Wanted to start a new thread for the Ellie Safari. Group one has 16 people and Group two has 18 people. The earliest to leave start the flight on May 26th. Ken and I are in that group. Looking forward to posting some pictures from South Africa.

Susan just arrived at Madikwe Hills she went with her son, just the two of them. I got this email from her today. Sounds like a very easy arrival in JNB. Of course it all depends on the officer on duty but hopefully we will all have the same experience.

Ngaire,

Check in at Houston took a little longer because they check that you have PCR test. Very easy transfer in Doha. Easy upon arrival. Handed copy you made of Entrance form to an officer, then a second person checked PCR, and then went through passport control in less than 5 minutes. Luggage already on carousel. Less than 30 minutes total from leaving plane to exit hall.

I'm so happy for Ellie'ites ! I hope you all have a wonderful, time with LOTS of animal sightings. Safe travels. ( if I look green with envy, that's because I am) .

Had a last minute cancellation Ellie Two , June 22- July 3, 2021. if anyone is interested just email me. I leave on Wednesday but my office can handle the details after I depart.

Jump on this !

We'd sign up in a NY minute if not for a family trip for 10 of us in July (we booked in 2019/ was cancelled in 2020/ rescheduled for July 2021).
This is such a great opportunity to visit So Africa, my very favorite country. The itinerary and camps are fabulous. The animals are waiting for you since I can't be there.

Ngaire, this is safari related but not really Ellie related. I believe back in 2014 there was a photographer named Marcus at one of our camps. Is his business called Marcus Westberg Photography? If so he is currently at Tswalu and has taken over their facebook page with wonderful writings and of course fabulous photography,

Marius was the photographer we hired to come and give camera tips. He is a super guy and now runs photography trips all over the world. Marcus and Marius pretty close, but not this Marcus is not the person we had on the safari.

Tswalu is a great place. Our last trip there was disappointing. We were the first group there after the 6 month refurbishment. The rooms, lodge and game were all fantastic but they were trying something new in the kitchen. The food and service was really bad. Everyone was pretty upset and it was a shame probably in about 2 more weeks they would have had their act together.

I would go back in heartbeat. Fabulous sightings.

Oh well, close but no cigar. LOL. I'm going to follow this guys for the week which will give me a chance to see
what Tswalu is like. Safe travels.

Bon Voyage, Ngaire and all you Ellieites!

We have our COVID FREE tests in hand, bags packed, finalizing my booklet of "many details" and cannot wait to board Qatar airlines and have my traditional mimosa before take off.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Susan is in Africa right now and has had a remarkable trip with outstanding sightings.

Marcie - Consider Alice and me as having "jumped"!
Thank you Ngaire for all the work you did to get it all arraigned for us. Have a great flight and rest!

Just landed in Doha. Fantastic flight down on Qatar. Getting on a plane to go on safari I was just SO HAPPY.

I love the Q seats with a door for total privacy. As always their soups are great. We both had Chilean sea bass. Mine was perfect I cleaned my plate, Ken’s a little over done. Huge TV screen with lots of options and for me the most comfortable seat. Slept well. I could have stayed on that plane for a lot more hours and been content.

Spending the night in Doha and a daytime flight down tomorrow.

Yay! We will follow in your footsteps on Monday. We have never been on Qatar. How are the martinis?! 🥳 Cannot wait!
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Helen

The mimosa was great, tasted like fresh squeezed orange juice. Ken said his Chardonnay was excellent. I got an email from Barb “LOVED QATAR”

They used to have a security check before you entered the main terminal. That has been discontinued so that was a pleasant surprise. The club is really good. Some odd food but still plenty normal things to chose from. The upstairs restaurant is the place to go. Fabulous airport.

Just sitting here waiting for the time to pass for boarding. Totally relaxed and happy. Feel sorry for my staff with all these major changes. Clay is leaving soon to join us in Africa. I bet they are pulling their hair out.

My next five cruises were all cancelled. Glad Clay picked up some new escorted cruises for me. I love the back to back in Europe. Seems like a long time since I have been to Europe doing everything but Europe recently.

Thanks for the report Ngaire. We have a 9-hour layover in Doha so it is nice to know the club is comfortable. We are following your groups a week from tomorrow. Very excited. Looks like the weather in Cape Town has improved too! Have a lovely trip all you ELLIE-ists!

So jealous. Alice and Kim better be glad that I have been too busy at work to look at LCT much, because we would have jumped on that spot. Our land trip to Netherlands keeps getting cancelled/postponed, and the rescheduled dates are those exact days--but it is probably canceled again since the Netherlands isn't letting anyone from US in. I am so over this covid cancellation business.

