Travel Butlers are delighted to announce  a photo competition that we are running in association with SA Wines Online where you could win one of 3 cases of South African wine. 

Each year we are sent hundreds of photos by people whose holidays we have helped to organise, and rather than leave them to collect metaphorical dust on a forgotten computer somewhere we have decided that we should share them with visitors to our website and offer prizes for the 3 very best pictures.

The competition is open to anyone who booked their trip through Travel Butlers, and the closing date for entries is 31st May 2008.

Entries will be published on our web site, and we will be judging the competition and notifying the winners in June – the 3 best pictures will each win a mixed case of 6 premium South African Wines with a value of £60.

About SA Wines Online – get a £10 discount on your first order.
Shortlisted as Decanter Online Wine Merchant for 2007, SA Wines Online has the largest range of fine South African wines in the UK. You will find your favourites all in one place and have them delivered directly to your door anywhere in the UK.

Get a £10 discount on your first wine order at: http://www.sawinesonline.co.uk/.

We have updated our Kruger Park pages to include more photographs for many of the rest camps in the park.

These camps are for visitors who wish to drive themselves around the park, and you can see where the camps are on our map of Kruger, and read more about on a self-drive safaris here.

If you are interested in a fully inclusive guided safari in Kruger, you can read more about the safari lodges in the Greater Kruger park here.

The camps with updated pictures are:

Balule Main Rest Camp
Bateleur Bushveld Camp
Berg-en-Dal Main Rest Camp
Letaba Main Rest Camp
Lower Sabie Main Rest Camp
Mopani Main Rest Camp
Olifants Main Rest Camp
Orpen Main Rest Camp
Pretoriuskop Main Rest Camp
Punda Maria Main Rest Camp
Satara Main Rest Camp
Shimuwini Bushveld Camp
Shingwedzi Main Rest Camp
Sirheni Bushveld Camp
Skukuza Main Rest Camp
Talamati Bushveld Camp
Tamboti Tented Camp

The Waterberg has been described as South Africa’s best keep secret. Its rugged beauty, together with its diversity in plant and animal life, has led to the development of the Waterberg Nature Conservancy, an amalgamation of conservation areas covering more than 150,000 hectares.

The safari lodges of the Waterberg are an ideal safari destination for visitors to South Africa who will be arriving or departing through Johannesburg, or spending some time at Sun City. The Waterberg is also a malaria-free area, making the lodges a great choice for families and others who want to enjoy the African wildlife without the worry of taking anti-malarial precautions.

We have added a demonstration movie to our Honeymoon Gift Registry service that will show friends and family of couples that register their honeymoon with us how they can buy a gift voucher online via our secure web server. The movie requires flash player 7.0 or above.

We will add further movies showing how to purchase via cheque or bank transfer in the next couple of weeks, meanwhile you can read more about how the service works here.

With Cape Town, Kruger and much of South Africa basking in temperatures around 30°C as the UK endures it’s first really cold snap of the winter, more and more people are starting to plan their winter holiday or look ahead to a summer safari.

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is “what is the best way of combining Cape Town (one of the world’s most beatiful cities) with a safari?”

Unfortunately,  there are not any worthwhile safari lodges within a couple of hours drive of Cape Town, and most visitors either choose to spend a few days driving along the scenic Garden Route coastline and then onwards towards the safari lodges near Port Elizabeth, or else take a direct flight from Cape Town to Kruger, KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg, or Port Elizabeth and go to a lodge in one of those areas.

There are a number of European or North American style safari parks nearer Cape Town, but these tend to be very sterile and tame, and overseas visitors may find them rather disappointing. If you have the opportunity it is well worth making the effort to visit one of the National Parks or private game reserves elsewhere in South Africa or the neighbouring countries.

Read more about combining a trip to Cape Town with a safari.

We have recently updated the information for the Rhino Walking Safaris concession in the southern part of the Kruger Park (access via Paul Kruger Gate).

Rhino Post Safari Lodge offers fully inclusive rates including accommodation, meals, teas & coffees and game drives with optional safari walks also offered.

Rhino Plains Camp rates are fully inclusive of accommodation, meals, cold drinks, house wine and beers, teas & coffees and safari activities (primarily walking safaris).

The lodges are both in a very game rich part of the park, and most guests choose to split their stay between the two camps as this gives the best mixture of game drives from Rhino Post Camp (where you will get to see more of the reserve and have the chance to get closer to preditors which cannot be approched on foot) and walking safaris from Rhino Plains Camp (tracking Rhinos on foot is an unforgettable experience).

We have just uploaded a number of screensavers and wallpapers which are available as free downloads from this site.

There are general screensavers for South Africa and Namibia, as well as specific screensavers for the most popular safari destinations. You will need to have administrator privileges on your computer to install these screensavers.

The wallpapers are available in two resolutions (1024 x 768 and 1280 x 960), and the Cape Town Waterfront and Leopard images are personal favorites in our office.