforced acrylic plaster impregnated with black oxide …the figure is supported with internal reinforced steel armature”.

John and Margaret were visiting for a few days and the Dylan Lewis gardens was one of our outings – we all commented that we will need to visit the gardens again.

And now for the photos….

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The village of Franschhoek (French Corner) is in the Cape Winelands of South Africa and is often referred to as the country’s food and wine capital. There are so many wonderful places to eat, not only with delicious food, but stunning views. The prices are also very reasonable, especially compared to home (we pay less for a bottle of very nice SA wine than we do for a 6 oz glass of wine at home).

What a difference a few weeks make – the tourists are now back (mostly English and German) so reservations are now a must and the town is busy.

More pictures of wineries we have visited this trip.

Rust en Vrede has always been one of our favourites. The property lies south of Stellenbosch and is nestled on the lower slopes of the Helderberg Mountain. They offer a set menu for lunch and no reservations – lunch is on the patio which is lovely. Lunch choices: salmon, filet or sirloin steak with frites and salad plus a glass of red wine chosen to complement the lunch (they specialize in red wines, particularly Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon). We thoroughly enjoyed the wine, meal and the view, so much so that we returned for a second time with our friends, Margaret and John.

Ernie Els Winery is high up in the mountains which provides wonderful views of Cape Town and Table Mountain to the West and Stellenbosch and the Helderberg Mountains to the East. When we were last here, the winery was closed for renovations, so it was interesting to see what they had done. The entrance is the same, but they have added additional tasting rooms and expanded the restaurant area. As you enter, they offer a complementary glass of wine to sip as you wander through the varies rooms, including Ernie Els’ trophy room.

Haute Cabrière is located in the Franschhoek Valley just 5 minutes from our current Airbnb. Since we were here last, they have built a new restaurant which takes full advantage of the views with its floor to ceiling windows. We went for lunch and the flash fried calamari with a delicate orzo sauce was delicious!

Babylonstoren is one of the oldest Cape Dutch farms, set at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek wine valley. It is known for its gardens – we spent a couple of hours just strolling through their property.

We have been in South Africa since February 5th and everything has gone off without even a minor issue – even the weather has been fantastic.

Well we had a minor setback when we arrived back from Nelspruit. First there were no rental cars available – only “people movers” from the Cape Town airport car rental companies. Then our Uber account wouldn’t let us book a transfer from the airport to Franschhoek because the Visa associated with our account had been closed down. Thank goodness we had cash to pay for a transfer to our Mongoose Manor cottage rental in Franschhoek. The short version of the Visa story is both Larry’s RBC Visa and my RBC Visa were hacked so Visa shutdown both. Larry’s card is still in Huntsville so it must have been hacked before we left (or through Uber) and mine was our back-up card for the trip which we hadn’t used yet.

Needless to say when we arrived at Mongoose Manor we were a bit frazzled. We spent over an hour on the phone with Visa going through charges to determine which were legitimate – the hacker tried Larry’s account first with 1 cent amounts – the 1 cent charges actually alerted Visa security and Visa subsequently denied over $10,000 in charges on Larry’s card. Visa security said my card had even larger amounts denied as the hacker kept trying different expiry dates. We have no idea how my card was hacked since it had not been used on our trip.

It was after 7:00 p.m. when we finally got off of the phone with Visa – we were hungry by this time so we decided to order a pizza to be delivered. That didn’t go well as Larry’s SA phone went dead in the middle of the order (we ran out of airtime on our SA Sim card). At that point Caro (the owner of Mongoose Manor) arrived at our door to see if we were settled in. When she heard our story (which we now laugh about), she immediately jumped in – ordered the pizza for us, picked it up and wouldn’t let us pay for it….so it all worked out in the end. We will deal with the credit card issues re payments that come out automatically when we get home.

Mongoose Manor is our first of three cottage/house rentals in Franschhoek – we rented 3 different ones as we couldn’t find one that was available for the 3 weeks we are here. Mongoose is an eclectic, small cottage on a horse farm – the back patio/lanai, where I am currently sipping my wine, and writing this post, is where we eat all of our meals. There is a pool and a view of the mountains – a perfect setting. As you can tell from the story above, the owners are wonderful – there when you need them but otherwise nowhere to be seen (they live next door).

The rental car issue also was resolved – we rented a Volkswagen Polo from Stellenbosch, which is much closer than the airport.

Our friend Jan described our trip perfectly “it’s almost as if you’re having 4 or 5 separate vacations.  That’s the great thing about SA – so much variety within a remarkably close accessible area”. So true Jan!

