When you travel to a country for the first time there are many things that will take your breath away, the history, the culture, amazing scenery and food but there are few things that will forever remain with you and make you want to return.
There is no shortage of adjectives that can be used to describe the opulence that you will experience at Londolozi. There are many luxury safari lodges to choose from all of which promises a fabulous experience and game viewing of a lifetime!
But what impressed my husband and I the most about Londolozi and what truly blew us away were the very lovely people who we met and spent our time with at the lodge. Everyone at the camp was genuine and simply awesome to be around. Londolozi is the one place that we have travelled to where we felt like we were amongst friends and not like guests. We loved our camp managers Phil and Garrett and truly appreciated all that they did to make our stay amazing.
Our Ranger, Mark Nisbet and Tracker, Elmon Mlhongo were extremely knowledgeable. Elmon, I swear is one of the most humble guys you would ever meet, very quiet at times and when he assumes position at the front of the Land Rover it’s all eyes on the road and down to business but If you manage to catch him in conversation on one of the afternoon stops for sundowners, he opens up to tell some of the most intriguing stories about his experiences in the wild.
Mark, an incredibly fun guy, is easy going and makes you feel right at home. He shared with us some useful photography tips and we loved his ability to anticipate where the animals were heading and proceeded to the most strategic spots so that we could capture some quality wildlife images. We had the best time on our game drives, each one a different adventure.
We were lucky to spot this cheetah on two separate occasions.
Staring intently for its next meal.
All credits for this picture goes to our awesome ranger Mark who helped us with photography tips, which were very much appreciated!
African sunsets are truly magical.
Life at Londolozi – would you ever want to leave?
One day we were surprised with a picnic lunch on a tree house, a very serene experience with stunning views of the Sand River.
Our first leopard sighting – one of the oldest guys around.
We started the afternoon drive looking for lions but found this beauty instead… And again thanks to Mark for some of these beautiful pictures.
Resting after a long day.
And he is fast asleep!
With tracker and ranger, Elmon and Mark.
Another group photograph to remind us of some of the wonderful people we met.
One of the first things that Mark told us when he picked us from the airstrip was that everyone who visits Africa always dreams of returning and to be quite honest at that point we really didn’t believe him because we actually felt hat way about every place we have visited in the past but never actually went back because we all have a never ending list of places we want to visit. However, by the end of this trip, we definitely had a change of heart and we hope to join the Londolozi family again next year, same time.
Written and Photographed by: Tricia Soogrim.
Londolozi is truly an amazing experience. Awesome pics.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Pleased to hear that you will be visiting us again soon!
We also were fortunate to have Mark as our Ranger when we visited Londolozi last year, with Lucky as our Tracker, and it was fantastic getting to spend time with these two amazing guys. We hope to see them both again when we return next year, because Mark was right, once you’ve been to Africa, you will forever dream of returning…it becomes a part of you.
Sounds wonderful & the pictures are really out of this world. Thanks
Londolozi is heaven on earth. The people do make the place. I was lucky enough along with my husband to spend four nights at founders camp in August and our ranger was Don and tracker Judas. They too were a great pair and made the whole experience fantastic. They made us feel like part of a huge family. I can’t wait to return.
You are spot on, I stopped in September and given the luxury nature of Londolozi I worried that it might be rather cold (like one of it’s neighbours) – but it was very warm and down to earth.