Pure was a joyful discovery. It was tucked away in a pretty and newly renovated hotel in Hout Bay, a small coastal town near Cape Town. While we had been intrigued by the name, it was the recommendation of a fellow foodie that drew us to discover Pure and visit the town overnight.
This little camp, part of the Relais and Chateaux group, will stand out in my memory for bringing us close up and personal with an elephant herd like no other we had encountered before. It was named for Jabulani, the youngest of the adult elephants, who was rescued from certain and slow death when he was three months old. Humans took pity on him after he got stuck in the mud. His elephant family couldn’t get him out and abandoned him. Jabulani’s journey to survival and young adulthood was arduous for him and his saviors; and eventually led to the establishment of Camp Jabulani and the further rescue of a group of adult elephants from Zimbabwe.
Rock House Villa is a vacation home to see and be seen in. The $4 million (36 million rand) beach house is in Camps Bay, Cape Town’s beach playground. Although there are a couple dozen homes in the Camps Bay beachfront neighborhood where Rock House Villa is situated, the house occupies a special location, jutting out among the beach rocks with prime ocean frontage and an outstanding side view of Camps Bay.
Nairobi was the last stop on my recent Kenya itinerary. After two weeks in the glorious isolation of remote bush camps, I wanted to ease back into the modern world before boarding the long flight home. The Nairobi Serena Hotel proved to be the ideal retreat for my transition. Located at the edge of the city’s Central Park and surrounded by its own lush tropical gardens, the Nairobi Serena offered an oasis of serenity in the heart of Africa’s fourth largest, and one of its most vibrant, cities.
Porini Lion Camp far exceeded any promise its name may have implied! Lions? I had little doubt there’d be lions. The camp was located in the Olare Orok Conservancy, a 23,000 acre (9,000 hectare) private game reserve on the northwest boundary of the Masai Mara National Reserve, which is reputed for its lions. But even at my most optimistic, I hadn’t expected an entire pride of lions, 17 in all, to materialize in the savannah grass 10 minutes into my first game drive! They were rousing from their afternoon siesta, feigning nonchalance as they began to focus on an approaching herd of zebras. I was able to observe the team effort of their stalking process and the zebra’s ultimate narrow escape. We moved on, only to stop again instants later at the edge of a clearing were a breeding herd of elephants was feeding. I was privileged to observe a newborn elephant calf’s first unsteady steps, and its efforts to figure what to do with its unwieldy nasal appendage in its awkward attempt to suckle. A few feet away, its sturdier week-old cousin was trying to uproot a twig, before loosing interest and taking off, puppy-like, in hot pursuit of a bird. By sundown, without leaving the conservancy, we had also sighted buffalos and a leopard for four of the Big Five! We viewed the “fifth’” at close range early the next morning. Shortly after we crossed the boundary of the Masai Mara National Reserve we happened onto a pair of black rhinos engaged in their courtship ritual. But even this exciting sighting was soon overshadowed by a cheetah and her three young cubs enthusiastically tucking into their impala breakfast.
During a recent visit to South Africa, my husband and I dedicated a couple of afternoons to spa pampering and relaxation in Cape Town. This helped us recover from the jet lag from the long international flights from the United States via Europe, and allowed us to spend quality time together. Our first stop was at Onewellness Dock House, a new facility and part of the Dock House Boutique Hotel, where we found secure parking.