Now for the pictures of Mongoose Manor and our vineyard visits thus far. Even though we have visited this area numerous times we are still in awe of the scenery.

We enjoy visiting the wineries as most have amazing views and many have sculptures or lovely gardens.

Delaire Graff has views over the rugged Simonsberg mountain range. Two restaurants, wine tasting, accommodations and a spa – lovely but expensive.

Tokara vineyard is on the southern slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain. As with Delaire, it has interesting sculptures and wonderful views. Takara has two restaurants, a formal restaurant in the main building, and also a delicatessen higher up the mountain (we ate at the deli).

Thelema Stellenbosch is a small vineyard next door to Tokara. We first visited Thelema in the 1990s (can’t remember the exact year) and we purchased a red to open in 2000 – it was a wonderful wine and memory. The vineyard has expanded since then and also has introduced a new selection of wines, Sutherland Wines, which are grown in Elgin’s cool-climate.

La Motte Wine Estate is located in Franschhoek Valley – only a 5 minute drive from where we are staying. Relaxing spot for lunch.

We decided to stay at Oliver’s Boutique Hotel in White River for one day before and two days after our Inyati safari. This made it much easier organizing flights from Cape Town to Nelspruit and back as we didn’t have to worry about missing any of the game drive schedule, plus it gave us some downtime to relax.

Oliver’s was a great location – 20 minutes from the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (Nelspruit) and under 2 hours to Inyati. The hotel is marketed as “the marriage between Austrian flair and subtle African influences.” – it had an old-world feel about it. There were few guests while we were there so we had the pool to ourselves. Meals were served on the veranda and also in a formal dining room, which was lovely – the food was very good.

Oliver’s was a perfect place to relax.

On our last day in White River we visited Anton Bosch Ceramic Art Studio (thank you Jan for the recommendation). Anton and his wife Hanlie showed us their gallery and studio and also suggested that we visit Estra Bosch Studio (Anton’s sister). There were beautiful works at both studios but too large to bring home. We did purchase two print sketches of the works of celebrated master potter Esias Bosch (Anton’s and Estra’s late father). Estra was a fascinating lady – she showed us through her large studio, her home and her gardens.

Perfect ending to our time in the Sabi Sands, White River and Nelspruit area.

Our 3 nights (6 game drives) have come to an end. Although sad to be leaving, we think 3 nights was perfect.

In an earlier blog, we mentioned that Sabi Sands is known for leopards and that was one of the reasons we decided to come back to Inyati. Being known for leopards does not mean that they are easy to track. It took the morning and evening drives on the first day to find the female with her cub (they called the mom Khokovela).

Gabriel/Cliff talked about a magnificent male leopard (called Ravenscourt) so that became their focus for our last few drives. Ravenscourt’s territory is large, he has well-camouflaged fur, and he is elusive, even more so than the females. A very difficult animal to track.

A few more details before we answer the question “did we see Ravenscourt?”. We asked how the leopards were named – Gabriel explained that the guide/tracker who first sees the cub gets to name it. It seemed that they only named the leopards. Gabriel explained that the male leopard is a solitary animal and only associates with the females in the mating season (unlike the lion who we would see with his pride). Leopards fighting is typically limited to defending territories from intruders which is why they do not have the scars that we see on the lions.

Now back to tracking Ravenscourt – it was our last game drive – Cliff and another tracker from a neighbouring safari lodge started tracking on foot as a last resort. It was music to our ears when we heard Gabriel on the radio saying “great job guys”. Five to ten minutes later, Cliff appeared from the bush with a big smile on his face.

Cliff guided us to Ravenscourt – as you can see Ravenscourt was fast asleep deep in the thicket (and he was well-camouflaged). Getting the two vehicles near Ravenscourt was difficult. The other vehicle, whose tracker helped find Ravenscourt, watched him sleep for about 5 minutes and then headed off…but not us…Cliff was sure Ravenscourt would soon wake up.

We stayed for an extended time, just our vehicle, admiring this magnificent animal – thank you Gabriel and Cliff.

This was such a special way to end our time at Inyati. Just a few pictures of the Inyati grounds as we close off our Inyati blogs.

The term “Big Five” originally referred to the difficulty in hunting the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African/Cape buffalo. Although all the animals are special, the “big five” seem to receive the most attention on game drives.

