The Famous "Big Five"

Originally used only by hunters, the term 'Big Five' refers to five of Africa's greatest wild animals - lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino.

As during the bygone hunting era the term "Big Five" still conjure up the romance and excitement of Africa's exotic destinations and experiences.

Imagine watching the sun set over the horizon whilst you capture the moment of a pride of lions stalking their prey.

Watching a buffalo strolling to a water hole with strength and size that makes it more likely to kill a human than any other mammal.

The rhino, which is almost extinct, with its extraordinary horns and bad temper. And the leopard with its beauty and remarkable speed and skill to hunt.

Many travellers regard a visit to South Africa as incomplete without having spotted, and perhaps photographed, the Big Five.

The Big Five - legends of the wilderness which have become synonymous with Africa.

Brainteaser

Kagga Kamma Game Reserve

Ceres, Western Cape, South Africa

Escape from the pressures of modern life and retreat to Kagga Kamma, located in the peaceful southern Cederberg Mountains. Away from mobile phones, traffic pollution, highways and city lights you will breathe a sigh and enjoy the silence and starlit skies.

The stunning location of the lodge was once home to the Bushmen, today many of their ancient cave paintings are still clearly visible on the rocks, (some dating back 6,000 years).

This spiritual land offers spectacular scenery, majestic mountains, strange rock formations and phenomenal night skies, where the Milky Way, billions of stars, planets, satellites and shooting stars may be seen by the naked eye.

Outdoor suite

Bushmen Lodge

Bushmen Lodge offers a choice of accommodation; there are five spacious en suite thatched rondavels, suitable for families with children.

There are also ten unique 'cave suites'; these have a private terrace, en suite bathrooms and twin beds. Built against the mountain, the buildings blend perfectly with the surrounding landscape, to the point of almost being invisible.

The canyon

The lodge has a restaurant for breakfast and lunch and an outdoor lapa for dinner under the starlit night skies. There is a cosy bar and an outdoor garden perfect for relaxing and sipping a cool drink.

Interesting rock formations surrounds the sparkling swimming pool. A well-stocked curio shop is available to purchase that essential souvenir of your stay.

Health and Beauty Spa

The Health and Beauty Spa provides the perfect opportunity to take time out and de-stress. They offer a wide range of treatments including deluxe manicures and pedicures, hot stone therapy and luxury facials.

Unique to Kagga Kamma is Fynbos Therapy, incorporating the finest essential oils indigenous to the fynbos area. A fynbos essential oil massage is all you need to take your mind and body on a journey of relaxation.

Dining under the stars

Activities

·         Guided walks and drives

To maximise your experience of this unique land, our expert rangers will interpret the Bushmen paintings and their fascinating ancient culture, on guided walks and drives.

·         Other inclusive activities during your stay include a sundowner drink with breathtaking views and morning and night nature/game drives to spot resident species, such as, Black Wildebeest, Ostrich, Zebra, Springbok, Bontebok, Gemsbok and many other antelope species including the huge Eland.

·         Stargazing

See the stars and planets closer than ever at our Mini-Observatory. Their resident expert will ensure you get the best possible views of the night skies through our 10-inch telescope, including close up views of the moon and planets and other deep space objects.

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Morgan’s Bay

Described as an 'Eastern Cape paradise', Morgan's Bay lies 10 minutes' away from the Kei River mouth and an hour from East London. This is a beautiful part of the coastline that unsurprisingly forms part of the Wild Coast given its dramatic, rugged cliffs, known as Morgan Bay cliffs. A long stretch of sandy beach reportedly offers a mile's worth of walking, beachcombing (look out for Cornelian beads and the odd piece of Ming china along Bead beach where the Santo Espirito is thought to have been wrecked) and swimming.

What makes this part of the world particularly beautiful is the wide diversity of fauna and flora, mainly due to the fact that it lies in a portion of the Eastern Cape in which 5 different biomes meet. This means that you're surrounded by fynbos, grasslands, forests, valley thickets and semi-desert scrub. In turn this supports a myriad animals and just the bird list for Morgan's Bay is 271 species.

Morgan's Bay boasts one of the prettiest lagoons, which allows for protected swimming but also gives one access to an incredible bird life that includes the call of the fish eagle, for this is the seasonal breeding ground for these birds as well as crowned cranes.

On the other side of the beach from the lagoon rise the dolerite cliffs that extend for about 4 kilometres along the beach to the Double Mouth Nature Reserve and provide hours of rock climbing. There are guided walks and eco horse trails among the myriad attractions for the little beachside village and a hikes to Double Mouth. On the other side of Morgans Bay from Kei Mouth lies Haga Haga and the Cape Henderson Nature Reserve.

