After our turbulent flight down over Africa, we arrived only a little late and were met by our driver to take us to our Safari lodge. It was a 4 hour drive on good roads, and seemed easy enough should one wish to do the driving oneself – I am glad we opted for a transfer as I dozed most of the way!

We had an absolutely terrific morning game drive. Rounded a bend in the road and saw two lions ambling towards us – they were very close as they passed us by and then we followed them for about 15 minutes.

Then we saw two lots of rhino, giraffe, and elephants. There was only us on the jeep and only 2 other couples here at the moment.

We had a tremendous few days at Marataba, before heading back to Johannesburg for our flight to George. 

We flew with SAExpress on a Bombardier CRJ700, a 70 seater plane which had nice comfy leather seats and plenty of leg room.

We were served a complimentary drink and snacks for the 90 minute flight. What I did notice was the number of flights from JNB to many of the surrounding cities. Whilst waiting in the lounge at JNB (courtesy of our Lounge Passes via our AmEx Gold Cards) the display boards had at least 5 flights heading to CPT during our 3 hour stay.  On arrival, we picked up our hire car from Avis, an efficient and friendly process, and headed for our stay in Plettenburg Bay, a beautiful treetop lodge.