We did see the “big five”

And so much more

Birds were plentiful

And amazing sunrises and sunsets

Several prides of lions roam the Inyati game reserve. The reserve being so large, and unfenced, and the bush so dense, makes finding leopards and lions challenging for the guides/trackers. For us, finding the animals is an interesting part of the safari experience. Tracking is not just looking for tracks, but the guide and tracker also listen for clues as to where the animals (especially the leopards and lions) are in the dense bush (for example, they listen for the leopard calling for her cubs or the birds squawking as the lion approaches) .

Before the pictures, a brief overview of our daily schedule:

• 5:00 a.m. Wake up knock at the door; 5:30 a.m. pre-game drive breakfast snack and coffee; 6:00 a.m. the game drive begins.
• 7:30 a.m. Morning coffee stop in the bush – unless we decided to continue tracking or viewing.
• 9:30 a.m. Post-game drive brunch back at the lodge.
• 10:30 a.m – 4:00 p.m. Work on our pictures or just relax by the pool or on the outside lounge deck. Usually we would see elephants or impala grazing on the banks of the Sand River so we were never bored.
• 4:00 p.m. Afternoon pre-game drive buffet; 4:30 off for our evening game drive.
• 6:30 p.m. Sundowner drinks and snacks in the bush, unless we decided to continue viewing.
• 7:30 p.m. Back to the lodge for a candlelight dinner at 8:00; 9:30 p.m. bedtime as we need a good sleep so we are wide-eyed for our morning drives.
• As it is dark when we arrive back at the game lodge, a “security guard” would walk us to/from our room to the dining room as the animals traverse through Inyati property at night. One night the guard shone his flashlight on two hippos who were grazing just at the back of our chalet. Next morning the security guard said there was an elephant at our front door around midnight. They call them security guards for good reason!

The lions are the great hunters. Even the leopard stays away from the lion.

The drive back to the lodge in the dark was full of surprises – the guides drive without lights. The tracker used a spotlight to scan the road and bushes as this was less intrusive. We came across this lion sleeping just off to the side of the road. We stopped to watch him for a few minutes and suddenly, while laying down, he let out a roar that shook the vehicle – hearing that piercing sound was incredible.

Although leopards were our focus, elephants always put on a show. This is another reason our first drive was epic.

Enjoy our elephant pictures and our videos on Facebook (Theresa and Karen, we know these will be your favourites).

One night on the way back, 3 or 4 elephants came out of the brush onto the road. All we could see was something very, very large moving. The rangers drive with no lights at night so as not to hurt the eyes of the animals. Normally Cliff, our tracker, would use a spotlight to scan the sides of the road. With elephants the spotlight is not used as it disturbs them so we went off road to get by them (we are in the bush and the elephants are on the road). Amazing how Gabriel handled the vehicle in the dark and how important the communication between tracker (who is perched on a small chair attached to the front bumper) and the ranger is, especially at night.

Feb 25 – 26: We are at Inyati Game Reserve in the Sabi Sands. Inyati shares a common unfenced boundary with the Kruger National Park. Inyati also has transversing rights with several other lodges. It is a small camp, with only 11 chalets. The main lodge overlooks the banks of the Sand River – aptly named as currently we see the sandy bottom of the river bed (no rains recently).

We stayed at Inyati 10 years ago – so nice to be back again. The lodge’s common area has been enlarged and renovated since we were here last as have the rooms. The changes make the lodge even more appealing – a wonderful, relaxed African vibe.

We received a very warm welcome on our arrival with wine and welcome note in our room. Inyati is known for the quality of their rangers and trackers – our ranger, Gabriel, and tracker, Cliff, are excellent. On our first two game drives there were 6 in our vehicle (a young couple from Washington on their honeymoon and an older South African couple plus us). On our 3rd – 4th game drive their were only 4 (the young couple headed to Cape Town). Our “vehicle mates” were a pleasure to be with.

Why did we call this post “Epic”. This is the term Ranger Gabriel used to describe yesterday’s game drives – even Gabriel was excited with the leopard viewings. You will see from the pictures here and our videos on Facebook that it was epic. If you don’t have Facebook, but you have What’s App let me know and I will send you our videos.

We decided to come to Inyati as Sabi Sands is known for its leopards – it did not disappoint.

Enjoy our leopard pictures from our morning drive.

There are many more pictures…but this will give an idea of what we experienced.

Feb. 25: We stayed one night at The Vineyard Hotel before we flew to Nelspruit (airport closest to our safari destination).

The hotel has over 8 acres of gardens and walking path as well as a view of Table Mountain (our room faced Table Mountain) – a stunning property. Tortoises roam the gardens and pathways. They are quite good at climbing stairs.

Margaret and John met us for dinner on the patio – a lovely evening.