As we approached the charming and scenic community of Woody Point, in the backdrop we could see the spectacular scenery and majestic tablelands of Gros Morne National Park – a UNESCO world heritage site.
Friendly local smiles greeted us upon the wharf. This tiny town has such color and character. Now thriving from tourism, logging, the fishery and service industries.
Title photo credit: David Blacklock & Lower photo credit: Karen Schulz
Our home for the next 10 nights, the One Ocean’s Russian expedition ship the Akademik Ioffe. With a maximum of 96 passengers and a staff to guest ratio of 1:4 we can all be off on shore excursions or zodiac cruises at the same time.
We are fortunate to be able to spend a few days at the beautiful Toka Leya Camp on the banks of the Zambezi River (Zambia) before the conference begins in Cape Town. We took a nice boat trip on the Zambezi and visited a village where Wilderness Safaris has done a lot of work with “The Children in the Wilderness” program. They have a school set up, education programs, as well as community programs that we were able to see. The children and the community are doing well with the water that’s now available and the education provided. They will soon be a self-sustaining community which will be wonderful.
We finished off the other day with some nice cheetah and lion sightings then carried on to Wilderness Safaris property, Rocktail Lodge. This is an adventure camp within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in Kwa-Zulu Natal. A bit more rustic, this tented camp has beautiful views to the ocean, good snorkeling and great scuba diving. Being one of the top 15 dive locations in the world we were surprised that there was hardly anyone around! It’s a very isolated and special spot.
We carried on past sugar cane fields, cashew trees, and eucalyptus trees that are grown and harvested for paper. Now in Durban, our big Africa conference starts tomorrow!
We stayed at the beautiful Phinda Forest Lodge last night, check out that room! This morning’s game drive brought on a “crash” (or group) of White Rhino and now we’re off in search of an elusive cheetah! Check back for more soon…
We arrived in Phinda at the beautiful Mountain Lodge. We are in northern KwaZulu-Natal not far from the Indian Ocean coastline and the famous iSimangaliso/Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park. The lodge has a lovely view of the surrounding area, covered in trees and vegetation. Thanks to its coastal rainfall pattern, &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve enjoys a lush green environment that contains seven distinct ecosystems. The grounds here are full of warthog families, Nyala antelope, and water-bucks as well as monkeys looking to steal food and goodies left laying around!
The game drives have been good – beautiful weather and we have a fun and engaging guide. Today, we were fortunate to catch a baby giraffe a week or two old! We are still searching for the mama leopard with her 2 young cubs that has been seen in the area so will let you know what we find!
Tomorrow we move to the Phinda Forest Lodge which is about an hours drive. The forest lodge is one of the worlds first eco-designed luxury lodges with floor to ceiling windows surrounding the villas, giving you a breathtaking view of the beautiful sand forest and its own unique ecosystem!
