South Africa: The Sand Forest at Phinda

 

This tawny eagle was scanning the landscape where the woods ended and a grassy plain began.

       The last stop on our 2026 trip to Africa got off to a bad start. We flew from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to Johannesburg, South Africa, where we were to connect for a flight to Richards Bay, on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa. Unfortunately, the plane at Victoria Falls was a hour and a half late, wiping out our chance of making the Richards Bay flight. Both flights were on Airlink, a South African carrier with a good reputation.  The airline put us up at an Anew hotel a half-hour or so away from the airport for a night that we had planned to spend enjoying our glass-walled cabin at Phinda Forest Lodge. At Phinda, we missed a dinner, one full night, breakfast and a morning game drive, all of which we had paid for months in advance.  But we still had three nights here. 

         The morning after the missed connection, we had to leave Anew for the Johannesburg airport before breakfast was availble. We did, however, make it to Forest Lodge just in time for a very late lunch and then an afternoon game drive. 

       Phinda (pronounced PIN-dah) is a private game reserve operated by the eco-resort company &Beyond, which also has properties from Antarctica to Asia to the Indian Ocean and, well, beyond. Forest Lodge, one of several &Beyond lodges at Phinda, dates to 1993 and was desgined to have a minimal impact on its unusual environment, a rare sand forest. Centuries or millennia ago, the sand formed beach dunes, but now the sea, the Indian Ocean, is kilometers to the east. The many buildings at Forest Lodge are spaced out, so that all 16 guest cabins have plenty of privacy despite having some all-glass walls. The several common buildings and the cabins share what I took to be a Japanese aesthetic. Everything is connected by sandy paths winding through what trees and other vegetation will grow in the white sand. I would call this an eco-resort with game drives.  There's certainly nothing camp-like about it. 

         In fact, it felt more like a hotel in that guests here didn't mingle and share dining tables as they often do at safari camps. We met two couples from Durban and a family with three children from Cape Town. I think Forest Lodge is a "White Lotus" getaway for some South Africaners, though everyone seems to go on at least one game drive a day.  The Durban couples were both on our first afternoon and then our first morning game drives. The older couple, who had lost count of how many times they had stayed at various Phinda lodges, left after lunch to drive the three-and-a-half hours home. The other couple and we continued to share a safari vehicle but that was about it.

        I know this is a very First World complaint: I thought the staff was friendly to the point of pandering. There's no reason we needed a "butler," who essentially was just our waiter every time we sat down in the dining area.  We did not need or even open the full-size bottles of Amarula, Jameson's, Tanquerey, etc., in our room. I think they're trying for a wow factor with the over-stocked minibar, fresh fruits, etc.  Forest Lodge's "tipping suggestions" of people whom we were expected to tip was more than double that of our simpler safari camps. It all reminded me of our only other safari experience in South Africa.  In 2016 we stayed a few days at Simbambili, a luxury lodge in Sabi Sands, another private game reserve. 

      That said, the game viewing was excellent.  Our guide, Nick, was assisted by a tracker or spotter who sat in a seat bolted to the front of the converted Toyota Land Cruiser. Together, and often with assistance via radio from other Phinda rangers (as guides are called in South Africa), we saw elephants, lions, a cheetah, hyenas, giraffes, white rhinos, Cape buffalo, various antelopes and more. Every game drive produced several significant sightings.  And as I've said in other posts, there a few things better than a safari game drive. 

     Here are some photos:

On a morning game drive everyone in our
vehicle was thrilled to be able to slowly
follow as this elegant cheetah seemed
to be hunting along a Phinda road.

We had seen a herd of impalas before bumping into
the cheetah about a mile away. It walked slowly,
scanning the woodlands on both sides of the road. 

Eventually the cheetah left the road and headed into the woods. The ranger said it was 
unusual to get to view a moving cheetah for such a long time. 

   

A traffic jam in the bush. Elephants, rhinos and other beasts travel
on the same roads used by safari vehicles. 

Why did the elephant cross the road? 

Our vehicle inched along as we followed the cattle
egrets, who were accompanying a white rhino.

Even in a private game reserve, rhinos have to be protected
from poachers by having their valuable horns cut off. 
When poachers harvest the horns, they kill the animal
and take the horn's stump, too. 

A day later and on the other side of Phinda we came across this white rhino mom with
a calf that our guide said might be less than a year old. For some reason, the adult here
has retained more of her horns than usual. Although Phinda says it has black rhinos,
which are smaller, we didn't see any.

