Travel Butlers African Safari Blog.

During their recent visit to the Waterberg area of South Africa, Tracey & Paul Campbell were delighted to stay at Hanglip Mountain Lodge in the Entabeni Safari Conservancy. 

Entabeni is a 22,000 hectare reserve located less than three hours north of Johannesburg, and there is a wide range of accommodation on offer including luxury ensuite tents, family units, and 5* luxury lodges.  This is a malaria-free area, and this along with excellent game viewing and additional activities including horseback safaris, quadbiking and lake cruises will make this area very popular with families, couples, and honeymooners alike.

The Shamwari Game Reserve will be featured in a series on the Animal Planet channel called “Shamwari: A Wild Life” which starts on September 15th in the UK.  

A full schedule for the UK, Europe and Africa is available on the competition page, along with a clip of the programme.

To celebrate this series Shamwari are running a competition with a prize of three nights at the reserve to be taken next year.
See a clip of the programme and enter the competition.

We are pleased to be able to launch our new logo and web site.

Over the last few weeks various members of the Travel Butlers team have been working on our new logo, web site and other marketing paraphernalia…the last element to be changed will be this blog, which we hope to have updated with the new look towards the end of this month.

Over the next few weeks we will be making sure all our maps etc are updated to the new colour pallette, and doubtless we will make a few more minor changes, meanwhile our thanks go to everyone who worked on the project.

We hope you like the new look!

It’s whale-watching season in South Africa!

Every year, around September, Southern Right whales gather along South Africa’s coast to mate and thousands of tourists flock to watch them.

South Africa’s whale route stretches for nearly 2,000 km from Doringbaai, south of Cape Town, to Durban. Popular viewing spots include Lambert’s Bay, the Cape Peninsula, False Bay, Hermanus and its surrounds, Mossel Bay, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.

Tourists can also visit coastal nature reserves, such as the De Hoop Nature Reserve and Tsitsikamma National Park.

Humpback whales also make an appearance around this time of year, joined by Bottlenose dolphins, and occasionally, Brydes whales and Orcas.

Whale-watching season ends in November.

All travellers to Zimbabwe are advised that no payments can by made by credit card at all. The banks have suspended all credit card transactions until they can introduce new systems, as their equipment is no longer able to handle the billions of local currency involved in even the smallest of transactions.

Clients must carry cash on them in either U$ or Rand, and in small denominations as places are unable to give change in foreign currency.