South Africa 2017 - Final Thoughts

What a trip! Thanks for all the amazing photos. Now, we all want to go on this adventure and will want the details for your post-days.
How long were you gone all together?
 
Wow!! That is really amazing! All those animals, right there, all together in the same place. Botswana looks fantastic!

You finished this report while *at* the airport?? *That's* devotion! :thumbsup2

Waiting for you China report.... ;)

Sayhello
 
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What amazing photos and a fabulous trip report! We were thinking of skipping Botswana due to limited vacations days, but your photos have convinced me otherwise. The delta just looks incredible. Those elephants! It is so different from Kapama.

Thank you for taking the time to write this amazing trip report. South Africa here we come (in 2019)! Enjoy China!
 


Wow. Posting from the airport is really going above and beyond. I'm going to feel like a slug when it takes me 6 months to post my own trip report next summer.

I'm very jealous of the Botswana portion of your post-trip. I've wanted to go to Botswana since reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books in college. Sadly, I don't think we'll have a big enough budget for a post-trip (unless my husband's novels get published, which I keep hoping for). I'm glad your son got to see a 5 star animal. It seems like you had cooperative wildlife throughout the trip.

I'm curious about Kapama. Some of the reviews I've read were critical of the fact that it is not connected to Kruger. But I've read elsewhere that the fences between the reserve and the park were coming down to create a contiguous open area for animals. Did you see fences at all? Did you feel like you were missing out on anything by being at a private reserve vs. Kruger?

Thank you again for doing such an amazing detailed review.
 


What a trip! Thanks for all the amazing photos. Now, we all want to go on this adventure and will want the details for your post-days.
How long were you gone all together?

Thanks! We were gone 18 days including flights. The Victoria Falls and Botswana amounted to 5 post days in total if you include the 2 days spent at Johannesburg airport.

Wow!! That is really amazing! All those animals, right there, all together in the same place. Botswana looks fantastic!

You finished this report while *at* the airport?? *That's* devotion! :thumbsup2

Waiting for you China report.... ;)

Sayhello

I'm not sure how I'll do China. I'd like to report back, but I doubt I'll do it while on the trip. It may be something I do more as a summary or comparison on the regular China ABD. Sitting in Taipei waiting for my short hop to HK. Stay tuned to FB!

What amazing photos and a fabulous trip report! We were thinking of skipping Botswana due to limited vacations days, but your photos have convinced me otherwise. The delta just looks incredible. Those elephants! It is so different from Kapama.

Thank you for taking the time to write this amazing trip report. South Africa here we come (in 2019)! Enjoy China!

If you're going to Vic Falls, I'd strongly recommend a day trip to Botswana. It probably deserves more, but you have to draw the line somewhere. 3 nights in Vic Falls worked out well. I could have used another day in fact.

Great report! Have a wonderful time in China...

Thank you!!

Yay, you did it! It's an awesome trip report. ABD should hire you :) Have a great time on your China redux. Can't wait to hear about the comparison between your two trips.

Thanks. Super excited to be going back to China. I'm sure I'll get some type of comparison up.

Wow. Posting from the airport is really going above and beyond. I'm going to feel like a slug when it takes me 6 months to post my own trip report next summer.

I'm very jealous of the Botswana portion of your post-trip. I've wanted to go to Botswana since reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books in college. Sadly, I don't think we'll have a big enough budget for a post-trip (unless my husband's novels get published, which I keep hoping for). I'm glad your son got to see a 5 star animal. It seems like you had cooperative wildlife throughout the trip.

I'm curious about Kapama. Some of the reviews I've read were critical of the fact that it is not connected to Kruger. But I've read elsewhere that the fences between the reserve and the park were coming down to create a contiguous open area for animals. Did you see fences at all? Did you feel like you were missing out on anything by being at a private reserve vs. Kruger?

Thank you again for doing such an amazing detailed review.

