Day 6 Stellenbosch – MalaMala Game Reserve

You depart this morning on your flight to Johannesburg with a short connecting flight to the MalaMala Game Reserve. You check into the MalaMala Lodge, a private property within the park offering luxurious bush facilities and unparalleled game viewing, including the "Big Five". Considered the grande dame of game reserves here, many find this to be one of the best safari lodges in the world. With a staff to guest ratio of 3 to1, the service is sensational.

Public areas consist of lounges lavishly furnished with rattan pieces under impressive thatch and beam ceilings. Your air-conditioned overnight accommodations are spacious, each with "his" and "hers" bathrooms, and a spectacular view; but despite the comfort offered, there is still a camp atmosphere. (B,L,D)

This morning you are served breakfast at shaded tables overlooking tranquil views of the Sand River, where animals come to drink. Today’s game viewing involves some of the finest rangers and trackers on the continent. The MalaMala Game Reserve is the largest tract of privately owned big game territory in South Africa - 50,000 acres. It affords you the opportunity to see plenty of game animals – lion, elephant, buffalo, white and black rhino, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, antelopes, birds, and reptiles.

Near the end of the 19^th century, game populations diminished with the increasing numbers of hunting parties. Kruger National Park was established as a game reserve in 1898 from lands along the Mozambique border; adjacent unproductive private farmland was incorporated into the existing reserve and was used to create game farms and private nature reserves.

Take a dip in the pool before your dinner outside, around the log fire in a traditional boma, (a open-sided structure with a roof partially open to the sky) and share today’s safari experience with your companions. (B,L,D)

This morning, you travel to Pretoria to board the Rovos Train, the "Pride of Africa", and begin a unique journey all of its own. Rovos Rail revisits the golden age of luxury train travel – seeing Southern Africa the way the very first tourists did in the Edwardian days. The coaches have been beautifully restored to their former glory with fine attention to detail, and are the last word in style and comfort. Use of traditional furnishings and period décor, combined with exquisite craftsmanship in fine wood paneling, creates an atmosphere of elegance and grandeur that far exceeds the original.

Each suite accommodates two people and also has a private lounge area. The en-suite bathrooms feature original fittings with the modern technology of hot showers. There are two exquisitely restored dining cars; your dinners are complemented with outstanding South African wines. (B,L,D)

After your leisurely breakfast in the dining car, join your travel companions in the observation carriage at the rear of the train. Heading northward, you pass the platinum mines at Rustenburg and Impala and Warmbaths, so named for its hot mineral waters. You travel through the Transvaal, where gold was first mined in the 1870’s. Just after Soekmekaar, the train enters the tropics by traveling over the Tropic of Capricorn. At Bandelierskop, the train passes quite close to the edge of the escarpment, where the Highveld drops precipitously from 4,000 feet down to 2,000 feet. On the edge of the cliffs, Cuyad ("bread trees") grow; these slow growing trees were genuine dinosaur food. The area here is heavily mineralized; stations have names like Mica, Corundum and Granite, named after the minerals mined here. This area is the only source of South Africa’s emeralds. Crossing over the Soutansberg Mountains, you enter Baobab country – this cream of tartar tree only grows within the African tropics.

Traveling over the Beit Bridge station, you cross the Zimbabwean border. Named after the mysterious ruins of Great Zimbabwe, in the east of the country, the world Zimbabwe means "place of stones". These ruins are believed to date from around 800 AD

This afternoon, after lunch, the train stops for a few hours (time permitting) in Bulawayo, where you will have the opportunity to tour the Museum of Natural History before returning to the station to re-board the train. (B,L,D)

Day 10 (Saturday) Rovos Train – Victoria Falls – Chobe National Park

Shortly after breakfast this morning, the train climbs higher to 2,994 feet and arrives at the little station of Victoria Falls, first accessed by railway in 1904.

You make the short drive just across the border into Botswana. This is a country of largely roadless wilderness of savannahs, deserts, wetlands and salt pans. Almost uniformly flat, the semi-arid Kalahari Desert covers nearly 85% of the country. To ensure the country’s natural assets are preserved, Botswana’s government has embraced a policy of limiting tourism.

Your destination today is the Chobe National Park. On the banks of the Chobe River is the most renowned lodge in Botswana. The world-class Chobe Game Lodge, of Moorish design, looks like a Mediterranean villa with its stucco exterior, soaring arches, and cascades of bougainvillea. After check-in, guests descend a stairway into the spacious split-level lounge for orientation and refreshments. Beige sofas and cushioned benches built into adobe-style walls look out onto the sunny patio and pool area. Private accommodations with terra cotta floors, woven rugs, stucco, and patios face landscaped lawns that roll down to the river’s edge. (B.L,D)

This morning, breakfast is served on the terrace. The game drives in open vehicles with professional guides, begin right at the front door of your guestroom. The Chobe covers 4,300 square miles and has a greater variety of wildlife than anywhere else in Botswana. Hippos, elephants, and buffalo wallow on the banks of the river.

Later in the afternoon and early evening, you have the unique opportunity to observe the wildlife from another perspective - on the Sundowner river cruise. (B,L,D)

Today you have another opportunity to drive along the riverfront on safari. An estimated 73,000 elephants, in herds of up to 500, live in the park. You have an excellent chance of a spotting lion, cheetah, hippo, buffalo, giraffe, antelope, jackal, warthog, hyena, crocodile, otter, or zebra.

This afternoon, you return to Zimbabwe and to Victoria Falls. You check into the elegant, Edwardian style Victoria Falls Hotel, overlooking the Victoria Falls Bridge and the gorges below. There is a tranquil atmosphere in the acres of private garden, and the opulent building is in the grandest of colonial styles with wide verandahs. A walk along the hotel’s private pathway leads to the top of the gorge and provides a magnificent view of the bridge crossing into Zambia. (B,L,D)

Called "mosi oa tunya", or "the smoke that thunders", by early inhabitants, you see the mighty Zambezi River as it flows, broad and placid, to the brink of a basalt tip several miles wide before taking a 330-foot plunge into the gorge below. The spray from the falls is bounced up as a permanent rain, nourishing the exotic vegetation forming a rain forest through which paths curl.

Later, during your short flight over the falls, you have a fabulous vista of the upstream river, its many streams, and the rapids downstream. If you want to shop, the Victoria Falls village and craft center is a 5-minute walk away.

Tonight, you and your travel companions are served a sumptuous barbecue dinner; and afterward, there is a fabulous display of traditional African dancing. (B,L,D)

Your unforgettable journey comes to an end as you are escorted to the airport to board the flight back to the States. (B)

Established in 1904, the historic Victoria Falls Hotel overlooks the Victoria Falls Bridge and the gorges below. With its Edwardian elegance, charm, and tranquil atmosphere, this luxury inn has earned international acclaim.