Additional game drives (up to three hours)
In addition to the included daily game drives, you may book extra game drives, both during the daytime and at night.
Mozambique (full day)
The large African country of Mozambique is relatively little known to tourists. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the Mozambicans are putting their troubled past behind them, and are rebuilding their country at a remarkable pace.
Your excursion includes a tour of Maputo, the capital city, formerly known as Lourenço Marques. Located at the southern tip of Mozambique, Maputo is a colourful city with many relics of its colonial past. You see the railway station, designed by Gustave Eiffel and recently restored to its former glory. You may like to visit the National Art Museum, which has a fine collection of the works of Mozambique's best contemporary artists.
Panoramic Route (full day)
Head north-west into the district of Mpumalanga, where you stop at God’s Window, a vantage point high up on the Drakensberg Escarpment, with superb views of Mount Kruger. Look out for the ‘Three Rondavels’, hills shaped almost exactly like African thatched huts.
Continue to the Blyde River Canyon, an amazing natural phenomenon that is 26 kilometres long and varies between six and 800 metres in depth. Here you view Bourke’s Luck Potholes, rock formations carved out by the whirlpools of the Blyde and Treur rivers.
Your final stop is the former prospectors’ village of Pilgrim’s Rest, now a ghost town. It was founded in 1873 after gold and silver were discovered nearby, and has now been declared a National Monument. Many of the original buildings still survive, including a hotel, shops, a 1920s petrol station and the cemetery, with the grave of a robber caught stealing from the gold mine.
Swaziland (full day)
Orange groves, sugar cane plantations and misty mountain peaks are a feature of your journey through Swaziland, considered one of Africa’s most beautiful countries. This small, mountainous state is entirely landlocked and has an area of 17,000 square kilometres, with a population of 700,000. The entire country is smaller than Kruger National Park.
People have lived in Swaziland for a very long time - archaeologists have discovered human remains dating back 110,000 years - although the Swazi people themselves arrived relatively recently. Their traditional culture remains strong, particularly in the forms of religious music, dance, poetry and craftsmanship. Handicrafts to look out for include jewellery, pottery and wooden bowls.
You stop in Mbabane, the capital of this exotic kingdom. With a population of over 50,000, it is the largest town in Swaziland, and many of its inhabitants were attracted here by its pleasantly cool setting in the Elangeni Hills.