Our most memorable wildlife sighting at Phinda was watching a pride of lions
devouring an impala carcass. 

A trace of blood is visible on this lion's muzzle after
feeding on the impala. 

After eating, the lions ambled about 100 meters to a watering hole. 

This spotted hyena and her pups lived in a den just off a main trail. No tracking needed
to find them unless for some reason they weren't at home. 

We saw giraffes on every game drive at Phinda, 
sometimes close, sometimes in the distance.

Zebras were also seen on every game drive. 

Female nyala, almost as common as impalas at Phinda.

The male nyala is a very regal antelope.

I find the mongoose very hard to photograph because
they move so fast. But this one stopped for a moment.

Hippos seem to stay in the water most of the day and come out at night to graze.

This Natal red duiker was browsing near
our cabin at Phinda Forest Lodge. It's one
of Africa's smallest antelope.

We saw several lone Cape buffalo as well as a herd.

A crowned hornbill. Phinda says it has more than 
400 species of birds.

On a morning drive we came upon a huge tree with families of baboons such as this
on almost every limb. They all seemed to be just starting their day.

Vehicles, rangers and spotters are ready for more game drives.

The time stamp shows that even before 9:30am Forest Lodge is ready to keep guests well
lubricated. This surprise brunch came in the middle of game drives one morning and
brought all the lodge's guests together.

The end of the day also means alcohol. Our ranger and spotter preside over a "sundowner"
bar that had been set up and waiting for us when we reached this scenic spot. 
 When we were done, they packed everything into a crate for someone else to pick up. 

Zimbabwe: Safaris at Davison's Camp

 

We saw this male ostrich several times on game drives at Davison's, or at least we thought it was
the same ostrich. Sometimes it was accompanied by two females. 

           During our 2026 trip to Africa, one of our most pleasant stops was three nights at Davison's, a safari camp in Zimbabwe's game-rich Hwange National Park. It's operated by Wilderness Destinations, the company that helped us plan our trip and was the second of two Wilderness camps that we stayed at. 

       Here you're greeted every day at 5:30am by someone yelling "Good Morning" outside your tent, which is more like a cabin with a thatch roof and canvas walls. The hinged door provided much better access than unzipping flaps. Then a simple breakfast around the fire pit, which for my money was the best meal of the day. By 6:30 you're bounding into the bush hoping to see lions and other wildlife as they start their day. Then return to camp for lunch, a rest,  and back into the bush until sunset. To me, there are few things that compare with safari game drives, especially ones where you see lots of animals. "Sundowner" cocktails and snacks in the bush are de rigueur.

        Our guide here, Paul, didn't have to work too hard to find giraffes and zebras. There are multitudes of both. Lions were found through radio contact with other guides. A highlight was finding an elephant with three of her offspring, an addolesent female and a pair of months-old twins. Paul said he had never seen elephant twins before. We had thought we'd see elephants at Davison's pumped watering hole right in front of the camp, but 2026's unusally wet rainy season had left too many natural watering holes out in the bush, and the camp's attracted few customers. 

      One characteristic of Wilderness camps is a focus on local culture. I think that Paul is probably encouraged to share stories about his life, being raised first by his grandmother and then by another family in his village, gathering termites, cooking and eating them, and more. He knocked a hole in a termite mound to show us its occupants. Paul said he worked four weeks straight, then two weeks off to be with his family.  That seems to be the situation for most guides at safari camps. 

    Here are some pictures:

Odd birds are among the many delights of safaris. This is a secretary bird, so named because
 the headfeathers  are thought to resemble pencils stuck behind a secretary's ear. 

This yellow-billed hornbill was one of many that we saw at 
Hwange National Park. It's called "the flying banana."

This was one of a pride of lions we saw on a Davison's safari. It was mid-morning and they
were mostly napping, though some walked around a bit and some looked directly at us.

Zebras (in Africa they're called ZEH-bras) are always a treat to see. We saw several mother-foal duos such as this. 

     

A adult female, left, with three of her offspring, including months-old twins. 

The twins are protected by their mother and their older sibling.

The kori bustard is another of Africa's large birds.

  

The Cape buffalo is one of the "Big Five" of African game animals, the five animals that posed
the biggest challenges for big-game hunters a century or more ago: lion, leopard,
rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. 

Namibia: The Sands of Sossusvlei

 

It was a photo similar to this on the cover of a Namibia guidebook that got me
interested in Sossusvlei. How can these red dunes survive wind, ocassional 
rain and the passage of time? Human footprints are quickly erased.

