Michael Edwards sails aboard CroisiAfrica’s Safari Cruise and collects passport stamps from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
CroisiAfrica’s nine-day safari cruise is the ultimate presentation of sub-Saharan Africa. The journey through South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe – by bakkies, boats and planes – is an emphatic statement of Africa’s irresistible lure.
Guests gather at 54 on Bath, a boutique 5* hotel, in Johannesburg’s affluent business district of Rosewood. They introduce themselves over a three-course lunch and a choice of red, rose or white wines.
The Jo’burg tour begins with an ending. A drive past Nelson Mandela’s palatial final home, in the gated and lawned Houghton district. Then as we head into the densely populated inner-city district of Hillbrow, Papy, our guide, tells us, “The only white folks you gonna see – are here in this bus.” He points out barbers and fruit sellers, largely illegal immigrants, operating on the crowded streets. This is a state of the nation tour.
Entering the Apartheid Museum, we are handed tickets randomly selecting us for the white and non-white segregated entrances. Brutalist architecture of concrete and prison bars oppresses, even before we view the 131 nooses representing those hung for opposing the white regime. A register of a further 151 who died whilst in prison, allegedly from suicide or heart attacks or slipping in the shower, shakes our belief in humanity.
A dusk drive through Soweto, the Southwest Township, updates the story. South Africa is still a deeply divided society with most black people living in crowded shanty towns, sometimes sharing a toilet between 40 people. We stop on Vilakazi Street, home to two Nobel prize winners, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela – but also where 600 students died in the 1976 uprising.
A scheduled Airlink flight takes us to Kasane, Botswana. Fifteen minutes after landing, we have crossed the Chobe River border and queue for entry into Namibia. “Round here is a passport killer,” says our guide Lennon. His assistant Yves, aka McCartney, whilst translating to the French contingent in our party, mimics the act of repeatedly stamping a passport. At this junction of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe you could pick up eight passport stamps in half a day. “You can go through a passport in six months,” Lennon complains.
As we approach Cascades Island, a pod of grumpy hippos grunts ominously and sink lower into the Zambezi, monitoring our arrival at CroisiAfrica’s Casades Safari Lodge. Separated by board walks, eight secluded and air-conditioned bungalows – with teak furniture, tiny swimming pool and Zambezi views – will be our base for three nights.
Next morning, picking up more passport stamps, we take a game drive through the Chobe National Park. There is no shortage of elephants and hippos, but we are fortunate to find a pride of 14 lean-ribbed lions desperately tracking a herd of buffalo. Lunch on a river boat takes us even closer to elephants’ trunks shaking mud from waterlilies and intensely territorial hippos, again grunting warnings.
“The river is life. The river is death.” Lennon tells us. “Crocodiles take fishermen from their canoes, as easily as we take biscuits from a packet.” We are walking to a village to sample everyday life on an island where there are no roads and river travel is dangerous. “Male life expectancy is low,” Lennon tells us of men who work on the river or in the fields.
Every village consists of an extended family. As we enter Lennon’s village, he introduces us to his mother and her scars, she survived a crocodile attack whilst washing clothes in the Zambezi. Then tells us that his grandmother is the village elder. Whilst Lennon visits his brother, we watch a welcoming dance of swirling skirts, in the shade of a baobab tree, from a troupe gathered from many of Cascades’ villages.
Walking on again, as the October spring temperatures edge towards 35 centigrade, we reach a school for 380 pupils from all over the island. Some children walk 5km to the school, others don’t attend as their parents can’t afford the uniform.
Leaving Namibia and flying north from Kasane in a single-prop Cessna, stopping for necessary Zimbabwean formalities at Victoria Falls Airport, we land on a baked red clay airstrip. Two bakkies take us through Matusadona National Park to the 8-cabin African Dream ship moored on the banks of Lake Kariba.
On our first full day on the world’s largest artificial lake, we soon find hippo and some of the Lake’s 10,000 crocodiles. We sail through a spectral forest of mopone trees, some housing fish-eagle nests. Late afternoon, we cruise again for the sunset and the chance to catch-and-release some small brown squeaker fish.
Returning to dry land, Richard our guide, takes us in search of lion: searching for fresh tracks, looking to where the vultures are heading. After three hours of patience, we find a male lion guarding the carcass of a waterbuck. The lionesses and their two cubs are not allowed to eat until the male has had his fill.
After viewing the Kariba Dam, we fly south again, in another small Cessna, to Victoria Falls in time for a Zambezi lunch cruise; crocodile skewers, an ostrich salad and an Amarulla cheesecake appear on the menu for the more adventurous eaters.
Arriving at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. I opt for one last game drive, finding a solitary rhino browsing deep in the bush. Three other guests take a helicopter ride over the Victoria Falls, whilst the majority gratefully grab an afternoon by the swimming pool. It has been a busy itinerary and finally, the next day, there will be an early morning walk along the Zimbabwean side of the Victoria Falls.
Independent travel in Africa can be challenging. From arrival in Jo’burg at the 54 on Bath hotel to transfer to Victoria Falls Airport, CroisiAfrica provides the boarding cards, excursions, transfers, meals, drinks and excellent guides. There is no better way to guarantee that every day you arrive safely in the right place for your sundowner.
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For 2027 the Croisiafrica’s Safari Cruise 9-night itinerary is expanding to an 11-night safari cruise starting from £6,561 per person excluding international flights.
Price includes the four-night cruise and the four-night lodge-stay with all meals and drinks, overnights in Johannesburg and Victoria Falls, the lunch cruise on the Zambezi, domestic flight between Johannesburg and Kasane, excursions and game drives and some gratuities.
