Nine Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari XI

9 Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari (20 to 28 Feb 2020) Trip Report Menu

Day 1: Singapore – Stellenbosch
Day 2: Stellenbosch – Stony Point – Cape Town
Day 3: Cape Town – Old Biscuit Mill & Super Rugby
Day 4: Cape Town – Lion’s Head
Day 5: Cape Town – Bo Kaap, Chapman’s Drive, Cape Peninsula, Muizenberg, La Colombe
Day 6: Cape Town – Phinda
Day 7: Phinda
Day 8: Phinda
Day 9: Phinda – Singapore

Day 9: Phinda – Singapore

We woke up to a wet morning but missing out on the game drive wasn’t an option. The rain went down to a drizzle by the time we started.

Muddy roads with giant hippo footprints

Due to the road condition, we weren’t able to go off-road and thus limited to the main tracks. We would spend a long time by the lake, observing the hippos, crocodiles and birds. Even witnessed the kingfisher hunting.

The rain would get heavier and we had to put on the ponchos. We also discovered that it was possible to take photographs through the binoculars.

Zooming in on the munching giraffe

Who’s looking at me?

While traveling on the main axis, Sifiso suddenly got Grant to stop and pointed to a tree on the right. These spotters were really amazing with their ability to find the animals!

It was the same leopard whom we saw yesterday and it was still hunting. There were two impalas on the left side of the axis and Sifiso shared that he noticed that they kept looking in the direction of the tree. Their sharp sense of hearing led us to find the hungry predator.

A hungry leopard is an angry leopard

With the impalas skipping away, the leopard also came down the tree and disappeared into the bushes.

We had to cut short our last game drive and returned to the lodge earlier as Mrs had a job interview over video call at 9am. We arrived back at the lodge at 8.15am, with time for a quick breakfast.

Unlike Mountain Lodge where there is a nice buffet spread, Rock Lodge offered a sampler of cold cuts, toasts, fruits and cheeses together with hot breakfast with eggs.

Although there were some minor issues during the stay, our experience at Phinda far exceeded our expectations. The staff at the lodges were all very eager to please and tried to make our stay as comfortable as possible. Despite the heat for some of the days, we really enjoyed the game drives with the knowledgeable rangers and spotters. Mrs was already talking about visiting other safari destinations.

The drive back to Durban Airport took a fair bit longer due to the rain; there were some stretches where the visibility was down to almost zero.

One last animal sighting in Phinda: Cape buffaloes

Grabbed a Coke for the journey back to Durban

We made a stop for lunch at Ballito Junction Regional Mall before driving the last 20km or so to Durban Airport.

Our flight BA 6212 was operated by ZS-ZWR, another 737-800 and departed on-time at 5.25pm.

It was an uneventful flight to Johannesburg and we would have four hours before next flight out.

We had been talking about trying Nando’s in its place of origin and finally did so at Johannesburg Airport.

We did walk around the airport for a fair bit before clearing the security and immigration. After Mrs got some souvenir from the Out of Africa store, we used our Priority Pass to access Bidvest Premier Lounge where we could shower and drink one final Fitch and Leedes lemonade.

Made our way through the concourse and boarding would start shortly after we arrived.

My strategy was to nap a few hours before staying up since it was already day time in Singapore. One of the content which I watched was a BBC programme about the luxurious The Silo Hotel in Cape Town. It didn’t only just talk about the accommodation but also discussed about the socio-economic issues facing modern-day South Africa.

Inflight meal of chicken noodles

Flying over one of the Riau islands

Flight route

We were glad that we were able to do this trip before the world began to lock down due to COVID-19. Hopefully the situation would improve soon and this wouldn’t be our only overseas travel of 2020.