So we are now at Madikwe Hills, just six of us did this first lodge. Welcomed by Hanus Kruger who was a junior ranger at Leopard Hills when we first met him probably 15 years ago. He has been manager here now for over 11 years. We got a good ranger, Trevor, full of information and we saw a lot of giraffe, warthogs, zebras and of course Kudu and Iapala. Our track spotted a monitor lizard in a tree just the head sticking out, quite cool. We found some sleeping loins and we were going to go back to them when they started to get active after we stopped and had drinks. At the sundowner Trevor pulls out a small gas propane burner and cooked us filet on a tooth pick. A first never had cooking at a sundowner stop before.

Then we got the word DOGS at the lodge. We jumped in raced at top speed to the lodge. We were told the dog had chased an impala to Room 1, Barb and Tim's room, the impala got stuck in the rocks. The staff came to help the impala and the dogs watched. Then the impala was let free and ran off. We arrived as the dogs were trying to finding the impala. We got to see the staff village as that is where they were. We stayed with them for about 10 minutes and they ran off into thick vegetation.

So we came back and had a great dinner Baramundi fish, only seen that before in Australia. Tomorrow is a new day!!

My dear Ngaire - suffice to say I am insanely jealous!!!! LOVED reading your post and will follow your adventures with rapt attention! I recall going to Madikwe on Roar 2 in 2008. Lots of lovely memories.
I know I am going to derive serious vicarious pleasure from your posts.
Cheers June

I'm jealous, well for sure very envious !. We were in Madikwe Hills in July 2018....too long ago for me. I wish we were there with you today.
Enjoy every minute and thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

We’re coming Ngaire! Got our Covid test results back about an hour ago which was our last hurdle. Heading to LAX tomorrow afternoon! Woohoo!
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Helen

Helen,
Are you flying on Qatar also? We read an article on The Points Guy that suggested Qatar requires your negative Covid test to show the address of the lab or you might be denied boarding. We were wondering if this is a real thing. The tests provided by the city of Long Beach don’t have an address.

Jim yes we are on Qatar. I just checked and our test result do have the lab address on it. If you are worried about that, we went to a place called Covid Clinic and they have several locations around So Cal including Ontario airport, Brea Mall .... The airport location was drive thru and the results were to us by 3pm the following day as promised.
FYI we also have that 9 hour layover in Doha but we booked the airport hotel rather than spending all that time in the lounge. If you are interested I’ll let you know if I think that is worth it.
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Helen

Helen happy to hear you have your tests done so looking forward to seeing you both. Somehow this safari already feels special. With all the uncertainty of whether we could come or not just makes us feel really blessed to actually be here.

Saw lots of little typos on my first post. May keep happening seems like I am always in a hurry and print is so small on an iPad. I know you will all forgive me.

Great morning. Highlight was around a beautiful small lake. First we saw heavily pregnant spotted hyenas. They had blood on their faces and were coming to drink. Impalas got freaked and ran off to a safer distance. They hyenas were calling and that whooping sound they make is so distinctive.

Then two dugger boys (old Cape Buffalo kicked out of the herd) arrived. All of a sudden one attacked the other. A clash of horns until one ran off at a rapid pace. The victor went into the edge of the lake and started slinging around the mud. Trevor said it was like a victory celebration, he had won the battle.

Then came the black backed jackel. They are stunning animals, look like they are wearing a fur coat. Lots of guinea fowl and Egyptian geese, that were making a ton of noise. This was a beautiful spot with the red mountains in the background.

Might take a while for Ken will post pictures. He has a ton of pictures to go through already. The internet is fantastic here, like being at home.

So nice to be together it has been a long time so lots of catching up to do. Food has been excellent the breakfast was super.

Every lodge may be different but we do not need to wear masks on the game drives, and when at the lodge we are eating and drinking so not wearing masks. Only one other couple here, they leave today. The staff, ranger and trackers are wearing masks.

So happy to be back in Africa I just love being on safari. Feel right at home.

Ken - Thank you for the awesome photos!! Great to read Ngaire's reports. Can't wait for the full group 1 to arrive. (Hi Tim and Barb! Bummer about TIGER getting cancelled.)

Awesome pics. Have a wonderful trip. Super jealous.

This afternoon we went to see two young male lions that are in a holding area for about three months before being released.
The resident male lions come to outside of the enclosure and the hope is they will form a coalition but must get acquainted first.

This afternoons highlights were a two week old baby zebra, springbok, a very relaxed jackel, and a nice group of elephants. At the end of the day we found the two female lions that have a four month old cub and a very tiny cub. Unfortunately they were sleeping lions and the cubs never came out. We will try again tomorrow.

At the waterhole this afternoon at the lodge a lot of elephants came to drink. It is a very active waterhole. Ken is working on pictures now.