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Visit the District Six Museum (District Six, Cape Town Central)

District Six was so named as it was literally the Sixth District of the Western Cape in 1867. District Six was so loved as a community of colourful characters.

A friendly mix of artisans, freed slaves, free spirits, labourers and locals living harmoniously were forcefully removed from their rightful city homes and re-settled in barren Cape outskirts during an unthinkable period in South African Apartheid history commencing in 1901. Over 60 000 residents fell victim to the government at the time who reduced homes to rubble without cause or resurrection. An award winning community project the District Six Museum welcomes evicted residents to make a mark in chalk on a map hand painted on the floor to show where their home once stood and what their hearts still mourn.

Storytelling of former residents interacts as a live history recreating the vibrancy that turned to desolation. Tactile images of loss are held in this old church building where slaves once worshipped. Authentic street signs mark 75 roads that labelled paths of diverse religious acceptance. A 300m memory cloth absorbs the ink of ex-residents contributions to memory lane. Built on a fabric of healing so that bare recollections prevent such devastating from repetition, this brush with a haunting past is a moving museum experience.

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Namaqualand, Northern Cape

Regarded as a portion of the Succulent Karoo, Namakwa forms part of the only arid hotspot in the world; is regarded as a biodiversity hotspot, and as such boasts the richest succulent flora on Earth. It extends from the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast, to the little town of Pofadder in the east, to the Orange River in the north, south to Garies, and includes the Hantam Karoo, along the southern border of the Northern Cape.

The Namakwa region of the Northern Cape is imbued with the story of the Namaqualand daisies; a brimming over of fertile flowers that transform the almost lifeless Namakwa into an exquisite floral display of beauty during spring. One for which people are more than willing to enter the hinterland of South Africa’s Northern Cape, to discover that the unspoilt vastness of Namaqualand and Hantam Karoo, which make up Namakwa, is far more than an area of sweltering extremes and dry earth under unforgiving skies.

Namakwa is indeed a thirsty earth, but one that is fascinating to travel. For visitors the explosion of wild flowers along the flower route from Springbok’s Goegap Nature Reserve to Kamieskroon’s Skilpad Wild Flower Reserve, is a phenomenon that combines incredible landscapes through remote little towns, like Pofadder, the Richtersveld National Park, the Hester Malan Wild Flower Garden, and the Namaqua National Park. The narrow window between July and September, in which the Namkwa casts off its dowdy desert cloak to transform its barrenness, relies heavily on good rainfall just before spring.

But then the Namakwa is not its flowers alone. Little historic towns that include quaint names like Kamieskroon, Aggeneys, Garies and Nieuwoudtville, are as much a part of the landscape as the incredible flora.

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Port Alfred

Port Alfred is a popular seaside South African holidays resort on the banks of the Kowie River, with its trademark arched bridge, and is affectionately referred to by residents as The Kowie. With its expanses of sandy beach and the river – navigable by small craft for 25 km – water-sport enthusiasts are attracted by the marina and excellent opportunities for swimming, angling, water-skiing, surfing and scuba diving. The town developed on the eastern bank of the river around the harbour established in the 1820s to provide a port for the 1820 Settlers.

It was originally named Port Frances, after the daughter-in-law of Lord Charles Somerset. A treacherous sandbank at the river mouth, however, hampered the development of the port, and contributed to its closure towards the end of the 1800s. The town was renamed after Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, when he visited the Eastern Cape in 1867. Among the town’s many historic reminders are the original sneezewood bollard where ships tied up, the old mill on the western bank of the river, the drift where the 1820 Settlers crossed the Kowie River and the Methodist Church, built in 1823.

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Lakeview Holiday Home Hermanus

Lakeview Holiday Home Hermanus is a luxury four-bedroomed home located in Vermont on the edge of a lake which is home to a bird sanctuary. Lakeview is just a five-minute walk from the sea and 11 km from the quaint holiday village of Hermanus, South Africa's whale-watching capital.

The self-catering home can accommodate up to eight guests in four bedrooms. All the the bedrooms are en-suite, three of them containing showers and the fourth containing a bath. The house features a fully equipped, open-plan kitchen leading onto a lounge and dining area with a flat screen TV with DStv and local channels. Wi-Fi Internet connection is also available. Additional features include a laundry, barbecue facilities on the patio, an on-site garage, and off-street parking for up to four vehicles.

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