     Africa is, I think, the most intriguing of continents.  From the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania to the wonders along the Nile, its historical records are the world's oldest. Its Saharan deserts, its tropical jungles and its endless plains are home to much of our most iconic wildlife. And its peoples, long abused by colonial powers and slave traders, today are finding their own paths in the 21st century.  We first went on safaris in 2016; our 2026 trip was to different areas.

     I don't think Namibia makes it into many Americans' safari plans, though there are a number of desert safari camps and there is some wildlife to be seeen.  Namibia, which is twice the size of California but with fewer than 3 million people, is the dryest African country south of the Sahara and the most sparsly populated..  From the air it appears as multi-colored endless desert, punctuated by bright white salt pans. At  Sossusvlei, white salt pans are surrounded by towering red sand dunes, the highest dunes in the world, as tall as 1,300 feet or 400 meters. We were there to see this unique landscape, but there's more here than the dunes. There are miles and miles of nearly barren plains overlooked by small mountain ranges. The plains were where we saw wildlife. 

     On May 2, 2026, a Saturday, we flew Airlink from Johannesburg to Windhoek, the capital of Nimibia, where we boarded a Wilderness Air flight (aboard a 12-passenger single-engine Cessna Caravan) for Sossusvlei. All the other passengers were headed to a wildlife conservation meeting at Little Kulala, one of two camps there operated by Wilderness, the company that had helped plan our trip. We were at their other camp, Kulala Desert Lodge. "Same guides, same food," a Kulala guide said when we asked about the difference between the two camps. 

     Here we stayed three nights in a thatch-roofed cabin that had a small roof deck for guests who wanted to sleep under the stars. It was too cold to even think of that, but the starry skies at Sossusvlei are amazing thanks to its extremely dry air. Everyone was happy to point out the Southern Cross and other constellations to us. The Milky Way was visible in a way I've seldom seen before. As for the "same food," the cuisine reflects the emphasis Wilderness places on local culture. While there were no game dishes, there were unusual greens and other vegegables. And one night staff members sang and danced during dinner. I used to wince at such displays, thinking of people of color being ordered to entertain guests. But here the staff seemed to enjoy it even more than the guests. 

       Our guide, Castro ("You can call me Fidel," he joked) took us and two other couples, one from Arizona and one from Nashville, on drives through the dunes with opportunities to climb. Since I was nursing a minor leg injury, I did as little walking as possible, but Jane and the others ascended "Big  Daddy," at least part of the way up, and made their way through dunes to DeadVlei, a canyon of mummified trees. When a shifting water pattern a thousand years ago caused the trees to die, the climate was too dry for them to rot in the normal way, They simply turned into black monuments to their own destruction. 

     As for wildlife, we saw impala, jackals, oryx, weaver birds, wildebeast (blue gnus) and more. A literal highpoint of our time there was when Castro wrestled our safari vehicle, a converted Toyota Hilux four-wheel drive, up a mountain to the very top for our "sundowner" drinks. A memorable ride and a memorable view. 

     If someone planning their first-ever safari trip asked for advice, I probably wouldn't suggest Namibia. But if you've already checked off all the wildlife you want to see, start a list of deserts and put Sossusvlei on it.

     Here are some photos:

As seen from the air near Sossusvlei, a dry riverbed separates red and white sands. 

Accommodations at Kulala Desert Lodge are in thatch-roofed cabins. The one 
in the foreground was ours. 

At Kulala, our bed faced the entrance in a typical layout for safari
tents and cabins. The bathroom was at the rear behind the bed. 

Wildebeest and impala seen on a safari out of Kulala Desert Lodge. 

An oryx, one of Africa's many kinds of antelope. In areas with
hyenas, one might find detached oryx horns on the ground.
They're the only part of this animal that bone-chomping
hyenas don't consume. 

Hikers approach one of the many dunes at Sossusvlei.

It's a long climb to the top of a dune. The soft sand makes it even more difficult.
Climbers are told to step into the footprints of people ahead of them.

Our guide stopped on a drive to let us get a 
close look at weaver birds' gigantic nest. 

The gigantic structures have many openings into individual
nests. The tiny weaver birds are constantly expanding or
rebuilding the nests.

 

Hikers enter a ravine near Sossusvlei.

One of the many black-backed jackals that we saw near Kulala Desert Lodge. 

Our Kulala Desert Lodge driver managed to get our safari vehicle to the top of one of the nearby
mountains where he set out a "sundowner" cocktail bar for us and another couple.