Ngaire and Ken,

Great pictures! Thank you. You all look pretty bundled up. What are the temps like now?

40 to 70 degrees, mostly sunny. Its cool in the mornings and warms up nicely around 9.00AM. The group shots are mornings.

Posting test for Ngaire.

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What a morning. All about lions.

Two females have three cubs around 6 months old and a baby that is about 8 weeks old. We found them and it was a 5 star sighting. The little was being bullied by the older cubs but it was very feisty and holding its own extremely well. After following them for a while they ended up at a red termite mound under a small shepherd tree. The older cubs jumped up on the termite mound as high as they could go. The little cub tried but it was too hard for him. The sun on these pictures was perfect they should be great.

There was an active warthog den at the same spot. The older cubs were trying to get in mom had to come and over stop them from doing that. Those warthogs could come flying out at anytime. They are like speeding bullets when escape from their den. I could have stayed there all day but it was time to go as we had another exciting situation developing.

We raced over to a pride consisting of a male lion, two females and three one year old cubs. The male was magnificent. The Kalahari lions they have in Madikwe are huge. He was walking when we arrived and then sat down intently watching the females that were stalking zebra. Obviously waiting for a kill letting the females to do all the work. One female had moved off to the rear of the zebra and the other female was crouched down waiting really close to the zebra who were unaware of her presence. Right next to the female in stalk mode was a huge male white rhino. Off to side were the cubs with one chewing on a warthog skull.

We were in a perfect position for the kill if it happened. If the female we could not see had sent the zebra running in the right direction the other female was ready to attack. The male was close enough to help if necessary. Unfortunately the zebra ran in the wrong direction. Close but a no go for the lions.

On the way back our ranger stopped to show us ants that had attacked a termite mound and were heading back to the colony. The ants had termites in their mouths. Instead of termites some ants had the ants that had died in their mouths. Leave no soldier behind! . They take the dead ants back to their colony. They eat the dead ants.

Fantastic morning we have a five star ranger he is one of the best we have ever had. LIFE IS GOOD.

So much going on right now. Ken will never get to his pictures. We can see a watering hole. Lots of activity. First two water bucks started fighting. Then two HUGE kudus with massive horns started fighting in earnest. We could hear the horns smashing as they got entangled. Never seen that before. Impalas and warthogs everywhere. Then came a giraffe. Then a huge noise. I thought it was a kill taking place but it was an elephant announcing its displeasure.

Being on safari is a wonderful experience. Been doing this for the last 20 years and I doubt I will ever get tired of coming on safari. Every game drive is different. I am SO HAPPY to be here.

Female kudu and baby






Tiny cub and his sibling.










Tiny cub under mother’s chin

Love hearing about your sightings. Oh I wish we were there. Love the photos too.
I'll try and post this photo I have of your favorite...the wild dogs. They are vicious, certainly not an everyday pet dog for sure.

Fabulous reports & pictures! Thanks for taking us along virtually! Keep 'em coming!

____________

Sue

So another great game drive. Started off with the tallest darkest giraffe I have ever seen. He was with a dainty female. Made quite the stunning pair. We were very close to them and they were very relaxed.

Then off to view a fresh lion kill of a zebra. As we arrived at the sighting a bull elephant also arrived. He chased the lions off their kill. Something I have not seen before. The lions did not go far and finally the elephant moved off and the lions came back. These were a different pride than we saw this morning. There were three females and five cubs about 6 months old. Some a little smaller than others. The little cubs were eating and the females were already full and eating just a little.

Followed by a wonderful sighting of a family of Kudu very close and the final part of the drive was rhino heaven. Two rhinos with very small babies. Our ranger thought one was about one month old. The other about two to three months old. Then came another rhino with about a two year old rhino. About a third the size of the mother. Elephants and wildebeest as well. This area has a watering hole that is pumped with water but it was dry due to a power outage.

This was an incredible day. You can go out and see nothing some days. It is all nature and when you get a day like this you are truly blessed.

Ken is busy working on pictures.

Waterbuck


Kudu





Impala




The dark giraffe and his lady


The kill was in thick bush, these are the cubs.


The elephant that chased the lions away.

After so much excitement we had a very quiet morning. Saw the plains animals, giraffe, impala, kudu, springbok. Two big rhino bulls. We found super fresh lion tracks and spent most of the morning looking for these elusive lions. We had a coffee break and this lodge, Madikwe Hills the absolute BEST muffins we have ever had.

Taking so long to get all the pictures done and we have 18 nights left on safari with most of this group and then 10 nights with the next group. So you will be in overload with pictures. So we are going to limit the pictures to one or two of the best shots of the day.

WELL as you can see below the Ellie’s were so fun at the water hole and he had time so posted below.

AN ELLIE STORY.









END OF STORY