A South African Family Safari

Having eagerly read much of the information in the office on South Africa, we decided to go and see for ourselves as a family. The family being my husband and myself and our two boys aged seven and nine. With three weeks to fill and a variety of tastes to cater for, we planned to start the trip in Cape Town, then onto the Waterberg Mountains in Limpopo Province, and finally to Madikwe on the Botswana border. All three are malaria free areas.

Cape Town really does live up to all the hype. Set against the backdrop of Table Mountain, with its wild beaches and rugged coastline, it?s like no other city I?ve visited. Accommodation varies from grand five star hotels to the hundreds of bed and breakfasts all over the city. Since grand hotels and small boys don?t generally mix, we decided to go for the B&B option. So from our very comfortable B&B base in Constantia with its own pool we had ten days in which to explore.

There had been press reports before we left about the dangers of travelling in South Africa, and I did wonder whether we should go or not. However, once we arrived, we felt just as safe as we do in the UK. Driving was very straightforward and we managed with a simple tourist map. Highlights for the children were the beach at Fishhoek where they surfed for hours, Boulders Bay where they swam with penguins, and a wonderful boat trip where we barbecued and enjoyed the crayfish on board. Another hit was the Scratch Patch at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, a small cave-like room which has a floor covered in semi-precious stones. You pay for a bag and then cram as many stones into it as you can (our youngest asked whether it was OK to fill his pockets too). For any budding geologists, it?s a must.

From an adult perspective, the Constantia wine estates with their graceful Cape Dutch architecture are really lovely. The old City dock area of Cape Town has been re-developed into the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront; it?s full of life, and a fun place to eat and shop. Cape Point Nature Reserve was something we all enjoyed; there are one or two good beaches, a few animals (the baboons caused much excitement) and Cape Point itself is spectacular.

The wineland areas of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, about an hour from Cape Town, are stunning, with great restaurants, shops and galleries. Many of the wine estates en route are open to visitors and you can both picnic there and wander through the grounds.

From Cape Town we flew up to Johannesburg and then drove north west about four hours to the Waterberg Mountains. Our destination was Ant?s Nest, a privately run game lodge that is booked on an exclusive basis by a single group. As far as we were all concerned, it was heaven. The boys could run free, I could ride and my husband even managed to get in a bit of stalking (an unsuccessful but much talked about warthog hunt). We spent a truly blissful four days here dividing our time between riding (horses for all abilities), game drives, bush walks, swimming and generally relaxing and mucking about.

The lodge is set in an area that varies from wide open grass plains to steeply wooded hillsides. It was farmland until relatively recently, and the current owners have reintroduced a large number of antelope species as well as giraffe, rhino and zebra. Riding among these animals at sunset on New Year?s Eve is something I shall not forget in a hurry.

The wonderful thing about having the lodge to ourselves was that we could be totally flexible about what we did and when. If the children didn?t want to ride early in the morning or evening, they would be taken on their own game drive instead. They drove (with assistance) the vehicles, game viewed from the back of a motorbike, pretended they were cowboys in the bush, swam with horses and shot on the small private shooting range on land that is adjacent to Ant?s. It will certainly be a while before I find somewhere that beats this as such a complete family destination. After visits by my family and others to Ant?s, there is now a queue of small children, boys in particular, waiting to give up school and go to work there.

For our final four days, we drove four hours west to the Madikwe Game Reserve on the border with Botswana. Again it is malaria free, and we had chosen to stay first at Jaci?s Safari Lodge and then at Jaci?s Tree Lodge. Both properties (run by the owners Jaci & Jan Van Heteren) welcome families with children from any age. The safari lodge is a tented camp approached via a rope bridge over a small river. This entrance made quite a dramatic impact on the children who really had no idea what to expect from a safari. They were amazed and delighted to find that our tent was rather bigger and more luxurious than the one they use in the garden. When we moved to the tree lodge, we had an even larger cottage-style room, and they spent great deal of time in the enormous outside shower watching the vervet monkeys scurrying around the walkways.

Their response to game viewing was more surprising. My eldest son just loved everything about it and couldn?t wait for the next game drive. He wasn?t phased by elephants literally feet away or lions roaring by the bonnet of the vehicle. At the end of four days, he was able to distinguish between most of the antelope species and was even getting into the birds. The youngest was of the impression that once you?d seen one elephant what was the point of seeing more. We plugged him into a Walkman and with a constant supply of fizzy drinks he too sat very happily during the game drives. Our guide was very good-natured and even made Zulu spears for the boys.

In summary, we had a tremendous three weeks and we all want to go back for more. The huge diversity of activities, from swimming with penguins, to wine tasting, to riding in the bush made us feel that we had been away much longer than three weeks. In terms of a family holiday, there really was something for all of us and we shall all remember it for some time to come.

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Charlotte Opperman first visited Africa on honeymoon in Kenya, when a love of Africa (and hopefully her husband) was born. She has since visited Botswana, Namibia and the Seychelles. Charlotte has also tested a number of our trips with her husband and two sons. So far they have visited Mauritius, South Africa (twice) and Kenya, so she is a great person to talk to if wanting to travel to Africa with children. A keen horsewoman Charlotte rides and competes regularly, and has ridden in both Southern and East Africa. Her desire for comfort in unspoilt surroundings makes her a good yardstick when planning a safari for many of our clients. Her close attention to detail ensures our clients never leave home unprepared.