 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Perfect honeymoon! Just back from a breathtaking flying safari we don't want to miss to say thank you for a perfect honeymoon. Upon arriving at Richards Bay everything was organized in a perfect way. Deon, chief pilot of CC Africa and our guide pilot for the upcoming trip, and his son Francois picked us up from the airport and prepared us just perfect for the licence validation procedure, which took about 2 days. After an air-law test (its open book and no problem at all) and a check ride (2 hours of cross country, no GPS allowed, and a little bit of air work) we finally got our brand new South African licence and are ready for take off in our well maintained C-182 for our first destination on our 3000 nm trip: Phinda The accommodation is - as in every lodge around the tour - superb. And the rangers were excellently trained. After 3 days of bush-experience at Phinda we have seen the "big five" already. At our next stop at Ngala in the Kruger Park we have to make friends with a big herd of elephants drinking out of the guest pool (the camp manager was not impressed by the fact that he had to fill up the pool again after they had finished). The departure on the next day is a little bit delayed by the same herd crossing the runway in no hurry, knowing that those funny birds with propellers would just have to wait. The final approach to Kasane airport in Botswana, our next stop, is spectacular with the mighty Zambezi River in the background. The next two days we spend in Zimbabwe on the banks of the Zambezi, enjoying beautiful sunsets and tasty sundowners on a romantic boat cruise and exploring the Victoria Falls - one of the biggest in the world. After 3 days of great wildlife we leave Kasane heading southwest to Namibia. What a change to the bush we had experienced so far! Just flying over desert for hours with no radio communication besides our air-to-air chats. This is the moment we understand that flying in formation is not just more fun, but is an essential improvement of safety. In case of an engine failure I would doubt that anyone would find you in this remote area, although filing a flight plan is a must on such a trip. The gravel runway of Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, our next destination, can hardly be spotted from the air. It's just too well camouflaged in the sandy area of the Namib dessert. But in times of GPS navigation we can finally call "final approach runway 23" and put ZS-DBP smoothly on the 25ft wide runway - a good place to practice crosswind landings! Again we have to force an ostrich to expedite vacating the runway before we can land and make our way to the superb Mountain Lodge. There we have a lot of fun climbing the huge sand dunes by food or squads and to listen to two Canadian astronomers explaining to us the most incredible stars we have ever seen! It's just amazing how beautiful a dessert can be! After a nice scenic flight along the Skeleton Coast (there is no better name for this part of the world) and over the Namib sand dunes we head back to Botswana for the Okavango Delta. 500 ft above the ground we can see large herds of elephants and can already imagine what to expect in this area full of wildlife. After another exciting landing on something they call a runway in Africa (don't worry - you don't want to land on a "normal" paved runway anymore once you slowly become a bush pilot - its just not as much fun!) we spend 2 more nights in a luxury tented camp in the swamps of the Delta, including a nice boat trip and a big elephant looking bored right in front of our tent - but there is nothing that would scare us anymore at this point! After a long flight back to Richards Bay right through the congested airspace of Johannesburg we land after 32 hours of total flight time right after sunset, just a perfect setting at the end of a perfect trip! Deon and Francois organized every part of the trip just perfect so you can entirely concentrate on your safari experience and on the fun flying the African sky. Filing the flight plans, refuelling, customs etc. - they handle just everything for you. If you want to, they even do your flight planning in a very careful and correct way! Besides that, they are excellent company and you just have to have a good time with them. At the end we truly could say that we had to leave not just a great country but two friends. The accommodation and the food was one of the best that's offered in Southern Africa with one of the best trained Rangers and Trackers, who give you a very good understanding about wildlife and conservation. Altogether this flying safari was well worth every cent we spent and we have to say thanks to Robin, Deon and Francois for a perfect honeymoon. We will be back! Definitely! Flying-Safari 07/2005 (South Africa/Botswana/Zimbabwe/Namibia,
3200nm) |
