Family Private Safari Cape & Kruger

On arrival at Cape Town International Airport, you will be whisked away to La Colonial in Franschhoek. The scenic drive takes you through the beautiful scenery of the wine country, where rows of vines blanket the foothills of the dramatic Jonkershoek Mountains. Arriving in the gorgeous Franschhoek Valley, you pass many wine estates nestled on the slopes before you get to the village itself, which is South Africa’s gourmet capital. Art galleries and cafés line the leafy streets that are characterised by traditional Cape Dutch architecture.

Set within the village, La Cle Des Montagnes is an elegant blend of eclectic African décor featuring patterned fabrics, Moroccan tiles and African art that lend it a playful vibrancy. With breath-taking views of the mountains and vineyards, as well as a private garden and swimming pool, your villa comes with a butler and chef to ensure your every wish for the next few days is taken care of.

After enjoying a delicious breakfast out on the terrace, a driver will collect you for the journey in to Cape Town, where a villa at Ellerman House awaits you. This exceptional boutique hotel is located on the lower slopes of Lion’s Head in the exclusive neighbourhood of Bantry Bay. The sprawling Cape Edwardian mansion overlooks the Atlantic and Robben Island, with panoramic sunset views over Table Bay. Intimate and luxurious, your private villa is overseen by attentive and friendly staff who deliver an unrivalled level of service. The spa offers a wonderful variety of treatments to pamper and invigorate, leaving you feeling refreshed and revitalised, while the gym and pool allow you to work off the irresistible meals from the kitchen.

The attractions of Cape Town are manifold. A drive along the Peninsula to Cape Point ranks as one of the most beautiful in the world, with mountains plunging dramatically to the sea. You stop in quaint little towns along the way to wander the antique shops, visit a colony of endangered African penguins or just sit in a café with a glass of South African wine and watch the world go by. The cableway to the top of Table Mountain affords you tremendous views of the city and the ocean laid out at your feet.

With an emphasis on gastronomy, the chef and the sommelier at Ellerman produce an exquisite symphony for the senses. Every meal is a production, set on a stage with a backdrop like no other in the world. After indulging in an imaginative selection of dishes accompanied by a carefully chosen vintage, you retire to the embrace of the whiskey lounge for a nightcap. Return to your elegant suite, throw open the windows and listen to the sound of the ocean below before slipping between the sheets, lulled by the murmur of the waves.

Depart your Ellerman House villa with a wistful farewell for your flight to Johannesburg and the Sabi Sands concession. Your guide will meet you at the airstrip and take you on the short game drive to Singita Castleton. Formerly the family home of Singita’s founders, this gracious house is steeped in the pioneering spirit and history of this extraordinary place. Combining the atmosphere of a private safari camp with the rustic charm of a country farmhouse, Castleton is an idyll of a bygone era. With a staff complement that includes a private guide, tracker, chef and housekeeper, the experience is finely tuned to be in keeping with your every wish. The grounds feature a tennis court and a large outdoor sala with a swimming pool overlooking a waterhole where animals are often seen coming down to drink.

Being in a huge private concession bordering the Kruger National Park, you have the opportunity to enjoy a splendid variety of wildlife in privacy and seclusion. With your expert guide and tracker to reveal the signs of the wild, their knowledge and experience will give you a wonderful depth of understanding. The area has famously large prides of lions, a testimony to the abundance of prey that they enjoy. Encountering a pride in the late afternoon as they begin to stir and rouse themselves for a night’s hunting is a thrilling experience. Watching them stretch, yawn and playfully cuff and rub heads together in greeting, you imagine they are just like ordinary cats, although much bigger. Their hypnotic amber eyes and rippling muscles belie their extraordinary predatory power - they are the rulers of the night. Nothing can equal the spine-tingling sound of a lion’s roar and, multiplied a dozen times, it takes on a majestic quality that carries for miles across the wilderness.

It is one thing to experience the wilderness from a vehicle but a walk through the bush is exhilarating. You follow animal paths that might never have felt a human tread before, breathing in the aromas and feeling the hushed silence of nature. From this perspective you are able to notice and admire the smaller things around you: the hoof marks around a salt lick, a dung beetle rolling his enormous load, the fascinating world on the inside of a termite mound. Your guide will teach you the traditional uses of plants: which are edible, which are medicinal. It is a wondrous feeling to be on foot and at one with nature, with all of your senses actively engaged in the experience.

After a final morning on safari, you depart for the airstrip after a delicious brunch. While the charter flight wings you back to Johannesburg, images of your journey come flooding into your mind: the view of False Bay from the Winelands, dining overlooking the Atlantic at Ellerman House, and the thrill of encountering lions in the wild…