Good luck with your husband's novels! Not having been to Kruger, it's impossible for me to compare them. In my mind I would think they're quite similar, but who knows? At Kapama, you don't see any fences or gates except when you first enter. The land is massive. We drove for hours and to my knowledge never went to the same place twice. Even the landscape changed pretty dramatically as you driver further and further out. That's something that probably isn't conveyed well in my photos. One thing I'm sure of now having been to Africa, is the experiences that one can have is almost infinite. The differences between the south coast of SA and the area around Kruger and Zimbabwe and Botswana. They're all very different. I'd love to go back and visit more places. I've seen friends experiences at other reserves which more leopards and the occasional cheetah which would be cool to see. But as a whole, the ABD with it's time in Cape Town and the Garden Route and Kapama.. it was remarkable.

I'm with Gavin, would have been thrilled to see Rikki Tikki Tavi!



One of my intern classmates was Dr Livingston and she heard this quote Every Single Day. No surprise that she changed her name (unlike most of us) when she married :)

LOL. Too funny. She didn't marry a Stanley did she?
 
LOVE your Botswana pics. I can't believe you saw lions so close to the warthogs. That's crazy. I loved watching warthogs run with their tails up in the air - our guide said they were always in a hurry to go nowhere!

I am very excited for our trip to S. Africa and Botswana next year. The ecosystems look so different. I am not terribly excited about the night at the Inter Continental, but it is the only way to get to Botswana from S. Africa. Your experience there made me feel a bit better about it.

Have a great time in China!
 
Thanks for sharing another wonderful trip report! Your post trip to Victoria Falls and Botswana looked even more exciting than the ABD trip. Great planning. Enjoy China.
 
I'm not sure how I'll do China. I'd like to report back, but I doubt I'll do it while on the trip. It may be something I do more as a summary or comparison on the regular China ABD. Sitting in Taipei waiting for my short hop to HK. Stay tuned to FB!

I hope you won't mind writing a summary of extras in China (pre, post, and OYO) as well as tips for the Parks. That with SayHello's awesome report and (I hope) Calypso's will help me get ready for 2019!
 
Fantastic trip report and phenomenal pictures! Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to your feedback on China since we are doing that one next year! Have fun!!!
 
Final Thoughts

I feel this report ended a bit abruptly with the rush to get on my China ABD. Anyway, some final thoughts...

The next morning we went back out to the Falls briefly before grabbing an early lunch and our transfer back to the airport. We had to fly back to Johannesburg and spend the night before flying home. Again, that was a pain to be in hotel purgatory. But overall the trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana were very much worth it.

Africa is now my favorite ABD. I truly think it is the best trip Disney as a company offers right now. It is definitely more exotic than the European ABD's. It also requires a lot of time. So, it's not for everyone. But if you ultimately want to see something completely different, something enchanting, then South Africa is for you. I would love to do this ABD again someday. Although, I'd love it even more if ABD would change the itinerary to include Vic Falls. Other groups do it, so I'm sure it's possible. If it wasn't for the flight, I probably go back to Africa yearly.

As for the future, we had originally booked Iceland, but I recently changed this to Spain for 2018, which I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now. Our next trip in a couple of months is to Portugal, but that will be on our own and not through ABD. I'm hoping like many here that Japan will be offered by ABD. While I'd love to go, I don't know if I have the energy to shuffle our kids and luggage around on our own there.

Until next time. Thanks for following along!
 
I'm hoping like many here that Japan will be offered by ABD. While I'd love to go, I don't know if I have the energy to shuffle our kids and luggage around on our own there.

We are doing Japan with Thomson Family Adventures in June. Looks like a pretty good itinerary, although light on Tokyo so we will go early to do some stuff on our own in Tokyo. Plus we plan on spending a couple of days in the Fujikawara area to climb Mt. Fuji and see the sunrise. I'll post about the Thomson offering when we get back.
 
We are doing Japan with Thomson Family Adventures in June. Looks like a pretty good itinerary, although light on Tokyo so we will go early to do some stuff on our own in Tokyo. Plus we plan on spending a couple of days in the Fujikawara area to climb Mt. Fuji and see the sunrise. I'll post about the Thomson offering when we get back.

Please do! We are booked with Thomson Family Adventures for Japan in 2020. Would love your feedback on the TFA portion of the trip but also the days you are adding for Tokyo and Mt. Fuji, because we are likely to do both as well.
 

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